Russia bans all U.S. food, EU fruit and vegetables in sanctions response; NATO fears invasion
MOSCOW/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia will ban all imports of food from the United States and all fruit and vegetables from Europe, the state news agency reported on Wednesday, a sweeping response to Western sanctions imposed over its support for r…
Gaza ceasefire holds on second day, extension talks under way
GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) – A 72-hour Gaza truce held through its second day on Wednesday and Israel said it was ready to extend the deal as Egyptian mediators pursued talks with Israelis and Palestinians on an enduring end to a war that devastated the Hama…
Exclusive: U.S. to spend up to $550 million on African rapid response forces
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will announce on Wednesday plans to spend $110 million a year over the next three to five years to help African nations develop peacekeeping forces that can be rapidly deployed to head off militant threats and o…
Libyan Congress calls for U.N.-backed ceasefire to end clashes
BENGHAZI Libya (Reuters) – Libya’s newly elected House of Representatives on Wednesday called for an immediate ceasefire under United Nations supervision to end three weeks of clashes among rival armed factions that have killed more than 200 people.
South Sudan humanitarian aid operations are world’s largest: U.N.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The scale of humanitarian operations in South Sudan is now the largest in any single country and the world’s youngest nation is on the brink of catastrophe as a famine looms, the U.N. deputy peacekeeping chief said on Wednesd…
Suspected Boko Haram raid kills 10 in Cameroon: state radio
YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Suspected members of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram killed 10 people and kidnapped one in a raid on the village of Zigague in remote northern Cameroon on Wednesday, state radio reported.
Bomb wounds three in Lebanese city of Tripoli
TRIPOLI Lebanon (Reuters) – A bomb exploded in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Wednesday wounding three people, a security source said. Further details were not immediately available.
Security forces arrest Indian soldier who crossed river into Pakistan
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces arrested an Indian soldier after he crossed a river into Pakistan on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry in Islamabad said, potentially heightening tensions between the two nuclear armed riv…
French court rejects part of Hollande’s tax-cutting effort
PARIS (Reuters) – A top French court rejected a plank of President Francois Hollande’s economic reform package on Wednesday, just as a coalition partner threatened to quit the government in another spat over legislation.
Kurds, Islamic State clash near Kurdish regional capital
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil in northern Iraq on Wednesday in a change of tactics supported by the Iraqi central government to try to break the Islamists’ momentum.
