India says no contact with 39 men held by Islamic State in Iraq
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has had no contact with 39 men missing in Iraq since June, but believes them to be alive, the foreign minister said on Friday, distancing herself from a report that suggested they had been killed by Islamic State militants.
Japan military chief urges early ‘crisis management’ pact with China
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s highest-ranking military officer on Friday urged an early start to a “crisis management” mechanism with China amid conflicting claims to a group of tiny East China Sea islands.
NATO unconcerned by Russian warships in English Channel
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A squadron of Russian warships entered the English Channel on Friday but a NATO official dismissed a Russian media report that they were there to conduct military exercises.
Czechs raise security after ministers get poison by mail
PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech Interior Ministry will tighten security at government offices after unknown culprits sent envelopes with deadly doses of poison to two ministries in recent days, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said on Friday.
Exclusive: Obama plan to ‘Power Africa’ gets off to a dim start
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Barack Obama last year told a cheering crowd in Cape Town that a $7 billion plan to “Power Africa” would double electricity output on the world’s poorest continent and bring “light where currently there is darkness”.
Syria denies targeting civilians, tells U.S. to criticize militants instead
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria rejected as “fabricated” U.S. accusations that its forces are targeting civilians with air strikes and said Washington would do better to criticize hardline Islamic State militants who have killed American citizens.
Nepal devotees sacrifice thousands of animals in Hindu ritual
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Sword-wielding Hindu devotees in Nepal began slaughtering thousands of animals and birds in a ritual sacrifice on Friday, ignoring calls by animal rights activists to halt what they described as the world’s largest such exercise.
China writer goes on trial for media censorship protest after long delay
HONG KONG (Reuters) – The long-awaited trial of a prominent Chinese writer and activist resumed in southern China on Friday, more than two months after his lawyers boycotted an earlier hearing with Beijing showing little sign of easing its clampdown ag…
Mexico president vows police reform in bid to quell massacre anger
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Embattled President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday vowed to simplify Mexico’s chaotic police structure and stop collusion between officials and drug gangs as he tried to defuse anger over the apparent massacre of 43 students in …
Let us curb welfare for migrants or risk British EU exit: UK’s Cameron
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s continued membership of the European Union is contingent upon it being allowed to stop migrants from the bloc tapping into its relatively generous welfare system, Prime Minister David Cameron will warn on Friday.
