North Korea replaces soldiers, South Korea awards medals after defector’s border dash
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has reportedly replaced guards and fortified a section of its border with South Korea where a North Korean soldier defected last week, while South Korean and U.S. soldiers have been decorated for their role in the defector…
Debate stifled in Cambodia as crackdown spreads fear
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – “We speak our mind”, says the website of a group of young Cambodians who have met at weekends for the past six years to discuss politics over mugs of coffee.
Mnangagwa, the ‘Crocodile,’ to be sworn in as Zimbabwe president
HARARE (Reuters) – Emmerson Mnangagwa will cap a stunning political comeback on Friday when he is sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president, bringing the final curtain down on the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe.
South African appeals court more than doubles Pistorius sentence
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Supreme Court more than doubled Oscar Pistorius’ murder sentence on Friday, accepting prosecutors’ argument that the original jail term of six years for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was “shockingl…
Germany’s SPD says open to coalition talks with other parties
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) are ready to hold talks with other parties on breaking political deadlock created by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to form a coalition government, a senior member of the center-left party said.
Suicide attack kills a top Pakistani police officer: official
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed a top Pakistani police officer and one of his guards on Friday in the city of Peshawar, police said.
Japan’s Osaka to snap sister city link with San Francisco over ‘comfort women’ statue
TOKYO (Reuters) – The mayor of Japan’s western city of Osaka plans to cut ties with U.S. sister city San Francisco after the latter accepted the donation of a “comfort women” statue from a private group there.
Mnangagwa told Mugabe he will be safe in Zimbabwe: state media
HARARE (Reuters) – Incoming Zimbabwe leader Emmerson Mnangagwa assured former president Robert Mugabe he and his family would be safe in the country when the two men spoke for the first time since Mnangagwa returned home this week, state media said on …
Rights groups say outside monitors needed for Rohingya return to Myanmar
YANGON (Reuters) – Human rights groups called on Friday for international agencies to be allowed to monitor the planned repatriation of hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh to the homes they have fled from in Myanmar over the past thr…
Saudi Crown Prince calls Iran leader ‘new Hitler’: NYT
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran “the new Hitler of the Middle East” in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals.
