Syria car bomb near Iraq kills at least 8: monitoring group
BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least eight people were killed on Saturday when a car bomb exploded in a market in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, a monitoring group said.
Finnish conservatives set to pick country’s next PM
LAHTI Finland (Reuters) – Finland’s ruling conservative party prepared to elect a new leader on Saturday who will take over from Jyrki Katainen as the country’s prime minister and contest a general election due in April 2015.
Israel reinforcing West Bank troops to search for three teens
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is significantly reinforcing its troop deployment in the occupied West Bank to search for three Israeli teenagers who it believes were abducted by Palestinians, a military source said on Saturday.
Voting begins in Afghanistan’s presidential election run-off
KABUL (Reuters) – The final round in Afghanistan’s presidential election began at 7 a.m. (10.30 p.m. ET) on Saturday as voters headed for the polls to pick a successor to President Hamid Karzai who has been in power since the U.S.-led invasion ousted t…
Iraqi military breakdown fueled by corruption, politics
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Iraqi army that disintegrated under an onslaught by Islamist fighters this week was a hollow force, riven by corruption, poor leadership and sectarian splits – a shadow of the military Washington had hoped to leave in the war…
Taliban changing from religious group to criminal enterprise: U.N.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Taliban’s reliance on extortion and kidnappings, along with narcotics and illegal mining operations, is transforming it from a group driven by religious ideology into a criminal enterprise hungry for profit, U.N. sanction…
Obama faces limited options in Iraq crisis, doubts over air strikes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two and a half years after President Barack Obama disentangled America from a long, unpopular war in Iraq, his options for helping the Iraqi government stave off a militant onslaught are slim as doubts simmer over whether even pu…
Obama sticks to measured approach on Iraq, defying critics
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he built his reputation as an anti-war candidate by disparaging U.S. involvement in Iraq, adamantly insisting: “It’s time to end this war.”
Ukrainian forces reclaim port city from rebels
MARIUPOL Ukraine (Reuters) – The Ukrainian flag fluttered over the regional government headquarters in the strategic port city of Mariupol on Friday after government forces reclaimed the city from pro-Russian separatists in heavy fighting and said they…
China says will never send military to oil rig spat with Vietnam
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese official said on Friday that China will never send military forces to the scene of an increasingly ugly spat with Vietnam over an oil rig in the South China Sea and accused Hanoi of trying to force an international lawsuit…
