Freed al Qaeda hostage says becoming Muslim helped him in ordeal
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – After nearly six years as a hostage of the Al Qaeda group in Mali, South African tourist Stephen McGowan said he would keep the beard that brushes his chest when he bows to speak into the microphone.
UK police arrest jogger suspected of knocking woman in front of bus
LONDON (Reuters) – British police on Thursday said they had arrested a 50-year-old jogger on suspicion of knocking a woman into the path of a bus on a busy west London street earlier this year.
‘Beyond the Wall’: Tales of persecuted lives at the Berlin Wall
BERLIN (Reuters) – An open-air installation is to open along an old section of the Berlin Wall at the weekend, featuring photos of soldiers patrolling the former deadly border, and stories of those persecuted behind it.
Zambian police free opposition leader accused of defaming president
LUSAKA (Reuters) – Police in Zambia freed an opposition leader on Thursday after holding him in detention for a week on accusations of defaming President Edgar Lungu, an offence that carries a maximum five-year prison term.
Buoyant bitcoin stirs crypto-bubble fears
LONDON (Reuters) – Bitcoin and other “cryptocurrencies” are big money, virtually as big as Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland combined.
Video shows migrants fleeing boat landing on Spanish resort beach
MADRID (Reuters) – A dinghy carrying dozens of migrants landed on Wednesday in the middle of a beach full of holiday makers in Zahara de los Atunes on the coast of Andalusia, southern Spain.
Militants trapped in Raqqa center but Syrian Kurd commander sees long battle
RAQQA, Syria (Reuters) – U.S.-backed forces now have Islamic State fighters surrounded in central Raqqa, a Syrian Kurdish commander said, but he predicted that driving the militants out could take up to four months.
Kenyan election official says opposition victory claim ‘ridiculous’
NAIROBI/KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) – Celebrations broke out in pockets of Kenya on Thursday after the opposition said its candidate Raila Odinga should be declared winner of the presidential vote, a claim an election commission official said was “ridiculo…
Suspect in hit-and-run on French soldiers unknown to spy agencies: source
PARIS (Reuters) – The Algerian national suspected of ploughing a hire car into a group of soldiers in a wealthy Paris suburb is believed to be unknown to French intelligence services and had no criminal record, a police source said on Thursday.
Fifty-five African migrants feared dead in second drowning incident off Yemen: U.N. agency
GENEVA (Reuters) – Some 180 Ethiopian and Somali migrants were forced into rough seas off Yemen by smugglers early on Thursday and 55 of them are presumed to have drowned, the U.N. migration agency said.
