Tunisian diplomat kidnapped in Libyan capital
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – A Tunisian diplomat was kidnapped on Thursday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Libya’s foreign ministry said, days after gunmen seized Jordan’s ambassador.
Yemen’s foreign minister says will push donors for promised billions in aid
SANAA (Reuters) – The Yemeni foreign minister said on Thursday he would use a meeting in London this month to push donor countries to release billions of dollars in promised aid that Yemen desperately needs to address its ailing economy and volatile se…
Search for Malaysia jet refocuses on drone scans of sea floor
PERTH, Australia (Reuters) – Footage taken by a deep-sea drone should determine sooner than previously thought whether a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean is the final resting place of a missing Malaysian jetliner, Australian search authorities said o…
Syria negotiator says Homs once again a ‘theater of death’
BEIRUT (Reuters) – International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday that a deal between trapped fighters and civilians in Homs city and the Syrian authorities had broken down, as government forces appeared close to retaking the besieged oppositi…
India passes halfway mark in election with Hindu nationalists gaining strength
BANGALORE (Reuters) – India called a quarter of its 815 million voters to polls on Thursday, the biggest day of its staggered election, in areas ranging from Himalayan passes to a southern IT hub and western sugarcane farms.
German court sentences Somali pirate to 12 years for kidnapping
BERLIN (Reuters) – A German court sentenced a Somali asylum-seeker to 12 years in jail on Thursday, for his involvement in the pirate hijacking of a tanker in the Indian Ocean in 2010.
Students give Easter twist to dwindling Venezuela protests
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan students are marching barefoot, building crucifixes and planning to burn effigies of President Nicolas Maduro to try and breathe new life into their protest movement over Easter.
Jordanian jihadis returning from Syria war rattle U.S.-aligned kingdom
AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordanian Islamist Ahmad Mahmoud fought with rebels in Syria for six weeks earlier this year, then slipped back across the border to seek treatment for a war wound – even though the authorities had warned him not to return.
Taliban negotiator under house arrest in UAE, says Afghanistan
KABUL (Reuters) – A leading Taliban peace negotiator has been placed under house arrest in the United Arab Emirates, officials said on Thursday, dealing a blow to President Hamid Karzai’s efforts to jump-start a nascent Afghan peace process before leav…
Death toll from Guinea Ebola outbreak rises to 122
CONAKRY (Reuters) – The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in Guinea has risen to 122, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday, a sharp increase from a previous figure of 108.