Russia amnesty could free Pussy Riot, benefit Greenpeace activists
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Two members of punk protest band Pussy Riot could be freed from prison and 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest could avoid jail under an amnesty proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, lawyers said on Tuesday.
U.N. plans first aid airlift to Syria from Iraq as winter grips
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations’ first relief airlift to Syria from Iraq will deliver food and winter supplies to the mostly Kurdish northeast this week with the permission of both governments, the UNHCR refugee agency said on Tuesday.
Disarray in India’s ruling party after poll drubbing
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Disarray within India’s ruling Congress party burst into the open on Tuesday after its stunning defeat in state elections, with a senior figure saying the party would lose a general election and needed time in opposition to reinve…
Maker of faulty French breast implants given four years in jail
MARSEILLE (Reuters) – The founder of a French breast implant company was sentenced to four years in prison by a Marseille criminal court on Tuesday for hiding the true nature of the sub-standard silicone used in implants sold to 300,000 women around th…
Dutch couple held hostage released in Yemen
SANAA (Reuters) – A Dutch couple held hostage in Yemen since June have been released in good health, the Yemeni and Dutch governments said on Tuesday.
Mexican lawmakers send energy reform bill to Senate floor
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s Senate on Tuesday moved a step closer to passing reforms to open up the country’s oil industry to private investment, sending a draft bill to the floor of the upper chamber to speed up the approval process.
Insight: Sweden rethinks pioneering school reforms, private equity under fire
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – When one of the biggest private education firms in Sweden went bankrupt earlier this year, it left 11,000 students in the lurch and made Stockholm rethink its pioneering market reform of the state schools system.
North Korea’s “reign of terror” worries South’s leader
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea is engaged in a purge amounting to a “reign of terror” that has claimed the scalp of the country’s second most powerful man and risks further damaging relations with the South, President Park Geun-hye said on Tuesday.
Rare Singapore riot forces soul searching over foreign workers
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s first major riot in four decades is forcing the wealthy island to confront a stubborn but vexing question: how to treat low-paid foreign workers whose muscle underpins much of the economy but whose presence increasingl…
China says U.S. has no right to comment on fate of activists
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday rebuffed an expression of concern by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the fate of two prominent Chinese dissidents, saying only the Chinese people had the right to talk about the country’s human rights.
