Libyan warplanes strike Islamist militias in Benghazi
BENGHAZI Libya (Reuters) – Libyan warplanes bombed militia bases in Benghazi on Wednesday as part of a renegade former general’s campaign to purge the chaotic North African state of Islamist militants, witnesses and officials said.
South Africa mines minister vows to break strike deadlock
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Deadlock in South Africa’s crippling 18-week platinum strike will soon be broken after movement made on both sides of the wage dispute, the country’s new mines minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi declared on Wednesday.
French court backs extradition of ex-policeman to Argentina over ‘dirty war’
PARIS (Reuters) – A Paris appeals court ruled on Wednesday in favor of extraditing a French-Argentine dual citizen wanted by Argentina for crimes against humanity during its 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
EU’s Balkan citizens take anti-immigrant vote in their stride
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Britons have a right to worry if Romanians move in next door, or so says the man who triumphed in European Parliament elections. But despite such hostility, Romanians themselves still cherish the European Union as their best chanc…
Turkish mine disaster highlights gaps in safety regulation
SOMA/ISTANBUL/LONDON (Reuters) – Taner Yildirim was never surprised when safety inspectors turned up at the Soma mine in eastern Turkey, where 301 miners were killed this month just weeks after inspectors gave it a clean bill of health. He said he alwa…
Tens of thousands of Syrians abroad vote in early poll
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Refugees waved flags and held pictures of Bashar al-Assad as they crushed into Damascus’s embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday to join Syrians worldwide voting early in an election that looks certain to give him a third seven-year term as…
Afghan leader praises U.S. move to withdraw all troops by 2016
KABUL (Reuters) – Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed a U.S. decision to withdraw all troops by the end of 2016, saying on Wednesday that this should give the Taliban a reason to end their insurgency and negotiate with the next government.
EU sends soldiers to help in relief operations after Bosnia floods
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Around 400 soldiers from Austria, Slovakia and the United Kingdom will join the EU peacekeeping mission in Bosnia this week to help conduct relief operations after the worst floods in living memory hit the country, EUFOR said on We…
Poland pitches for EU’s top diplomat role
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland on Wednesday put forward its foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, for the job of the European Union’s top diplomat.
Obama says U.S. to boost support to Syrian opposition groups
WEST POINT N.Y. (Reuters) – In a major foreign policy address on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said he will work with Congress to ramp up U.S. support for Syrian opposition groups that are the best alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.
