Hole in Afghan budget stirs unease as West starts packing bags
KABUL (Reuters) – A $375 million hole in the Afghan budget is threatening public projects and civil servants’ salaries, officials say, putting the aid-dependent economy under stress just as Afghanistan awaits a new leader and foreign troops prepare to …
Lebanese MPs fail to pick new president in first vote
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese parliamentarians failed to elect a new president in a first round of voting on Wednesday, with leading candidate Samir Geagea falling well short of the required two-thirds majority.
Pakistan TV channel under pressure from military after shooting
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Defence Ministry has demanded that a prominent news channel be suspended after it reported that the country’s powerful spy agency was behind the shooting of one of Pakistan’s most famous journalists, a media regulator s…
Australia, Malaysia vow to keep searching to solve plane mystery
PERTH, Australia (Reuters) – Australia and Malaysia vowed on Wednesday to keep searching for a missing Malaysian plane despite no sign of wreckage after almost seven weeks, and as bad weather again grounded aircraft and an undersea drone neared the end…
Netanyahu tells Abbas to choose peace partner: Hamas or Israel
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday over just-revived unity talks with Hamas, saying he had to choose between peace with Israel or its Islamist enemy.
Hong Kong and Philippines settle spat over 2010 bus tragedy
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong on Wednesday scrapped travel sanctions against the Philippines after Manila offered an apology and compensation for a hostage tragedy almost four years ago, settling a lengthy diplomatic spat between the two.
China says probing reports Chinese chlorine used in Syria attack
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it was investigating reports that a chlorine canister bearing the name of the country’s biggest arms maker was shown in footage believed to document a gas attack in Syria this month.
China urges renewed peace effort in South Sudan after massacre
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Wednesday urged renewed peace efforts in South Sudan after the United Nations said rebels slaughtered hundreds of civilians when they seized the South Sudan oil hub of Bentiu.
Pirates raid oil tanker off Malaysia, take away three crew
KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Armed pirates raided an oil tanker off the coast of Malaysia and took three crew members with them, Malaysian maritime officials said on Wednesday, underscoring increasing threats to shipping in one of the world’s bus…
China won’t swallow ‘bitter pill’ of ceding sovereign rights: military official
QINGDAO, China (Reuters) – China will not “swallow the bitter pill” of ceding its sovereign rights to others, a senior military official told foreign naval leaders on Wednesday, as the country takes an increasingly assertive approach to guarding its ma…
