German defense crisis puts potential Merkel successor in hot seat
BERLIN (Reuters) – Ursula von der Leyen, whose ambitions of succeeding Angela Merkel are too transparent for German taste, is finding out the hard way why her job as defense minister is considered the most dangerous in the cabinet, nicknamed the ‘eject…
Kenya sentences two Iranians for using fake Israeli passports
NAIROBI (Reuters) – A Kenyan court on Wednesday ordered two Iranians held under anti-terrorism laws to serve two years in jail or pay a hefty fine after they pleaded guilty to using fake Israeli passports to enter the East African country last month.
Heavyweight South African state union demands 15 percent pay rise
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s top public health worker union said on Wednesday it wanted a 15 percent across-the-board wage increase and would begin a series of protest marches over poor government services this week.
An environmentalist’s calculated push toward Brazil’s presidency
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – In March 2003, three months into her tenure as Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva gathered a half-dozen aides at the modernist ministry building in Brasilia, the capital.
Coalition jets strike Islamic State near Turkish border: Kurdish sources
MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) – U.S.-led forces launched air strikes on Islamic State fighters who are besieging a Kurdish town near the Syrian border with Turkey on Wednesday, Kurdish sources in the town and a monitoring group said, a rare daylight coa…
At least 10 people killed in shelling on and near school in Ukraine’s Donetsk: city authorities
DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) – At least 10 people were killed on Wednesday when shells hit a school playground and a mini-van in a nearby street in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, city authorities and Reuters witnesses said.
Britain drops terrorism charges against vocal ex-Guantanamo inmate
LONDON (Reuters) – A British man who was once held at Guantanamo Bay will be freed from prison, police said on Wednesday, after prosecutors dropped accusations that he had attended a terrorism training camp in Syria a week before he was due to go on tr…
Taliban bomb Afghan army vehicles in Kabul, seven dead
KABUL (Reuters) – Two Taliban suicide bombers carried out separate attacks on Afghan army vehicles in Kabul on Wednesday, killing seven people and injuring 19, the government said, a day after Afghanistan signed security deals with NATO and the United …
Gunmen wound Saudi policeman in Shi’ite Muslim stronghold: agency
DUBAI (Reuters) – Gunmen shot and wounded a Saudi policeman in the eastern part of the kingdom, state news agency SPA reported late on Tuesday, in an attack that highlights the volatile situation in the area ahead of the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage.
Russia sees chance of six-party talks on North Korea resuming
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with North Korea’s foreign minister on Wednesday that he saw a possibility of six-party talks resuming on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme but that it would take time.
