Former Thai PM Yingluck breaks silence months after fleeing country
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday made her first public comments on social media since fleeing the country last August during a criminal negligence trial that eventually sentenced her to five years in jail.
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s wife charged with fraud: official statement
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, was charged on Thursday with fraud over alleged misuse of state funds, the Justice Ministry said.
Syria’s Assad gets food lifeline from Crimea
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Crimea has stepped up grain exports to Syria over the past year in an arrangement that gives the Black Sea peninsula an outlet for its surplus crops and ensures President Bashar al-Assad has a reliable source of wheat.
East Libyan forces advance rapidly to retake key oil ports
BENGHAZI, Libya/VIENNA (Reuters) – East Libyan forces said on Thursday they had retaken the shuttered oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, where the head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said he hoped operations would resume in a “couple of da…
Pro-smoking Japanese lawmaker apologizes for heckling cancer patient
TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese member of parliament apologized on Thursday for jeering a lung cancer patient testifying about the dangers of second-hand smoke, saying he had spoken out to prevent discrimination against smokers.
Kremlin says aware that U.S. national security adviser heading to Moscow
MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. national security adviser John Bolton plans to visit Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.
Civilians flee fighting in Syrian southwest: monitor
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Thousands of people have fled rebel-held areas of southwestern Syria being targeted by government bombardment, a war monitor said on Thursday, as Damascus steps up attacks on an area near the border with Jordan and the Israeli-occupi…
European human rights court rejects appeal by Norwegian mass killer
OSLO (Reuters) – The European Court of Human Rights rejected on Thursday an appeal by Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik who says his near-isolation in prison amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment.
East Libyan forces say advance rapidly in bid to retake oil ports
BENGHAZI, Libya/VIENNA (Reuters) – East Libyan forces said on Thursday they had rapidly retaken control of large areas of the shuttered oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which they retreated from a week ago in the face of an armed attack.
Iraq court rules cancellation of some votes in May election was unconstitutional
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s top court upheld on Thursday a law mandating a nationwide recount of votes in a May parliamentary election but ruled that the cancellation of overseas, displaced, and Peshmerga ballots was unconstitutional.
