Ivory Coast ex-rebel profiting from banned diamond trade: U.N. experts
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – A senior Ivory Coast army officer is breaking a diamond embargo and may be using profits to buy arms, U.N. experts have found, dealing a potentially embarrassing blow to government efforts to have the ban lifted.
Bahrain sentences 12 people for life for spying, Iran links
MANAMA (Reuters) – A Bahraini court has sentenced 12 men to life in prison for spying, receiving training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and processing weapons and explosives, a defense lawyer and rights activist said on Tuesday.
Syria’s chemical weapons wild card: chlorine gas
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Chlorine gas attacks in Syria this month, if proven, expose a major loophole in an international deal to remove chemical weapons from the war-torn country and suggest chemical warfare could persist after the removal operation has fin…
Urban hero takes on establishment in Colombia presidential race
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Enrique Penalosa, a jovial economist who made Colombia’s congested capital more tolerable when he was mayor in the 1990s, is bringing his urban smarts to the national scene, hoping to persuade voters he will bring peace and prosperit…
First PLO delegation since 2007 war arrives in Gaza for unity talks
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestine Liberation Organization delegates arrived in Gaza on Tuesday to discuss unity with militant group Hamas for the first time since their 2007 conflict, in a potential boost for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
South Sudan peace talks delayed as rebels deny massacre
NAIROBI/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – South Sudan peace talks were delayed again on Tuesday as United Nations peacekeepers battle to protect some 22,000 civilians at a base in Bentiu, where dead bodies lined the dusty streets after an ethnic massacre duri…
Libya starts voter registration for general elections
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya will start registering voters for general elections, officials said on Tuesday, in the first concrete step indicating a vote will take place later this year.
Italy to declassify documents on ‘Years of lead’ violence
ROME (Reuters) – Italy will declassify secret documents about terrorist bombings between the 1960s and 1980s during a period known as the “Years of lead”, the government announced on Tuesday.
Russia’s Putin wants beefed-up presence in Arctic
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia should step up its presence in the Arctic and challenge other nations in exploring the world’s largest untapped natural reserves, days after it started shipping its first oil from …
Israel must take on Palestinian governance if talks fail: Abbas
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Israeli journalists on Tuesday that if peace talks do not continue, Israel will have to take on the burden of governing Palestinian lands.
