Arrest, advertisements spotlight Pakistan army detentions
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Paramilitary troops in Pakistan’s biggest city arrested a prominent politician on Thursday, fuelling jitters about a showdown between the powerful Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party and the military-run Rangers.
Failure to pay soldiers threatens Somalia’s war on Islamists
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somalia’s inability to pay and even feed its soldiers threatens to undermine years of hard-won military gains against Islamist al Shabaab rebels, with corruption sapping morale and weakening the army in the war against the militants…
Yemeni president dismisses Houthi concessions as ‘maneuver’
DUBAI (Reuters) – Yemen’s government dismissed as a “maneuver” on Thursday the Houthis’ acceptance of a U.N.-sponsored peace plan and demanded that the Iran-backed group hand back territory it has seized since last year.
Kosovo lawmaker fills parliament with smoke to protest Serbia deal
BELGRADE (Reuters) – An opposition lawmaker in Kosovo set off what appeared to be a smoke bomb in parliament on Thursday, in a deepening political standoff over an EU-brokered deal to improve ties between Serbia and its former southern province.
Aid group MSF to review work in Afghanistan after air strike
KABUL (Reuters) – Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) will review its operations in Afghanistan following last weekend’s deadly U.S. air strike on a hospital in the city of Kunduz, officials from the international aid group said on Thursday.
‘Czar Putin’: as secure as he seems?
PARIS (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin turned 63 this week with his now traditional display of sporting prowess, and an announcement that Russian naval vessels had launched a wave of missiles against Islamic State in Syria.
ICC prosecutor plans probe into 2008 Georgia-Russia war
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court said on Wednesday that its prosecutor planned to investigate possible crimes committed in the 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia, bringing Moscow, an opponent of the court, into its sights fo…
U.S. to sail warships near disputed South China Sea islands: FT
(Reuters) – The United States is expected to sail warships close to China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea within the next two weeks to signal it does not recognize Chinese territorial claims over the area, the Financial Times reported, citing a senior U.S. official.
Malaysia court upholds ban on cross dressing by transgender Muslims
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s highest court on Thursday dismissed a challenge to a ban on cross-dressing, dealing a major setback to the battle for the rights of the country’s transgender community, as Islamic conservatism grows in the Southeast …
Exclusive: Congress probing U.S. spy agencies’ possible lapses on Russia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior U.S. lawmakers have begun probing possible intelligence lapses over Moscow’s intervention in Syria, concerned that American spy agencies were slow to grasp the scope and intention of Russia’s dramatic military offensive there, U.S. congressional sources and other officials told Reuters.
