Mosul food, water reserves dwindle as fighting cuts off supplies
MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) – The United Nations issued a fresh warning on Wednesday about the humanitarian situation in eastern Mosul where the U.S.-backed Iraqi army is locked in heavy fighting with Islamic State militants.
Azerbaijan criminalizes defamation of the president online
BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s parliament on Wednesday made online defamation of the president a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.
Syrian rebels vow to resist army advances in Aleppo
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels on Wednesday vowed to fight on in east Aleppo in the face of sudden government advances that have cut the area held by the opposition by a third in recent days and brought insurgents in the city to the brink of a catast…
NATO nearing solution to continue Aegean migrant mission: UK general
BERLIN (Reuters) – Turkey will likely hand off responsibility for NATO’s counter-migration mission in the Aegean Sea, averting tensions with Greece, when it takes command of a broader maritime mission in the region next year, a top British general said…
India’s Supreme Court orders cinemas to play national anthem
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian cinemas must play the national anthem before screening a film and the audience must stand and listen, the country’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday in a ruling echoing growing nationalist sentiment under Prime Minister Nare…
Met a friendly stranger? Call us, say Lithuania’s spyhunters
VILNIUS (Reuters) – A single mother takes a kindly man into her confidence. A student is plied with beer by a smiling stranger. Beguiling scenes. But Lithuanians are being urged in TV adverts to be wary of the kindness of strangers and call a new ‘spyl…
Five miners dead, three missing after tremor hits Polish copper mine
WARSAW (Reuters) – Rescuers were searching for three missing miners in southwestern Poland on Wednesday after an earth tremor caused rockfalls deep underground in Europe’s largest copper mine, killing five, the mine’s operator KGHM said.
Spurred by Trump and Brexit, EU plans five-billion-euro defense fund
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union unveiled its biggest defense funding and research plan in more than a decade on Wednesday to reverse billions in cuts and send a message to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that it wants to pay for its own secur…
Sunni tribesmen battling Islamic State demand federalism in Iraq
SHAYYALAH AL-IMAM, Iraq (Reuters) – As mortar bombs landed ever closer, Sunni tribal fighters preparing to attack Islamic State seemed more preoccupied by the failures of Iraq’s political class than the militants trying to kill them.
France’s Fillon to beat Le Pen next year with 66 percent of vote: Elabe poll
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s Francois Fillon will convincingly beat National Front leader Marine Le Pen in a presidential election runoff next May, taking 66 percent of the vote, a new opinion poll showed on Wednesday.
