Abe heads to Australia after step back from post-war pacifism
TOKYO (Reuters) – A week after loosening curbs on Japan’s military, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe heads to Australia to bolster security ties and conclude a defence industry agreement that may help seal a deal to build Australia a fleet of stealth submarin…
Myanmar Buddhists threaten death to Muslims in Mandalay unrest
MANDALAY Myanmar (Reuters) – Hundreds of Buddhists threatened to kill Muslims as they rode on motorcycles through Myanmar’s second-largest city of Mandalay on Friday, raising the prospect of further communal violence after two people died in unrest ear…
South Africa’s metal workers, employers ‘not far’ from wage deal: union official
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Striking engineering and metal workers and employers are “not very far from each other” on a wage deal to end a four-day walkout, the General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said on Frida…
Malaysian police make new arrests of suspected Sri Lankan Tamil activists
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian police said on Friday they had arrested four foreign nationals suspected of having links to Sri Lanka’s defeated separatist Tamil Tigers, the second such detention aimed at the group’s militants in the southeast Asian…
Thai junta compares its intervention to Myanmar’s 1988 crackdown
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s military on Friday compared its seizure of power in May to restore stability after months of unrest to the brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s former junta in 1988 to snuff out a pro-democracy movement.
Iraqi Kurdish president asks parliament to prepare for independence vote
ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) – The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament on Thursday to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence, signaling his impatience with Baghdad, which is fighting to repel Sunni insurgents and struggling to…
Phones, shoes to face scrutiny as airport security tightened: U.S.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Airlines with direct flights to the United States have been told to tighten screening of mobile phones and shoes in response to intelligence reports of increased threats from al Qaeda-affiliated militant groups, U.S. officials sa…
U.N. decries reports Australia handing Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka
SYDNEY/COLOMBO (Reuters) – The United Nations has expressed “profound concern” about Australia’s handling of asylum seekers amid reports that scores of Sri Lankans will be handed over to their country’s navy after only a brief assessment by Australian …
Myanmar police arrest five as calm returns to Mandalay after riots
MANDALAY Myanmar (Reuters) – Police in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, said they had arrested another five people after sectarian violence in which a Buddhist and a Muslim died, but an overnight curfew and a heavy security presence appeared to…
Turkey turns inwards as war spreads from Syria to Iraq
ANKARA (Reuters) – As al Qaeda-inspired Sunni militants spread right along Turkey’s southeastern border last month from Syria through Iraq, seizing Turkish hostages as they went, the normally loquacious Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had little to say.
