Ukraine’s Poroshenko talks tough ahead of meetings with Merkel, Putin
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday he would call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in pro-Russian separatists when the two men meet next week and told the Kremlin chief he had “a strong country, a strong ar…
Israeli air strike kills three Hamas commanders in Gaza
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel killed three senior Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip in an air strike on Thursday and said it would continue to target the group’s armed leadership after a ceasefire failed.
Thailand’s junta upbeat on economy, but not out of woods yet
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s junta wants to sell a positive story about its coup saving a troubled economy from recession, and while it seems to have business on board there is little evidence yet of a sustainable, broad-based recovery.
Ukraine border guards begin checks on Russian aid trucks
BORDER CROSSING POINT DONETSK Russia (Reuters) – Ukrainian border guards began on Thursday to inspect a Russian truck convoy carrying aid earmarked for humanitarian relief in eastern Ukraine that has been stranded at the frontier between the two former…
U.N. rights chief rebukes Security Council for failures to act
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Outgoing U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay rebuked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday for putting short-term geopolitical concerns and narrowly-defined national interests ahead of intolerable human suffering and grave breaches…
Kuwait releases detained cleric suspected of financing militants
KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwaiti authorities on Thursday released a prominent Sunni Muslim cleric they had detained the previous day after the United States put him on a sanctions list over suspicions he funded militants in Iraq and Syria, his lawyer told Re…
Turkish foreign minister set to be Erdogan’s new PM
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish president-elect Tayyip Erdogan named Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as his future prime minister on Thursday and said a power struggle with a U.S.-based cleric, a Kurdish peace process and a new constitution would be his to…
Rousseff, rivals change tack in Brazil’s reshaped election
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – When Brazil’s notoriously private President Dilma Rousseff showed up in her kitchen cooking pasta in a campaign TV ad this week, it was one of the clearest signs yet that the country’s October election is up for grabs.
‘Ambiguous warfare’ providing NATO with new challenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March, NATO has been publicly refocusing on its old Cold War foe Moscow. The threats it now believes it faces, however, are distinctly different to those of the latter half of the 20th century.
Iran says wants progress in nuclear talks before action on Islamic State
PARIS/DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran is ready to do something to help tackle Islamic State insurgents in Iraq but first wants progress in negotiations with world powers over its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was quoted as saying by Iranian medi…
