Poet arrested as Iran targets free speech: rights group
DUBAI (Reuters) – An Iranian poet who backed a reformist candidate in 2009’s disputed presidential election has been detained amid a crackdown on artists and activists, a U.S.-based rights group said.
Dozens of migrants die in the sea off Somaliland
HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) – Dozens of Ethiopian and Somali migrants died in the waters off the breakaway Somalia region of Somaliland when their vessel failed mechanically in the course of the voyage and drifted in the sea, a regional Somaliland offi…
Iraqi PM Abadi pledges corruption drive after Sistani criticism
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday pledged to stamp out corruption this year amid criticism from the nation’s highest Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, that his government has done little to combat graft….
Blast kills two Pakistani coast guards in troubled southwest
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Two Pakistani coast guards were killed on Saturday when a bomb exploded under their vehicle, police officials said, in a town in the southwest which has been hit hard by years of separatist violence.
Juncker: Dutch Ukraine vote could spark ‘continental crisis’
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that a Dutch advisory referendum in April on the bloc’s association agreement with Ukraine could lead to a “continental crisis” if voters reject the treaty.
Egypt’s court of appeals rejects Mubarak and sons appeal of jail sentence
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s court of appeals on Saturday rejected an appeal by former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons over a three-year jail sentence for corruption, but the trio is unlikely to be imprisoned again having already served the sente…
Iran’s top leader calls for full participation in elections
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday called on all Iranians, even those who oppose the Islamic Republic, to participate in next month’s elections to parliament and to the assembly that will choose his successor.
Afghanistan turns disused NATO camp into drug treatment base
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan officials have opened a new drug treatment center in an abandoned NATO military base in Kabul, in the latest attempt to stamp out the country’s massive problem of drug abuse.
Nine months on, Nepal finally set to start quake reconstruction work
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal will start repairs and reconstruction next week for nearly a million homes damaged by last year’s deadly earthquakes, the head of a state agency said on Saturday, nearly nine months after the disaster left hundreds of thousa…
Iraqi air force conducting 60 percent of sorties, PM Abadi says
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – More than 60 percent of sorties against Islamic State in Iraq are carried out by the nation’s air forces and about 40 percent by the U.S.-led coalition, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday. Iraq’s army last month scored its first success against Islamic State when it recaptured, with air support from the coalition, the city center of Ramadi. Until then, it was the Iran-backed Shi’ite militias that were leading the fight against the hardline Sunni militants.
