Colombia aims to rid country of landmines by 2025: campaigners
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Colombia, one of the most mine-scarred countries in the world, could be free of landmines in a decade after the government and FARC rebels reached a historic agreement on landmine clearance during peace talks in Cu…
Latin America’s poorest need new programs: World Bank
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rapid growth in Latin America over the past decade still left one in five residents of the region living on less than $4 a day, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.
British lawmaker Stephen O’Brien named new U.N. aid chief
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – British lawmaker and former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, Stephen O’Brien, will replace Valerie Amos as the United Nations aid chief, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Mon…
Bangladesh expels North Korean diplomat for gold smuggling
DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh expelled a senior North Korean diplomat on Monday after he was caught smuggling $1.4 million worth of gold, government officials said.
Czech government approves sale of fighter jets to Iraq
PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech government has approved a sale of 15 subsonic fighter planes to Iraq, the defense minister said on Monday, following the failure of a previous attempt to offload surplus stock to Baghdad.
Myanmar is sliding toward conflict, U.N. investigator says
GENEVA (Reuters) – Myanmar is sliding toward conflict as the government backtracks on pledges to protect human rights and “fear, distrust and hostility” spread, a U.N. investigator said in a report published on Monday.
Slobodan Milosevic Street? Not likely, warns Kosovo government
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo’s government warned ethnic Serbs on Monday not to follow through on a decision to name a street after late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, whose crackdown in the former Serbian province triggered war with NATO in 1999….
U.S. offers $5 million for missing American, appeals to Iran
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States offered $5 million on Monday for help in finding an American who disappeared in Iran eight years ago and appealed to Tehran to cooperate in the search for the former FBI agent, Robert Levinson.
Islamic State infighting in Syria kills nine: monitor
BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least nine members of Islamic State were killed during infighting in northwestern Syria after some of them tried to flee over the Turkish border, a group monitoring the conflict said on Monday.
Russia’s Putin honors suspect in Litvinenko poisoning
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a state honor to a man suspected by Britain of using radioactive polonium to poison Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London nearly a decade ago.
