Exclusive: EU’s Juncker dangles trade ties with Russia-led bloc to Putin
VILNIUS (Reuters) – European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, suggesting closer trade ties between the EU and a Russian-led economic bloc once a ceasefire is implemented in Ukraine, but the Kreml…
Syria peace deal elusive as ever in wake of Islamic State attacks
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Hundreds of innocent people have been killed in spectacular attacks claimed by Islamic State militants from Syria, but diplomats say major powers are no closer to a peace deal to end nearly five years of bloodshed and chaos t…
U.N. says Congo failed to properly vet Central African Republic troops
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Thursday it is in talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo about the country’s future involvement in a peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic because it had not adequately vetted its tr…
U.N. panel condemns North Korea abuses, Pyongyang cites U.S. ‘plot’
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A United Nations General Assembly committee on Thursday condemned what it said were rampant and planned human rights abuses in North Korea, but Pyongyang denounced the accusation as a hostile plot organized by the United Stat…
Kuwait says group supplying funds and weapons to IS has been caught: KUNA
DUBAI (Reuters) – Kuwaiti authorities have arrested an extremist network that supplied funds and weapons, including rockets, to Islamic State, state news agency KUNA quoted the Interior Ministry as saying on Thursday.
As Obama heads to Malaysia, human trafficking stance questioned
KUALA LUMPUR/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Inus bin Abul Baser, an 18-year-old from Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, believed he’d escaped the worst when he managed to buy his freedom from human traffickers in Thailand and enter Malaysia in search of security and work.
Exclusive: Attacks to strain France’s terrorism victim fund
PARIS (Reuters) – Friday’s suicide bombings and shootings in Paris killed 129 people. But France expects to compensate more than 2,000 after the unprecedented attacks – a payout likely to strain the country’s compensation fund and prompt changes to how it is financed, authorities and lawyers say.
U.N. urges states to release details on 1961 UN chief plane crash
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday urged the United States, Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, South Africa and others to release any information they have on a 1961 plane crash that killed then Secretary-General…
ANC vote stirs debate over succession of South Africa’s Zuma
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A hotly contested party vote earlier this month has deepened divisions within South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and stirred debate over President Jacob Zuma’s successor.
Belgium pledges security crackdown on Islamist violence
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium will introduce laws to jail jihadists returning from Syria and shut unregistered mosques, Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Thursday, launching a crackdown in response to the role of militants based in his country in th…
