South Africa’s metal workers, employers ‘not far’ from wage deal: union official
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Striking engineering and metal workers and employers are “not very far from each other” on a wage deal to end a four-day walkout, the General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said on Frida…
Malaysian police make new arrests of suspected Sri Lankan Tamil activists
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian police said on Friday they had arrested four foreign nationals suspected of having links to Sri Lanka’s defeated separatist Tamil Tigers, the second such detention aimed at the group’s militants in the southeast Asian…
Thai junta compares its intervention to Myanmar’s 1988 crackdown
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s military on Friday compared its seizure of power in May to restore stability after months of unrest to the brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s former junta in 1988 to snuff out a pro-democracy movement.
Iraqi Kurdish president asks parliament to prepare for independence vote
ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) – The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament on Thursday to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence, signaling his impatience with Baghdad, which is fighting to repel Sunni insurgents and struggling to…
Phones, shoes to face scrutiny as airport security tightened: U.S.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Airlines with direct flights to the United States have been told to tighten screening of mobile phones and shoes in response to intelligence reports of increased threats from al Qaeda-affiliated militant groups, U.S. officials sa…
U.N. decries reports Australia handing Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka
SYDNEY/COLOMBO (Reuters) – The United Nations has expressed “profound concern” about Australia’s handling of asylum seekers amid reports that scores of Sri Lankans will be handed over to their country’s navy after only a brief assessment by Australian …
Myanmar police arrest five as calm returns to Mandalay after riots
MANDALAY Myanmar (Reuters) – Police in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, said they had arrested another five people after sectarian violence in which a Buddhist and a Muslim died, but an overnight curfew and a heavy security presence appeared to…
Turkey turns inwards as war spreads from Syria to Iraq
ANKARA (Reuters) – As al Qaeda-inspired Sunni militants spread right along Turkey’s southeastern border last month from Syria through Iraq, seizing Turkish hostages as they went, the normally loquacious Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had little to say.
Thieves in Mexico steal truck with dangerous radioactive load
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Thieves in central Mexico on Thursday stole a pick-up truck carrying dangerous radioactive material, authorities said.
China’s top paper dismisses fears Hong Kong autonomy being eroded
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top newspaper on Friday dismissed fears that the autonomy of the former British colony of Hong Kong was being eroded, saying Beijing’s policy had not and would not change, following mass pro-democracy protests earlier in the…
