Advancing Iraq rebels seize northwest town in heavy battle
MOSUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Sunni insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on Sunday after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq.
Rio police stop protesters from reaching World Cup arena
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Police blocked a small group of anti-World Cup protesters who were trying to reach the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, before Argentina played Bosnia in the city’s first game of the tournament.
Colombia’s Santos wins re-election, to continue peace talks
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won a second term on Sunday with an election victory that allows him to continue peace talks with Marxist guerrillas to end a half-century war.
Israel says Hamas militants behind abduction of three teens
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Sunday that Hamas militants had abducted three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank, warning of “serious consequences” as it pressed on with a search and detained dozens of Palestinians.
Fewer bombs, but nuclear states ‘determined’ to keep arsenals: SIPRI
VIENNA (Reuters) – Nuclear-armed states are modernizing their arsenals and appear determined to keep sizable numbers of such weapons of mass destruction for the foreseeable future, the SIPRI think-tank said in its annual report on Monday.
Colombians vote for president who will decide fate of peace talks
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombians were voting on Sunday in the tightest presidential election in decades, a contest that will decide if the nation moves ahead on peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels or step up its battlefield offensive to end a 50-year war…
Sri Lankan minister briefly trapped by ethnic clashes
COLOMBO (Reuters) – A Sri Lankan government minister had to be rescued by police on Sunday after being trapped by ethnic violence between Buddhists and Muslims, officials and residents said.
Unidentified gunmen hit hotels, petrol, police station at Kenya’s coast: police
MOMBASA Kenya (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen attacked a coastal town in Kenya’s Lamu county and set fire to at least three hotels and a petrol station on Sunday evening, police and the Kenya Red Cross said.
Renegade general launches offensive in east Libya, up to 12 killed
BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI Libya (Reuters) – A renegade Libyan general launched a fresh offensive on Sunday against Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi, sparking some of the worst fighting in weeks, with up to 12 people killed and power supplies d…
NATO says not to blame for planes vanishing from radar
LONDON (Reuters) – NATO said on Sunday it was not to blame for recent incidents in which dozens of aircraft briefly vanished from air traffic control radar screens in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
