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.
North Korea says South’s propaganda broadcasts push situation to ‘brink of war’
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at North Korea push the rivals to the “brink of war,” a top North Korean official has told a propaganda rally, in the isolated country’s first official response to the sonic barrage across it…
U.N. Yemen envoy suggests Geneva location for peace talks
CAIRO (Reuters) – The United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen has suggested Geneva as a location for holding peace talks due to restart this month on ending conflict in the war-torn country, Saba news agency reported late on Friday.
Bus fare protest in Brazil’s biggest city turns violent
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian riot police on Friday fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a violent protest against a rise in public transport fares in the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo.
China makes five more arrests over deadly Shenzhen landslide: Xinhua
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese police have arrested five more officials of a company involved in a deadly landslide that buried 77 people last month, state news agency Xinhua said, taking the tally of arrests to 16.
Mexico recaptures drug boss ‘Chapo’ Guzman after shootout
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico recaptured the world’s most notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman with U.S. help in a violent standoff on Friday, six months after he humiliated President Enrique Pena Nieto with a jaw-dropping escape from a maxim…
Bus fare protest in Brazil’s biggest city turns violent
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian riot police on Friday fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a violent protest against a rise in public transport fares in the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo.
