Libyans swap jewelry for medical treatment as crisis bites
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – In a square behind Libya’s central bank, black market dealers, some of them armed, carry small plastic bags filled with dollars and larger ones with dinars in and out of one of many informal exchanges.
China, Philippines agree to avoid force in South China Sea dispute
BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) – China and the Philippines have agreed to avoid force to resolve their differences over the South China Sea, according to a joint statement issued on Thursday by China at the end of a visit to Manila by Chinese Premier Li Keqi…
U.S. Pacific Commander: Military-backed diplomacy needed to deal with North Korea
TOKYO (Reuters) – Diplomacy backed by military power is needed to deal with North Korea’s missile and nuclear development, the head of the U.S. military’s Pacific Command said on Thursday.
India’s Modi remains overwhelmingly popular, says Pew poll
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Nearly nine out of 10 Indians hold a favorable opinion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and more than two-thirds are satisfied with the direction he is taking the country, a Pew survey has found, two years before he heads into a ge…
Human Rights Watch accuses Myanmar military of widespread rape
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar security forces on Thursday of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the past three months against Rohingya Muslims in the count…
Fear and loathing in South Korea as university exam postponed by quake
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean test-takers expressed confusion and dejection on Thursday as the country’s highly competitive annual university entrance exam, called a “life assignment exam” by some, was postponed a week for the first time ever due to s…
Senior China minister says some officials practice sorcery
BEIJING (Reuters) – Some top Chinese officials are guilty of practicing sorcery and would rather believe in gurus and Western concepts of democracy than the Communist Party, a senior minister wrote on Thursday, warning of the danger they presented to i…
Zimbabwe on knife’s edge after military seizes power
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe was on a knife’s edge on Thursday after the military seized power in what it dubbed a targeted operation against “criminals” in the entourage of President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African nation for almost f…
Cambodia’s opposition braces for Supreme Court decision
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Thursday began its final session to decide whether to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), thus ensuring victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party in next year’s …
Pakistan’s long-persecuted Ahmadi minority fear becoming election scapegoat
RABWAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – Crammed into buses and mini-vans, more than 10,000 Pakistanis traveled to a mosque on the outskirts of the small Punjabi town of Rabwah, for the sole purpose of denouncing followers of the minority sect based here as “infid…
