Asia tensions simmer as Obama set to arrive in Tokyo
TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in a tense Asian region on Wednesday, faced with the delicate task of assuring Japan and other regional allies of America’s commitment to their defense without hurting Washington’s vital ties with a…
Egypt issues law barring challenges to state deals
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour on Tuesday approved a law that would restrict the right to challenge state business and real estate deals to only the government, its involved institutes and business partners, a presidency state…
Israel encouraging more Christians to join military service
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Tuesday it was stepping up efforts to encourage military enlistment by Christian Arab citizens, a community long closer to the larger Muslim minority in identifying with the Palestinians.
France says one of two hostages held in Mali probably dead
PARIS (Reuters) – A French man kidnapped two years ago in Mali by an al Qaeda-linked group is probably dead, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday after the insurgents said they had killed him.
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…
