Hollande, Merkel urge Putin to broker Ukraine ceasefire
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday to encourage separatists in eastern Ukraine to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities, the French president’s …
Head of U.N. Congo peacekeepers regrets failing to stop massacre
KINSHASA (Reuters) – The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has said he is sorry his forces reacted too slowly to prevent a massacre in the east of the country in June.
U.S. wants sharp reduction of Iran’s enrichment capacity: official
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran must drastically reduce its capacity to enrich uranium if it wants to reach a nuclear deal with six world powers that would lead to a gradual lifting of the crippling international sanctions on Tehran, a senior U.S. official sai…
Saudi Arabia deploys 30,000 soldiers to border with Iraq: al-Arabiya TV
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers abandoned the area, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said on Thursday, but Baghdad denied this and said the frontier remained under its full control.
Eyeing comeback, Sarkozy comes out fighting after legal blow
PARIS (Reuters) – Unsmiling, with clenched fists and a set jaw, Nicolas Sarkozy found himself yet again in the stance that has so often marked his political career – his back to the wall.
Dutch killer Van der Sloot sets date for prison wedding
LIMA (Reuters) – Dutch citizen Joran Van der Sloot will marry his pregnant Peruvian girlfriend on Friday in prison, where the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway is serving a 28-year sentence for a separate murd…
Turkish high-speed train crashes on test drive
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s long-awaited high-speed rail link between Istanbul and Ankara suffered a setback on Thursday when a test train crashed only days before its official opening by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Costa Concordia wreck set to be refloated in 10 days
ROME (Reuters) – The wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner is set to be refloated within 10 days, to be towed away from the Italian island where it ran aground and capsized two and a half years ago, the group organising the removal said on Thursday…
Rescuers close in on three trapped Honduran miners, eight still missing
SAN JUAN ARRIBA Honduras (Reuters) – Rescuers labored with pickaxes and shovels to dig out 11 miners trapped by a landslide at a small gold mine in southern Honduras, and are close to reaching three of the workers, officials said on Thursday.
Islamic State seizes oil field and towns in Syria’s east
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Militants from the Islamic State group seized control of Syria’s largest oil field from rival Islamist fighters on Thursday, strengthening its advance across the eastern Deir al-Zor province, an opposition monitoring group said.
