Nordic, Baltic states face ‘new normal’ of Russian military threat
OSLO/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Fears of Russia re-asserting its Cold War dominance in the Baltic Sea are forcing countries there to re-think their defenses, prioritizing military spending at home and reducing participation in far-flung U.N. or U.S.-led mis…
China says Afghan president vows to help China fight extremists
BEIJING (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has pledged to help China fight Islamist extremists, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday, after Ghani met President Xi Jinping in Beijing on his first visit abroad since his September inaug…
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe skirts raging succession battle
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe opened parliament on Tuesday, steering clear of a succession struggle raging in his ZANU-PF party following his wife’s sensational attempt to force his deputy out of office.
Ukraine unlikely to receive IMF loan tranche this year: finance minister
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine is unlikely to receive a second tranche of a $17-billion loan program from the International Monetary Fund this year as expected, Finance Minister Oleksander Shlapak said on Tuesday, in the latest economic blow to the debt-ridd…
Ukraine unlikely to receive IMF loan tranche this year: finance minister
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine is unlikely to receive a second tranche of a $17-billion loan program from the International Monetary Fund this year as expected, Finance Minister Oleksander Shlapak said on Tuesday, in the latest economic blow to the debt-ridd…
China unveils legal reform plans, but says party to remain in control
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Communist Party pledged on Tuesday to speed up legislation to fight corruption and make it tougher for officials to exert control over the judiciary, even as it stressed full control over the courts.
Only Syrian opposition and peshmerga can save Kobani: Turkish PM
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey cannot be expected to send troops to defend the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani and only Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Syria’s own moderate opposition can save it, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Afghan forces prepare to fight alone as foreign troops leave
HELMAND/KANDAHAR AIR FIELD Afghanistan (Reuters) – On watch for a possible Taliban attack, Afghan forces on Tuesday patrolled the perimeter and manned guard towers of a vast military base deserted by U.S. and British forces in a volatile southern provi…
MH17 investigators still awaiting U.S., Russian intelligence reports
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch prosecutors are still awaiting U.S. intelligence reports on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 but American laws on passing on such information to criminal investigations are complicating the process, the Dutch gover…
Israel to buy 25 more F-35 Lockheed stealth fighters: sources
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel plans to buy a second batch of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter jets, bringing the total number it has on order to about 44, Israeli defence sources said on Tuesday.
