Nigeria drafts in foreign mercenaries to take on Boko Haram
JOHANNESBURG/DAKAR (Reuters) – Nigeria has brought in hundreds of mercenaries from South Africa and the former Soviet Union to give its offensive against Boko Haram a shot in the arm before a March 28 election, according to regional security, defense a…
Chinese police detain five women’s rights activists
BEIJING (Reuters) – China formally detained five women’s rights activists on Thursday, apparently for planning to demonstrate against sexual harassment on public transport, paving the way for police to levy formal charges.
Myanmar frees some student protesters arrested in violent crackdown
LETPADAN (Reuters) – Myanmar on Thursday freed from jail more than a dozen students detained this week in a violent crackdown in which riot police beat protesters with batons and arrested 127 people after a lengthy standoff.
Houthis open fire on protesters in southern Yemen, one dead
SANAA (Reuters) – Members of the Shi’ite Muslim militia that controls much of Yemen opened fire on hundreds of people protesting at their presence in the southerly city of al-Bayda on Thursday, killing one and wounding eight others, local officials and…
Syrian army repels attack on village in west: monitor, military source
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces and allied militia have repelled an insurgent attack on a village in western Syria of strategic importance to both sides, with dozens of combatants killed, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
Iraqi soldiers killed in ‘friendly fire’ Anbar air strike: sources
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Soldiers from an Iraqi army unit in the western province of Anbar have been killed in an apparent ‘friendly fire’ incident, an Iraqi military officer and a police source said on Thursday.
As Greek-German ties erode, Athens complains about Schaeuble ‘insult’
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece has accused German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of insulting his Greek counterpart, the latest deterioration in a relationship badly strained by Berlin’s tough line on Greece’s debt woes.
Israel resumes imports of Gaza fruit and vegetables, easing embargo
GAZA (Reuters) – Israel imported its first fruit and vegetables from the Gaza Strip in almost eight years on Thursday, in a partial easing of an economic blockade maintained since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory.
Russia holds military drills in Crimea, Georgian breakaway regions: RIA
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has started military exercises in the country’s south, as well as in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and in Crimea, annexed from Ukraine last year, news agency RIA reported on Thursday, citing Russia’…
Islamic State militants claim bomb attack in Libyan capital
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a police station in the Libyan capital on Thursday in a statement posted on Twitter along with photographs of the scene.
