Airport planned for Israel-Jordan border clouds neighborly ties
JERUSALEM/AMMAN (Reuters) – A new airport planned by Israel near its border with Jordan is clouding the usually businesslike relationship the two neighbors have built since making peace in 1994.
U.N. says received further reports of abuse of Falluja escapees
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Wednesday it had received further reports alleging “serious rights violations” of civilians fleeing the Iraqi city of Falluja by armed groups supporting a U.S-backed military offensive against Islamic Stat…
Pope to visit Armenia after irking Turkey with ‘genocide’ label
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis visits Armenia this weekend and will try to avoid reigniting a diplomatic dispute with Turkey after his branding of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as a genocide infuriated Ankara last year.
Energy, aerospace on agenda of Putin’s trip to China: Kremlin
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and China will discuss cooperation in the energy sector and in aerospace during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing this week, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s aide, told journalists on Wednesday.
U.S. coalition says expects tough fight against IS near Turkish border
BAGHDAD/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq said on Wednesday it was tightening the noose around militants in the Syrian city of Manbij near the Turkish border but expected them to fight to the end to defe…
Assad tasks minister with forming new government: Syria state media
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad tasked Electricity Minister Emad Khamis with forming a new government on Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported, without giving an immediate reason for the formation of a new cabinet.
China’s one-time ‘democracy’ village protests for fourth straight day
WUKAN, China (Reuters) – The Chinese fishing village of Wukan staged a fourth straight day of protests on Wednesday against what residents say was the unlawful arrest of the village chief, a rare show of grassroots defiance against authorities in Commu…
EU says Myanmar needs ‘space’ to deal with rights abuses
YANGON (Reuters) – The European Union said on Wednesday Myanmar needed “space” to deal with human rights abuses in its restive northwest, adding it would respect the call by country leader Aung San Suu Kyi to avoid the term “Rohingya” to describe perse…
Libyan forces take losses in battle for Sirte against Islamic State
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan forces fighting Islamic State in its stronghold of Sirte said on Wednesday that 36 of their men had been killed and nearly 150 wounded in the previous day’s clashes, one of the heaviest tolls in their month-long campaign.
North Korea missile reaches new heights, ‘intensifying’ threat to Japan
SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range missile on Wednesday to a high altitude in the direction of Japan before it plunged into the sea, military officials said, a technological advance for the isolated s…
