Pain but no gain: Indonesia’s corruption crackdown
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian bureaucrats are holding off spending billions of dollars on everything from schools and clinics to garbage trucks and parking meters, fearful that any major expenditure could come under the scanner of fervent anti-corrupt…
Obama says additional U.S. forces will help “squeeze” Islamic State
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said his decision to send more U.S. special forces to combat Islamic State in Iraq is not an indication that the United States is headed for another invasion like the one in 2003 that locked it in a long, v…
Iraq PM says would consider foreign troop deployment “act of aggression”
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday no foreign ground troops had been requested from any country and that their deployment would be considered an “act of aggression”.
Kerry says peace ‘within reach’ on Cyprus
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Peace is within reach in Cyprus, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday as he watched children from both sides of the divided island play basketball together.
After 20-year sentence in Peru, Lori Berenson returns to New York
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Yorker Lori Berenson, who was convicted of aiding leftist rebels in Peru 20 years ago, returned to her hometown on Thursday.
Liberia’s last two Ebola patients recover, leave hospital
MONROVIA (Reuters) – Liberia released its last two known Ebola cases from hospital on Thursday as it starts a new countdown to declaring itself free of the virus for a third time, health officials said.
Russia’s Lavrov says heard nothing new in meeting with Turks
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday after meeting his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Belgrade that he had heard nothing new from Cavusoglu about the downing of a Russian plane by a Turkish military jet.
“Unrealistic” to solve problems with Russia in one meeting – Turkish foreign minister
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday it would be unrealistic to expect all problems to be solved with Russia after a single meeting, but it was important to maintain open communication channels, state broadcaster TRT reported T…
Uniting Syrian rebels a big test for Saudi regional ambitions
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s effort to unite Syrian rebels in Riyadh next week will be a big test of its regional ambitions after years of bickering between opposition groups and serious misgivings about the initiative among major powers with a st…
Sweden struggles to house refugees as harsh Nordic winter looms
MALMO, Sweden (Reuters) – Plastic bags containing clothes and a few belongings are placed along the walls of a chilly, dimly-lit church in Malmo, Sweden, where 20 refugees from Syria and Afghanistan join around 30 Roma beggars seeking shelter for the n…
