Islamic State in Syria abducts at least 150 Christians
AMMAN (Reuters) – Islamic State militants have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday.
Rights group calls for U.N. arms embargo on Syria over barrel bombs
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Syrian government troops carried out hundreds of indiscriminate aerial attacks in the past year, most with barrel bombs, in defiance of a United Nations Security Council demand to stop, a U.S. rights group said, calling for a…
U.S. arms flow to Iraq ahead of planned Mosul offensive
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some 10,000 U.S. M-16 rifles and other military supplies worth about $17.9 million arrived in Iraq this week as U.S. troops pushed ahead with training and supplying Iraqi security forces battling Islamic State fighters, the Penta…
Suicide bombers kill at least 26 across north Nigeria
DAMATURU/KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) – Suicide bombers struck two bus stations in different parts of northern Nigeria on Tuesday, killing at least 26 people in attacks President Goodluck Jonathan blamed on Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group he said wo…
Australia pleads for mercy for drug traffickers to be executed in Indonesia
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s foreign minister on Wednesday appealed to Indonesia’s president to show mercy for two Australian drug traffickers due to executed in Indonesia, expressing disappointment that their latest legal appeal had been rejected.
Qatar assures U.S. it is committed to fighting Islamic State
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Qatar is committed to defeating the Islamic State, its emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, assured U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday in his first official visit to the White House.
Houthis say Yemen’s Hadi has lost legitimacy, after president flees south
SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s newly-dominant Houthi group said on Tuesday President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had lost his legitimacy as head of state and was being sought as a fugitive from justice.
Chadian soldiers kill 207 Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria: army
N’DJAMENA (Reuters) – Soldiers from Chad killed 207 Boko Haram militants in fighting on Tuesday near a Nigerian town close to the border with Cameroon, Chad’s army announced in a statement.
Friction over India’s beef trade heats up after attacks
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Hindu nationalists in India have stepped up attacks on the country’s beef industry, seizing trucks with cattle bound for abattoirs and blockading meat processing plants in a bid to halt the trade in the world’s second-biggest exporte…
U.S. prepares draft threatening U.N. sanctions on South Sudan
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States on Tuesday distributed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would establish a sanctions regime for war-torn South Sudan, but stopped short of proposing specific individuals to be blacklisted or an a…
