Egypt orders Muslim preachers to deliver identical weekly sermons
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian authorities said on Tuesday Muslim clerics would be required to read out identical pre-written weekly sermons as part of the government’s campaign against extremism, drawing angry criticism from some preachers.
Syrian town under siege faces famine, disease, medic groups say
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nearly 90 people have died from starvation and other causes during a year-old siege of the Syrian town of Madaya, where residents have been trapped without supplies, two medical organizations said on Tuesday.
U.S. hails Sri Lanka’s post-war reconciliation efforts
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The United States on Tuesday praised Sri Lanka’s steps taken under a U.N. resolution to address alleged human rights abuses in the final phase of a 26-year war with Tamil Tiger rebels, and said it would do what it could to see throu…
ICC refers Uganda, Djibouti to U.N. for failure to arrest Sudan’s Al-Bashir
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court said on Tuesday it had referred the governments of Uganda and Djibouti to the UN Security Council for failing to arrest Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir while he was on their territory.
Malian troops fire on protest in Gao, killing three
GAO, Mali (Reuters) – Malian soldiers opened fire on anti-government demonstrators in the northern city of Gao on Tuesday, killing three and wounding at least 31, two doctors at a hospital that received the bodies told Reuters.
Israeli military chief rabbi-designate under fire over remarks on rape
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s military has nominated a new chief rabbi who seemed to imply in a past religious commentary that its soldiers are allowed to rape non-Jewish women in wartime.
Russian suspect in Istanbul attack: a shy student who found religion
IKON-KHALK, Russia (Reuters) – When Rahim Bulgarov graduated from college in southern Russia with a diploma in tourism, his teacher expected him to go on to further study, or fulfill his dream of opening a car repair shop.
Spain’s Ciudadanos party suggests will not block conservative government
MADRID (Reuters) – The small, liberal Ciudadanos party will neither back nor block a government led by Spain’s conservative People’s Party (PP), leader Albert Rivera said on Tuesday, his most flexible stance yet after months of political deadlock and a…
Austria seizing Hitler’s birthplace to prevent Nazi pilgrimage site
VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s government moved on Tuesday to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born to prevent it becoming a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, and the country’s Interior Minister said he wanted to tear it down.
EU says Israel’s new NGO law risks ‘undermining values’
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The European Union said on Tuesday an Israeli law targeting foreign-funded NGOs risked undermining democracy and free speech, and a leading Israeli rights group said it would appeal the legislation in the Supreme Court.
