Syria pro-government forces seize rebel-held town in Latakia province
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian pro-government troops retook a front-line town in Latakia province from insurgents on Tuesday, a monitoring group and state media said, in a push by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to recover lost territory in the west.
Migrants brace for tough winter in Calais sister camp
GRANDE-SYNTHE, France (Reuters) – As thousands of migrants prepare for falling temperatures in the “jungle” of Calais on France’s north coast, refugees in another makeshift camp just 35 kilometers away are coping with even more squalid conditions as th…
NATO cannot limit missile defenses to please Russia, U.S. says
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO allies cannot agree to Russian demands to limit their missile defenses because of the threat posed by North Korea, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.
Sunni mosques in east Iraq attacked after ISIS-claimed blasts
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least seven Sunni mosques and dozens of shops in eastern Iraq were firebombed on Tuesday, security sources and local officials said, a day after 23 people were killed there in two blasts claimed by Islamic State.
Fears of illiberal Central Europe axis may be overblown
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Poland’s crackdown on the judiciary and public media, emulating Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s accumulation of power, has raised fears in the European Union of a new illiberal axis based on the Visegrad group of central Eu…
Syrian opposition coordinator says U.S. clearly backtracked over Syria
PARIS (Reuters) – The United States has softened its stance on Syria including the future of President Bashar al-Assad to accommodate Russia, opposition coordinator Riad Hijab said, warning the opposition would face a hard choice on whether to attend p…
Germany to speed up deportations after Cologne attacks
BERLIN (Reuters) – German ministers outlined plans on Tuesday to speed up the deportation of foreigners who commit crimes, responding to sexual attacks on women by migrants in Cologne which have deepened doubts about the country’s open-door refugee pol…
Famous Indian temple defends ban on woman under court scrutiny
MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Government authorities and temple officials in India’s southern Kerala state are standing firmly by a decades-old tradition of banning women from one of the holiest Hindu temples after the nation’s top court questi…
European rights body says worried by opposition crackdown in Georgia
TBILISI (Reuters) – The Council of Europe told Georgia on Tuesday to improve its justice system, saying it was worried by allegations the authorities were abusing the law to conduct a politically-motivated crackdown on the opposition.
Israeli soldiers kill three Palestinians in West Bank
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday including one the military said had tried to stab a soldier, as four months of tensions simmered.
