Tunisia guards fire in air to disperse crowds at Libya border
RAS JDIR Tunisia (Reuters) – Tunisian guards shot into the air and fired tear gas on Friday to stop a group of Egyptians from storming across the border with Libya after fleeing violence in Tripoli, a Reuters reporter said.
Gas blast in Taiwan kills 25, injures 267, topples buildings
KAOHSIUNG Taiwan (Reuters) – A series of explosions caused by a gas leak killed 25 people and injured 267 in Taiwan’s second city on Friday, sending flames shooting 15 storeys into the air, setting ablaze entire blocks and reducing small shops to rubbl…
Court rejects request to arrest Kremlin critic Navalny
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court on Friday rejected a request by the prosecutor’s office and the prison service to issue an arrest warrant for anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny on suspicion of violating his house arrest terms.
India’s Congress slams book challenging party chief Sonia Gandhi
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Revelations in a new book by former Congress Party stalwart K. Natwar Singh have put Sonia Gandhi on the defense this week, in the latest challenge to her leadership of the embattled party and India’s foremost political dynasty.
Chinese provincial agency may have confirmed secret long-range missile
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese provincial department appeared to have inadvertently confirmed the existence of an intercontinental ballistic missile that may be able to carry several nuclear warheads and travel as far as the United States.
Nine months on, Philippines plans $3.9-bln effort to relocate typhoon Haiyan victims
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines will spend 170 billion pesos ($3.89 billion) to rehouse some 200,000 families displaced by last year’s super typhoon Haiyan that killed 6,100 people, the government said in a masterplan released on Friday.
Kenyan president orders government to repossess contested land on volatile coast
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the government to repossess large areas of land in Lamu County, which has been hit by recent attacks, saying land grabbing was helping fuel instability on the north coast.
Islamic State imposes media controls in Syrian province
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State, the al Qaeda splinter group which has seized parts of Syria and Iraq, has told activists in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province they must swear allegiance to it and submit to censorship, a monitoring group said on Friday.
Pakistan widows, ‘second’ wives flee fighting but are denied aid
BANNU Pakistan (Reuters) – Thousands of women displaced by fighting in Pakistan are struggling to get food and other aid because they lack identity cards and conservative Muslim elders have forbidden them from going to distribution centers.
Western sanctions do not help to de-escalate Ukraine crisis: Russian official
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Western sanctions against Russia are not helping to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, state-run Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russia’s envoy to the European Union as saying on Friday.
