Taliban leadership struggle fuels wave of attacks in Afghanistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A spike in attacks in Kabul was designed to prove the Taliban’s new leader was firmly in charge, the group said, but Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour’s position remains precarious as clerics and top militants meet secretly …
Turkey’s AK Party eyes early election as polls show rising support
ANKARA (Reuters) – Expectations of a snap election in November are growing within Turkey’s ruling AK Party, officials say, with its leadership emboldened by recent opinion polls and looking increasingly cool to the idea of a coalition government.
Pakistan police transferred for negligence in child abuse scandal
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – Three Pakistani police officers have been transferred to other districts accused of negligence amid a deepening scandal over a pedophile ring alleged to have abused hundreds of children for nearly a decade, officials said o…
Britain calls for freedom of navigation in South China Sea
BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain’s top diplomat called for freedom of navigation and overflights in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday but stopped short of criticizing China, whose assertive territorial claims have unnerved some of its neighbors and …
Russia’s Putin discussed escalation of violence in Ukraine: Interfax
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a recent spike in violence in east Ukraine with his security council, Interfax said on Wednesday, citing the Kremlin.
Latest Indian, French warplane deal runs into problems: sources
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s order of 36 French-made Rafale fighter jets has run into trouble with government officials struggling to agree sales terms, sources said, four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened to break a logjam in previ…
Syrian air strikes kill 31, rebels bombard Damascus: monitor
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government air strikes on rebel-held areas near Damascus killed at least 31 people on Wednesday, and insurgents bombarded the capital with rockets that killed at least 13 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporte…
Suspected U.S. drone strike kills five al Qaeda militants in Yemen
ADEN (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone strike killed five al Qaeda fighters in eastern Yemen on Wednesday, officials said, as Islamist militant groups claimed a string of attacks in the war-torn country.
North Korea executes vice premier for discontent with leader: Yonhap
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s vice premier was executed by firing squad this year after showing discontent with the policies of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean media report said on Wednesday.
With Kurdish militant leader sidelined, Turkey risks deeper violence
ANKARA (Reuters) – Sidelined on his island prison, the one man who might have helped quell a surge in violence in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast appears increasingly powerless as a three-year-old peace process teeters on the brink of collapse.
