Indonesia pays nearly $2 million in ‘blood money’ to free maid in Saudi Arabia
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Migrants’ rights activists in Indonesia welcomed on Friday the government’s decision to pay $1.8 million to free one of its citizens on death row in Saudi Arabia, just days before she was to be executed for murdering her employer.
U.N. says Chadian soldiers killed 30 in Central African Republic attack
GENEVA (Reuters) – Chadian soldiers killed 30 civilians and seriously wounded more than 300 in an indiscriminate attack on a market on March 29 in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office said on Fri…
Czech PM backs aid for coal mine in row with coalition partner
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Friday the government must act to avoid a social crisis in the northeast of the country, where a planned coal mine closure threatens to put thousands out of work.
Egypt deports man lobbying against mass death sentences
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian authorities deported a rights campaigner hours after he flew in to deliver a petition against death sentences imposed on 529 supporters of deposed president Mohamed Mursi, the man and security officials said on Friday.
Security measures make Kandahar a ghost town ahead of Afghan vote
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Kandahar city, cradle of the Taliban insurgency, woke up a ghost town on Friday as police erected roadblocks as part of stringent security measures ahead of a presidential election that could mark Afghanistan’s first d…
China to close nearly two thousand small coal mines
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will close 1,725 small-scale mines with a total capacity of 117.48 million tonnes in 2014 as part of its programme to phase out low-quality coal production, its energy administration said on Friday.
Thai PM’s supporters head for huge Bangkok rally, rule out violence
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of Thai government supporters are expected to descend on Bangkok this weekend in a symbolic show of force after months of sometimes violent protests aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Hunt for Malaysian plane heads underwater to find black box
PERTH (Reuters) – The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in remote seas off Australia headed underwater on Friday, with a U.S. Navy high tech “black box” locator deployed for the first time as the battery life of the cockpit data recorde…
Ukraine must have real, not cosmetic, constitutional reform: Russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday Ukraine must carry out “real” rather than “cosmetic” constitutional reform and prove its independence from the West.
Man and myth collide as India’s Modi eyes final ascent to power
VADNAGAR, India (Reuters) – Narendra Modi spent his childhood in a modest three-room dwelling made of mud and brick nestled in a narrow, crowded lane in the western Indian town of Vadnagar.
