China, Southeast Asia to set up hotline for South China Sea issues
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – China and Southeast Asian nations have agreed to set up a foreign ministers’ hotline to tackle emergencies in the disputed South China Sea, a senior official of the ASEAN grouping told Reuters on Friday.
U.S.-led coalition stages 41 air strikes on Islamic State: military statement
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and its allies hit Islamic State forces with 41 air strikes in Iraq and Syria on Thursday, concentrating the attacks on the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, a joint command statement said on Friday.
France’s Calais port blocked again in ferry dispute
LILLE, France (Reuters) – Protesting ferry-workers blocked road access to the northern French port of Calais with burning tyres on Friday, police said.
Tunisia extends state of emergency for two more months – presidency
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia has extended its state of emergency for two more months, the presidency said in a statement carried on the state news agency on Friday.
Austria admits flaws in handling refugees, pledges action
VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria pledged on Friday to improve appalling conditions at its refugee centers and admitted its current laws were insufficient to meet what Chancellor Werner Faymann described as “Europe’s biggest challenge”.
Nusra Front attacks Western-backed rebels in northern Syria
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front attacked Western-backed rebels in northern Syria on Friday, rebel groups and an organization monitoring the war said, escalating tension between rival insurgents near the Turkish border.
Freeing of Chinese loggers riles Myanmar citizens
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s newspapers and social media users reacted with anger and disappointment on Friday to the government’s decision to include 155 Chinese in a mass amnesty, just eight days after they were jailed for illegal logging.
Russia’s ‘tin pot despot’ Putin behind spy’s London murder, UK inquiry told
LONDON (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “tin pot despot” who, with Kremlin “cronies,” was behind the 2006 poisoning murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, the lawyer for his widow said on Friday.
Under Western pressure, Kosovo to put war crimes court to new vote
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo’s government asked parliament on Friday to reconsider its rejection of an ad hoc court to try ethnic Albanian former guerrillas for alleged war crimes including organ harvesting, responding to intense Western pressure.
Japan’s Kyushu Electric aims to restart first reactor Aug 10
TOKYO (Reuters) – Kyushu Electric Power Co said on Friday it planned to begin starting up a reactor on Aug. 10, the first attempt to reboot Japan’s nuclear industry in nearly two years after the sector was shut down in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima di…
