Venezuela arrests seven in cocaine case of Berlusconi’s ex-aide
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan authorities have detained seven people, including four young workers at an airport cafe, in connection with the cocaine smuggling arrest of an ex-secretary to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Tensions rise in Lebanon as Syria extends control over border
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Lebanese army reopened a road between two towns near the Syrian frontier on Wednesday to try to calm sectarian rivalry that has been aggravated by a Syrian government campaign to tighten its grip on the border region.
U.S. NRC Commissioner Magwood to head OECD nuclear agency
(Reuters) – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner William Magwood is leaving the NRC to become Director General of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency, the NRC said in an email Wednesday.
UK police in Madeleine McCann case probe new intruder link
LONDON (Reuters) – British detectives investigating the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann said they were looking for a man suspected of carrying out a series of sexual assaults on young girls staying in Portuguese holiday villas between 2004 and 2…
German prosecutors probe firms for Syria chemical weapons links
BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government has asked federal prosecutors to examine whether German firms broke the law by exporting equipment to Syria during the 1980s and early 1990s that may have helped the country to develop chemical weapons.
Exclusive: The mysterious journey of the Libya oil tanker
TRIPOLI/LONDON (Reuters) – What began late last year as a routine new assignment for Pakistani sea captain Mirza Noman Baig ended in a dramatic night-time rescue as U.S. special forces seized the ship his family said he was forced to operate by Libyan …
Bulgarian sentenced to year in jail for spreading radical Islam
SOFIA (Reuters) – A Bulgarian man was sentenced to a year in jail on Wednesday for spreading radical Islam, in a case seen as a test for the delicate relations between the country’s minority Muslims and Orthodox Christian majority.
Niger fears contagion from Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists
DIFFA, Niger (Reuters) – A proverb in the Hausa language, spoken on both sides of the border between Niger and Nigeria, warns: “When your neighbor’s beard is on fire, fetch water and soak your own.”
Israel approves 184 new settlement homes
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Jerusalem municipality approved building plans on Wednesday for 184 new homes in two Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing anger from Palestinians engaged in faltering statehood talks.
Syrian rebels seize prison near Jordan and free inmates: activists
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebels seized a prison outside the city where Syria’s uprising began three years ago this month and freed dozens of inmates, activists said on Wednesday.
