Tired rescue workers pause in search for bodies in Quebec blaze
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Exhausted Canadian police and firefighters prepared to break off work for the night on Friday after using steam machines to melt thick ice encasing the bodies of elderly people who died in a retirement residence fire.
Peru clears former government leaders after probe of forced sterilizations
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru has closed an inquiry into whether former president Alberto Fujimori and his cabinet members forcibly sterilized thousands of indigenous women as part of a birth control campaign that targeted the rural poor.
Iraq politician warns elections may further alienate Sunnis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The speaker of Iraq’s parliament warned on Friday that upcoming elections might be used to further marginalize already-frustrated Sunni Muslims, who have chafed against what they call unfair treatment from the country’s Shi’ite p…
Secretary of State Kerry rejects notion U.S. is disengaging from world
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed on Friday as “a myth” suggestions that the United States was withdrawing from world affairs.
Chile’s president-elect chooses old faces for new cabinet
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean President-elect Michelle Bachelet named the cabinet of ministers who she hopes will help her pass a planned program of wide-reaching reforms, with little in the way of surprises among the key posts.
Egyptian diplomat kidnapped in Libyan capital
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen kidnapped an Egyptian diplomat in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday, officials said, hours after a powerful Libyan militia reported the arrest of its leader in Egypt.
Bombing wave hits Egypt amid fear of more violence
CAIRO (Reuters) – A wave of bomb attacks targeting police hit Cairo on Friday, killing six people on the eve of the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak and raising fears that an Islamist insurgency is gaining pace in E…
Nigeria sets presidential, legislative polls for February 14, 2015
ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s electoral commission declared on Friday that presidential and parliamentary elections would take place on February 14 next year.
Khodorkovsky associate Lebedev freed after Russian court ruling
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s business partner Platon Lebedev walked free on Friday after more than 10 years in prison, following in his better-known associate’s footsteps after the Russian Supreme Court shortened his sent…
Medical charity in Myanmar says treated wounded near site of alleged massacre
YANGON (Reuters) – Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Friday it had treated 22 people in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state who had apparently been wounded last week around the time of a reported massacre of Rohingya Muslims. The government …
