Rousseff puts Cardoso, 83, at core of Brazil’s election battle
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Under pressure in Brazil’s closest election race in decades, President Dilma Rousseff is centering her campaign around a familiar bogeyman – an 83-year-old former president associated with a more turbulent, elitist era.
Sudan’s Popular Congress Party to boycott 2015 election
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – One of Sudan’s main opposition parties will boycott elections set for April because a lack of democracy will not allow a fair vote, a senior party official said on Monday, diminishing the credibility of the ballot.
French tourists avoid Tunisia after traveler’s beheading in nearby Algeria
BERLIN (Reuters) – Tunisia lost about a third of its French tourist bookings to cancellation shortly after the beheading last month of a French traveler by Islamist militants in neighboring Algeria, the country’s tourism minister said on Monday.
More Bangladeshis found in Thailand on human trafficking route
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai police found scores of sick and exhausted boat people hiding on a remote island on Monday, and all but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh, according to local officials.
Cyclone kills 24 in east India, sparks fears of floods
VISAKHAPATNAM India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The death toll from a powerful cyclone which battered India’s eastern coastline rose to 24 on Monday, as the storm weakened and moved inland, leaving a swathe of destruction and triggering fears heavy …
U.N. chief demands Israel scrap East Jerusalem settlement plan
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel on Monday to scrap plans to expand settlements in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state, and urged both sides to return rapidly to peace talks….
Taliban ambush in Afghan north, bombs in capital and elsewhere kill 25
KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents ambushed a convoy of Afghan security forces in a mountainous northern area on Monday, killing 22 soldiers and police, an official said, as bombs in Kabul and another area killed three.
Sri Lanka re-opens rail link to former war zone after 24 years
JAFFNA Sri Lanka (Reuters) – More than two decades after its destruction in Sri Lanka’s civil war, the rail link between the capital Colombo and the northern city of Jaffna re-opened on Monday amid hopes that it will give a boost to reconciliation effo…
Lebanon to postpone parliamentary poll to 2017: minister
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon is set to postpone next month’s parliamentary elections to 2017 because instability linked to the Syrian crisis has made it impossible to hold a nationwide poll, a government minister said on Monday.
More Bangladeshis found in Thailand on human trafficking route
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai police found scores of sick and exhausted boat people hiding on a remote island on Monday, and all but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh, according to local officials.




