Sectarian genie is out of the bottle from Syria to Iraq
BEIRUT (Reuters) – As jihadists storm through the Sunni heartlands of Iraq towards Baghdad, where a Shi’ite government they regard as heretic clings on, they have lifted the veil on deep sectarianism which has also stoked the fires of Syria’s civil war and is spilling over into vulnerable mosaic societies such as Lebanon.
Eyes on defense deals, Western powers rush to court India’s Modi
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Western governments are rushing to visit India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, drawn by the prospect of multi-billion-dollar deals as the government prepares to open the nascent defense industry to foreign investment.
Ukraine’s Poroshenko: bustle and brio, but is he a match for Putin?
KIEV (Reuters) – Three weeks into his job, Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko looks like a man in a hurry.
Islamist rebels in Somalia kill three as Ramadan starts
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Islamist rebels shot dead three members of Somalia’s security forces in the capital on Sunday, police and witnesses said on the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month when insurgents had warned they would stage attacks.
ISIL crucifies eight rival fighters, says monitoring group
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Eight rebel fighters have been crucified in Syria by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) because they were considered too moderate, a monitoring group said on Sunday.
Indonesia’s presidential front-runner battles the puppet image
JAKARTA (Reuters) – When one of Indonesia’s most powerful politicians wanted to be part of a new government, he did not approach Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the front-runner in next week’s presidential election.
Hong Kong wraps up unofficial democracy poll in defiance of Beijing
HONG KONG (Reuters) – More than 780,000 votes were cast by Sunday, the final day of an unofficial referendum on democratic reforms in Hong Kong, part of a civil campaign that has been branded illegal by local and mainland Chinese authorities.
North Korea launches two missiles, defies U.N. ban
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into seas east off its coast on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, defying a U.N. ban on the isolated country testing such weapons.
Beijing to boost police gun training amid security threats
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will boost gun training for police in its capital Beijing, a senior security official said, as it braces for what it calls an upsurge in militant violence around the country.
Man sets himself on fire in Japan in defense protest: witnesses
TOKYO (Reuters) – A man in Japan set himself on fire at a busy intersection in Tokyo on Sunday in an apparent protest against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plans to ease limits of the country’s pacifist constitution, police and witnesses said.
