EU launches $2 billion emergency fund for Africa to combat migration
VALLETTA (Reuters) – The European Union launched a fund for Africa on Thursday with an initial $2 billion to combat the poverty and conflict driving migration to Europe, but African leaders said more fundamental economic change was needed.
UK Maoist cult leader raped followers, enslaved daughter, court hears
LONDON (Reuters) – A Maoist cult leader sexually abused his brainwashed female followers and imprisoned his own daughter in homes across south London for more than 30 years, British prosecutors said on Thursday.
Italian police say 15 arrested in European swoop on militants planning attacks
ROME (Reuters) – Police in six European countries arrested at least 15 suspected members of an Islamist militant group that was planning attacks in Norway and the Middle East, Italian authorities said on Thursday.
Rouhani says U.S.-Iran ties could be restored but U.S. must apologize
ROME (Reuters) – The nuclear deal reached between world powers and Iran could lead to better relations between Tehran and Washington if the United States apologized for past behavior, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Striking Greeks take to tension-filled streets in austerity protest
ATHENS (Reuters) – Striking Greeks took to the streets on Thursday to protest austerity measures, setting Alexis Tsipras’ government its biggest domestic challenge since he was re-elected in September promising to cushion the impact of economic hardshi…
Undercover Israeli troops raid hospital, kill Palestinian
HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli undercover forces raided a hospital in the West Bank on Thursday, shooting dead a Palestinian during an attempt to detain another man suspected of carrying out a stabbing, the Palestinian health ministry and doctor…
Three decades in, Sinai’s peacekeepers are under pressure
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – They half-joke that they are “smoke detectors,” installed in Sinai after Egypt’s 1979 peace deal with Israel as insurance against any future flare-ups. More than three war-free decades on, the U.S.-led peacekeepers are feeling the…
Kenyan forces accused of smuggling racket in Somalia, army denies
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan forces fighting militants in Somalia are taking cuts from charcoal and sugar smuggling, earning themselves about $50 million a year and boosting an illegal trade that helps fund the Islamists, a rights group said on Thursday….
Confusion over reports dissident Taliban commander killed
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police said on Thursday a top leader of a breakaway Taliban faction fighting for control of the Islamist movement had been killed by rival militants but the report was denied by a spokesman for his group.
Echoes of ‘Francafrique’ haunt central African democracy
DAKAR (Reuters) – On the day of a vote to allow Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his 31 years in power, opposition leader Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas was under house arrest and eating canned food smuggled in by the French ambassado…
