Aid to be sent to besieged Syrian areas on Monday: sources
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Humanitarian aid will be delivered to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya and two blockaded villages in the northwest on Monday according to an agreement finalised on Saturday, two sources familiar with the details said.
Officer and soldier shot dead in Cairo suburb attack
CAIRO (Reuters) – Armed men shot dead a police officer and a soldier on Saturday while they were in their car in the Giza area, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt’s state news agency said.
Yemen government says peace talks may be postponed beyond mid-January
CAIRO (Reuters) – Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said on Saturday that peace talks due to be held on Jan. 14 would most probably be postponed beyond that date.
Iran complains to U.N. about Saudi ‘provocations’
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign minister has complained to the United Nations about Saudi Arabia’s “provocations” toward Tehran, as a diplomatic crisis between the region’s two major powers entered its second week.
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…
