Crowds turn out for Nigerian vote seen as test case for 2015
ONITSHA Nigeria (Reuters) – Large crowds of voters gathered in Nigeria’s southwest Ekiti state on Saturday for a hotly contested local election that will be scrutinized for fairness and signs of violence ahead of next year’s national poll.
Pope condemns mob violence against children on trip to Italy’s south
CASSANO ALL’ JONIO Italy (Reuters) – Pope Francis, visiting a stronghold of one of Italy’s most dangerous crime groups, on Saturday comforted the jailed father of a three-year-old boy killed in an ambush and condemned mob violence against children.
Chinese police shoot dead 13 attackers in restive Xinjiang
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese police shot dead 13 attackers in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang on Saturday after they rammed a car into a police station and detonated explosives, Xinhua news agency said, in the latest of a series of attacks t…
Al Qaeda denies majority of its fighters in Yemen are foreigners
ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Islamist websites published an al Qaeda statement on Saturday denying claims by Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi about the vast majority of its members in the troubled country being foreigners.
Ferry sinking: South Korea closes net round family of most wanted man
SEOUL (Reuters) – The wife of South Korea’s most wanted man, a businessman linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds of school children drowned, was arrested on Saturday, prosecutors said, as the net tightens around the fugitive’s family.
Italian parties reach deal on Senate reform
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party (PD) has reached an accord with center-right parties over proposals to curtail the powers of the Senate, one of the key planks in a wider constitutional reform package….
Israel steps up West Bank search for missing teens
RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) – Israel sent more troops to the occupied West Bank on Saturday to search for three missing teenagers it says were abducted by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Egyptian court confirms death sentence on Brotherhood leader
CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian court on Saturday confirmed death sentences against the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and at least 182 of his supporters, judicial sources at the court told Reuters.
Iraqi militants take border post with Syria
ANBAR Iraq (Reuters) – Sunni fighters seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier overnight, security sources at the border said on Saturday, a strategic gain which will allow them to move heavy weapons between territory they control in both countr…
China urges peaceful development of seas, says conflict leads to “disaster”
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China, involved in a growing dispute with its neighbors over the energy-rich South China Sea, wants to promote peaceful development of the oceans, Premier Li Keqiang said, warning conflicts in the past had only brought “disaster fo…
