Nigeria says violence does not threaten Boko Haram talks to free girls
ABUJA (Reuters) – Talks between Nigeria and Islamist militant group Boko Haram aimed at securing the release of 200 abducted girls have not been jeopardized by a surge in violence, Nigeria’s foreign minister said on Monday.
UK defends refusal to pay EU bill as press shakes fist at Brussels
LONDON (Reuters) – The British government defended its refusal to pay a surprise European Union bill of 2.1 billion euros on Monday after Eurosceptic media praised Prime Minister David Cameron for taking what they called a noble stand against money-gra…
Nigeria’s Jonathan brushes off scandals to lead 2015 election race
ABUJA (Reuters) – Not many presidents could survive three multi-billion dollar government oil corruption scandals and a wave of cold-blooded killings and kidnappings of civilians by Islamist militants still holding hundreds of schoolgirls after six mon…
Libya now has two state news agencies as disorder deepens
TUNIS (Reuters) – Libya’s internationally recognised government said on Monday it would launch a new state news agency to replace the one seized by armed factions that have set up a parallel government.
France criticizes slow deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Mali
BAMAKO (Reuters) – France’s defense minister on Monday criticized the slow deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Mali’s volatile northern region, saying the delay had encouraged a fresh wave of Islamist militant attacks there.
U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States does not expect Syrian rebels it plans to train to fight Islamic State militants to also take on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, but sees them as a crucial part of a political solution to end the war, the Asharq…
Egypt court detains rights activists at start of retrial
CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian judge ordered 21 democracy activists to be arrested on Monday at the start of their retrial for breaking a law against protests passed after the military ousted former President Mohamed Mursi last year.
Pistorius verdict, sentence facing appeal
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African prosecutors will appeal against the culpable homicide verdict and five-year jail sentence passed on Oscar Pistorius last week after public and legal criticism of the judge’s decision to absolve the track star of m…
Assad’s warnings start to ring true in Turkey
BEIRUT (Reuters) – When Sunni rebels rose up against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Turkey reclassified its protégé as a pariah, expecting him to lose power within months and join the autocrats of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen on the scrap heap of the “Arab Spring”.
Tunisian Islamists concede election defeat to secular party
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s Ennahda party, the first Islamist movement to secure power after the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolts, conceded defeat on Monday in elections that are set to make its main secular rival the strongest force in parliament.
