North Korean leader hails nuclear success in opening congress

PYONGYANG | By James Pearson 

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday hailed the country's recent nuclear test and launch of a satellite into space, as he opened the first congress of the country's ruling Workers' Party in 36 years.Wearing a dark western-style suit and grey tie, the 33-year-old was flanked by his top military aide and the titular head of state in a massive hall packed with military and party delegates, according to footage on North Korean state television aired late on Friday.
During the congress, Kim is expected to further consolidate his control over a country that has grown increasingly isolated over its pursuit of nuclear weapons, including its fourth nuclear test in January, which led to U.N. resolutions in March tightening sanctions.
"In this year of the seventh party congress, the military and the people accomplished the great success in the first hydrogen bomb test and the launch of an earth observation satellite, Kwangmyongsong-4, to brilliantly illuminate the prowess of Juche Joson," he said, referring to the North's home-grown founding ideology combining Marxism and extreme nationalism.
"Unprecedented results have been accomplished."
Foreign analysts expect the third-generation leader of the Kim dynasty to formally adopt his "Byongjin" policy of simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.
"Kim is after catching two rabbits, a nuclear arsenal and economic development, and he's likely going to declare the country is a nuclear weapons state, so that's one rabbit," said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
"He might also lay out a five-year or seven-year blueprint for the development of the people's economy," Yang said.
Foreign journalists invited to cover the event were not permitted inside the April 25 House of Culture, the imposing stone structure draped in red party flags where the congress is expected to run for several days.
Kim has aggressively pursued nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology. The February satellite launch was criticized internationally as a long-range missile test in disguise.
Giant neighbor China, the North's lone major ally, backed the U.N. resolutions, as it grew frustrated over the nuclear tests.

Brazil Senate committee votes for Rousseff to stand trial

BRASILIA | By Maria Carolina Marcello and Anthony Boadle 

A Senate committee recommended on Friday that Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff be put on trial by the full chamber for breaking budget laws, moving a step closer to the likely suspension of the leftist leader from office next week.Despite renewed promised by Rousseff on Friday to resist her removal, her chances for staying in office are dimming. Her departure would come at a time when a majority of Brazilians are against Rousseff because of an economic recession and a massive corruption scandal that has exposed wrongdoing by ruling party officials.
The full Senate is expected to vote to put her on trial on Wednesday, which would immediately suspend Rousseff for the duration of a trial that could last six months. During that period, Vice President Michel Temer would replace her as acting president.

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The upper house committee voted 15-5 to accept the charges against Rousseff, which involve budget irregularities that critics say masked budget problems while she ran for re-election in 2014, and her opponents are certain to muster the simple majority needed to begin a trial.
"I will resist until the last day," Rousseff said at an event where she announced the delivery of low-cost housing. The president said she would not resign because she committed no crime, and called her looming ouster a "coup d'etat."
If the Senate convicts Rousseff, by a two-thirds majority vote to oust her, Temer would serve out the remainder of Rousseff's second term through 2018.
Local newspaper surveys say the opposition has 50 of the 54 votes needed, with many of the 10 undecided senators likely to favor her ouster.
Rousseff has struggled to survive politically in the face of Brazil's biggest ever corruption scandal and its worst recession since the 1930s. Her removal would mark an end to 13 years of leftist rule by the Workers Party that began in 2003 under her mentor, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
While Rousseff is not directly accused of corruption, Brazil's top prosecutor has asked for her to be investigated for obstructing justice in the kickback scandal that has engulfed state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA) and fueled Brazil's political crisis.
In a separate initiative launched by the opposition, Rousseff's 2014 re-election campaign is being investigated by an electoral court for alleged funding with bribe money.

At Rousseff's presidential palace Friday, officials had glum faces and appeared resigned to the end of her administration.

One aide denied they were packing up already, but added: "No doubt, we have to start organizing things."
Echoing the sense of an administration that has run out of time, no reporters showed up for a news conference called by Women Affairs Secretary Eleonora Menicucci, a close Rousseff aide. She ended up speaking only to a government television camera.
Rousseff's supporters on the Senate committee have called for annulment of the impeachment proceedings because the man who launched them last year, lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha, was himself removed from office on Thursday by the Supreme Court for obstructing the investigation of corruption accusations against him.
The top court has so far dismissed all government requests to halt the impeachment proceedings.
Workers Party Senator Lindbergh Farias said the ouster of Rousseff was aimed at undoing Lula's work to help the poor, and at rolling back workers' benefits, privatizing state companies and aligning Brazil's foreign policy closer to the United States.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Maria Carolina Marcello; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Frances Kerry) 

Shots fired on University of Missouri campus: university

Two gunshots were fired on University of Missouri's flagship campus on Friday though no one was injured, the school said.

Police were investigating the shooting near a plaza on the campus, and were searching for a suspect, the university said.
"There is no indication of a current threat to campus," the school added.
About 35,000 students attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, 125 miles (200 km) west of St. Louis.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Croatian PM says not thinking about early polls -paper

Croatia's prime minister dismissed the possibility of an early election and said in an interview published on Saturday that his fractious coalition would deliver promised reforms to spur growth and cut debt.

Recent squabbles over appointments including that of an intelligence chief and reforms to the pension system and public administration have prompted questions about the stability of the government and the possibility of early polls.
Technocrat Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic told daily Vecernji List he had good relationships with other leaders of the coalition that took office in January and which comprises the conservative HDZ and reformist Most ("Bridge") parties plus several small allies.
"Sometimes our opinions differ and we can have unpleasant discussions, but it doesn't mean they are not healthy," Oreskovic said. "I don't even think about an early election as we have a lot of jobs ahead of us and all the ministers are aware of it and keen to focus on work."
HDZ parliamentary deputy Zeljko Dilber had said on Friday his party could reassess relations with Most -- at whose insistence Oreskovic was appointed as premier -- after an internal election in late May.
On Saturday, Most leader Bozo Petrov said his party would not accept "ultimatums" from HDZ for remaining in coalition.
Local media reported that the conservatives told Most this week they demanded a stronger say in the interior ministry, controlled by a Most minister, and change of policy in a dispute with Hungarian energy firm MOL over management and investments in Croatia's oil concern INA.
"If they aim to make ultimatums, they shouldn't have entered a coalition with us. We will not accept it, nor will we yield to such demands," Petrov told the state radio. HDZ officials were not available for a comment.
INA is jointly owned by Zagreb and MOL, but the two sides are at odds and involved in an international arbitration. Most insists Croatia must not withdraw from the arbitration.
A snap election would slow momentum for reforms needed to boost one of the European Union's weakest economies.
"We jointly as a government prepared reforms and we can implement them only if we stick together. I'm convinced we will deliver results," Oreskovic, formerly an executive at Israeli drug firm Teva, said in the interview.
The government adopted a package of measures last week aimed at fostering growth, cutting high public debt and avoiding corrective measures for macroeconomic imbalances from Brussels.
Oreskovic said the government would soon outline plans to privatize some non-strategic assets, including real estate and minority stakes in some firms.
"My first move now will be to reduce debt by up to 200 million euros ($230 million). In the next two weeks we will know in what companies we want to sell our share and in what way," he said.
(Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by)

Spain's Rajoy asks Brussels to forgo deficit fine: El Pais

Spain's acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy has asked Brussels to waive a fine that could be imposed on the country for missing its deficit target in 2015, El Pais newspaper reported on Saturday.

Citing a letter sent to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, El Pais said Rajoy had stressed Spain's efforts in the past four years to halve the public deficit, and offered up additional measures to control spending next year.
A source with the Spanish government confirmed the existence of the letter, though said it contained information that had already been sent to Brussels on Spain's latest plans to bring the deficit down.
The European Commission declined to comment.
The Commission is in charge of policing the budgets of the EU's 28 members to make sure they improve each year in line with recommendations set by finance ministers.
The rules were sharpened in 2011 to make financial sanctions for rule-breakers more automatic and harder to circumvent through political alliance-building as had happened in the past.
Spain missed its 2015 target of cutting the deficit to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), after overspending by regions and a social security revenue shortfall pushed it up to 5 percent.
The Commission is considering penalising Spain as well as Portugal for missing their goals. Officials have told Reuters the fines - which would be unprecedented - could be symbolic and be set at zero percent of GDP, though even that would ramp up political pressure.
Spain's deficit tussle comes at an sensitive time for Rajoy's acting centre-right government, which faces a second election in six months after an inconclusive ballot last December which stripped the People's Party (PP) of its majority.
The PP has tried to sell itself as a safe pair of hands on the economy, after the country emerged from a deep recession under its administration.
The new election is now set for June 26. The Commission is due to issue its recommendations on whether or not to fine Spain and Portugal later this month, though the size of any fine may not be announced until after the vote, El Pais said.
The maximum penalty is up to 0.2 percent of GDP, or 2.16 billion euros ($180 million) in the case of Spain.
Brussels is also expected to give Spain more leeway to whittle its public deficit below its recommended 3 percent threshold, through an extension of one or even two years, sources have said.
By exercising better controls on regional spending and helped by an economic rebound, Spain aims to bring the deficit down to 3.6 percent this year - instead of the 2.8 percent originally envisaged - and sees it standing at 2.9 percent in 2017.
Brussels has projected the deficit will reach 3.8 percent of GDP this year and 3.1 percent in 2017.
(Reporting by Sarah White in Madrid and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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German Vice Chancellor urges debt relief for Greece

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel urged euro zone finance ministers to start talks on debt relief for Greece, saying it made no sense to crush the green shoots of economic recovery with further austerity measures.

The finance ministers of the euro zone's 19 countries are due to meet in Brussels on May 9 to discuss Greece's debt and a new set of contingency measures that Athens should adopt to ensure it will achieve agreed fiscal targets in 2018.
"The euro group meeting on Monday must find a way to break the vicious circle," Gabriel, who is also Economy Minister, said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Saturday.
"Everyone knows that this debt relief will have to come at some point. It makes no sense to shirk from that time and time again," he added.
The International Monetary Fund wants Greece's European partners to grant Athens substantial relief on its debt, which it sees as vital for its long term sustainability.
But Germany's hardline Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble opposes any debt relief, arguing it is not necessary.
Thrice-bailed-out Greece needs to secure an overdue aid payment of 5 billion euros to repay IMF loans, bonds held by the European Central Bank maturing in July, and growing state arrears.
"It doesn't help the people and the country to have to fight every 12 months to get new credit to pay off old loans," Gabriel said. "Greece needs debt relief."
Gabriel spoke out against further austerity measures and said Athens had managed to achieve better economic growth than expected.
"It makes no sense to destroy these tender shoots once again with new austerity measures," he added.
(Reporting by Thorsten Severin; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Treading cautiously, House's Ryan to meet Trump

WASHINGTON | By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell 

Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, the top Republicans in the United States, plan to meet next week to try to unite their party, with both men focused on the Nov. 8 presidential election, but the Wisconsin congressman also perhaps looking further ahead.Speaker of the House of Representatives Ryan has invited Trump, this year's likely Republican presidential nominee, to meet on Thursday with Ryan and other congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, Ryan's office said in a statement on Friday.
A key part of the conversation is sure to be Trump's combative, in-your-face campaign persona and Republican leaders' requests for him to tone it down, but political analysts said Ryan will have other considerations in mind, as well.
One issue is likely to be his own future, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Ryan, 46, lost his 2012 campaign for vice president as Mitt Romney's running mate. Ryan probably has serious doubts that Trump, like Romney, can win this year, Sabato said.
If so, Ryan will want to find a balance between accepting Trump, 69, as the nominee and keeping some distance from him, just in case the real estate mogul's campaign ends in disaster.
"Suppose Trump loses overwhelmingly. Would you want to have been siding with the captain of the Titanic, or maybe seen as someone who was begging the captain to watch out for icebergs?" Sabato said, adding that a Trump defeat could push the party in a different direction in 2020, maybe toward Ryan as the nominee.
WALKING A TIGHTROPE
As chairman of the Republican Party convention in Cleveland in July, Ryan's political tightrope will be especially perilous.
One of his objectives will be to provide political cover for his 246 House Republicans so they can choose to embrace or run away from Trump, depending on their home districts' politics, with the goal of preserving control of the House, analysts said.
Ryan dropped a bombshell on Thursday when he said he was not ready to endorse Trump until he shows he can unify the party, still reeling from a bitter primary campaign that left many establishment Republicans stunned at Trump's victory.
One moderate Pennsylvania congressman, Representative Charlie Dent, said he thought most of his fellow House Republicans would be comfortable with what Ryan said, because they were "conflicted" themselves over whether to support Trump.
Some Republican lawmakers worry that Trump is not conservative enough; others are more bothered by Trump's "divisive, incendiary remarks and lack of substance," said Dent, who put himself in the latter category.
However, a conservative Republican congressman, Raul Labrador of Idaho, told CNN that Ryan "needs to reconsider what he's doing" concerning Trump.
"A lot of people that are voting for Donald Trump are totally disaffected with what we're doing in Washington D.C., and he (Ryan) almost kind of slapped them in the face when he said what he did," said Labrador, who endorsed Ted Cruz but says he will vote for Trump now that Cruz is out of the race.
As speaker, Ryan has struggled with his deeply divided colleagues over budget issues, funding the battle against the Zika virus, rescuing Puerto Rico from a debt crisis, and helping Flint, Michigan, deal with their contaminated water system.
Ryan is "trying to jawbone Trump into adjusting his positions" to line up better with the party establishment, said Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar and political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
The "unprecedented" move by a congressional leader to distance himself from his party's expected nominee, Ornstein said, showed Ryan trying to mold a "less confrontational and divisive approach to minorities and a less isolationist and combative approach to our allies."
In a swipe at Trump on Friday, President Barack Obama warned that occupying the Oval Office "is not a reality show."
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Editing by Paul Tait)