U.N. torture investigator accuses U.S. of delaying prison visits
GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. torture investigator accused the United States on Wednesday of stalling on his requests to visit its prisons where 80,000 people are in solitary confinement and to interview inmates at Guantanamo on his terms.
For Palestinians, Israel’s election offers bleak horizon
GAZA/RAMALLAH (Reuters) – As Israelis prepare to elect a new government next week, the view from the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza is not one of hope.
Turkey shuts border crossings as fighting worsens around Syria’s Aleppo
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has closed two border crossings with Syria as a security precaution as fighting around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo intensifies, Turkish officials said on Wednesday.
Iraq’s newest conflict rescues rusting tanks from scrapheap
AL-HARTHA, Iraq (Reuters) – In a military scrapyard in the southern Iraqi desert, abandoned army equipment sat for years waiting to be melted down to steel bars. Now, thanks to new conflict and a resourceful old mechanic, some of the rusty warhorses ha…
Tanzania bus collision kills at least 41, toll could rise
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – At least 41 people were killed and dozens injured when a bus and a truck collided on a busy road in south-west Tanzania on Wednesday, police said, warning that the death toll could rise.
Pakistan paramilitary raids major party in volatile Karachi
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A Pakistani paramilitary force raided the headquarters of a major political party on Wednesday in the country’s biggest city, officials said, recovering weapons and arresting suspects wanted for several crimes, including the murde…
Aftershocks still rattle east Japan four years after megaquake
TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) – Four years after a magnitude 9 earthquake shook northern and eastern Japan, the region is rocked by tremors at more than double the average rate of the decade before the disaster, a report this week from the Japan Meteorolog…
NATO chief says Russia still equipping Ukraine rebels
MONS, Belgium (Reuters) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that Russia was still arming and training rebel forces in eastern Ukraine and he called for the warring parties to help foreign monitors to reinforce a ceasefire.
Question marks hang over flawed Darfur peacekeeping force
ZAM ZAM CAMP, SUDAN/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – One of the world’s largest peacekeeping forces is being cut back and revamped as it has been failing to protect civilians in Darfur, the vast Sudanese region where gunmen roam in Land Cruisers and on horse…
Russia says has right to deploy nuclear weapons in Crimea: report
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has the right to deploy nuclear arms in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine last year, a Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday, adding he knew of no plans to do so.
