U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States does not expect Syrian rebels it plans to train to fight Islamic State militants to also take on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, but sees them as a crucial part of a political solution to end the war, the Asharq…
Egypt court detains rights activists at start of retrial
CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian judge ordered 21 democracy activists to be arrested on Monday at the start of their retrial for breaking a law against protests passed after the military ousted former President Mohamed Mursi last year.
Pistorius verdict, sentence facing appeal
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African prosecutors will appeal against the culpable homicide verdict and five-year jail sentence passed on Oscar Pistorius last week after public and legal criticism of the judge’s decision to absolve the track star of m…
Assad’s warnings start to ring true in Turkey
BEIRUT (Reuters) – When Sunni rebels rose up against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Turkey reclassified its protégé as a pariah, expecting him to lose power within months and join the autocrats of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen on the scrap heap of the “Arab Spring”.
Tunisian Islamists concede election defeat to secular party
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s Ennahda party, the first Islamist movement to secure power after the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolts, conceded defeat on Monday in elections that are set to make its main secular rival the strongest force in parliament.
At least seven killed in attack on Afghanistan court
KUNDUZ Afghanistan (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed in Afghanistan on Monday when a group of Taliban militants attacked a court in the northern city of Kunduz, officials and police said.
Last international forces airlifted from key base in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD Afghanistan (Reuters) – A fleet of planes and helicopters airlifted the last U.S. and British forces from a key base in southern Afghanistan on Monday, a day after the international coalition closed the massive facility and handed it…
Gunmen kill German citizen, kidnap another in southwest Nigeria
LAGOS (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked the vehicles of a German worker and sub-contractor for a construction company in southwest Nigeria’s Ogun state, shooting one dead and kidnapping the other, a senior security source said on Monday.
Egypt to step up military trials after Sinai attack
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt expanded the jurisdiction of military courts on Monday to try civilians accused of attacking state facilities or blocking roads, following some of the worst assaults on security forces since last year’s ousting of Islamist Presi…
Czech secret service sees ‘extremely high’ number of Russian spies
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Russia deployed an “extremely high” number of intelligence officers at its Czech embassy last year, the NATO member country’s secret service said in an annual report released on Monday.
