Ukrainian forces encircle rebel-held city, talk of truce collapses
KIEV/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) – Artillery shells slammed into the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Sunday as government forces tightened the noose around the rebel-held redoubt and called on pro-Russian separatists to surrender.
At least 39 killed in Iranian plane crash
DUBAI (Reuters) – At least 39 people were killed on Sunday when an Iran-140 Sepahan Air passenger plane crashed after takeoff from Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on a flight to Tabas in northeast Iran, state media reported.
Suicide bomber targets foreign troops in Kabul, four civilians killed
KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of foreign forces in the capital Kabul on Sunday, killing at least four Afghan civilians, including children, and wounding dozens, Afghan security officials said.
China rebuffs U.S. efforts on South China Sea tensions
NAYPYITAW (Reuters) – China appeared to rebuff pressure from the United States to rein in its assertive actions in the South China Sea on Sunday as Southeast Asian nations declined to overtly back Washington’s proposal for a freeze on provocative acts….
Australian parents of Thai surrogate twin say they feared losing both babies
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian biological parents of twins caught up in a surrogacy scandal in Thailand wanted both babies but the surrogate mother threatened to involve the police and they feared she would keep both children, they said on Sunday.
Somalia donors must act now to avoid famine ‘catastrophe’ -U.N
NAIROBI (Reuters) – War-ravaged Somalia is hurtling towards a second famine in three years that could be prevented if donors increased funding, Philippe Lazzarini, United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Somalia said on Sunday.
Syria’s Assad reappoints Halaqi as PM: state media
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reappointed Wael al-Halaqi as prime minister, state media reported on Sunday.
Nigeria opposition retains seat in peaceful governorship poll
OSOGBO Nigeria (Reuters) – Nigerians in southwestern Osun state peacefully re-elected an opposition governor on Sunday, raising hopes that next year’s national elections might also pass peacefully, after several past ones were marred by violence.
UK’s Cameron will lose election on ethnic minority vote: Muslim ex-minister
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives will lose next year’s election because they have neglected ethnic minority voters, Britain’s first Muslim cabinet minister, who last week resigned over the government’s Gaza policy, warned…
Exclusive: Iraq says Islamic State killed 500 Yazidis, buried some victims alive
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq’s human rights minister told Reuters on Sunday.
