Syria opposition lays preconditions for peace talks
CAIRO (Reuters) – The Syrian opposition set terms on Sunday for attending peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, in a move that throws the proposed conference into further confusion after the international envoy said there should be no preconditions….
Syrian army and allies push into southern Damascus: activists
AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian army and Shi’ite Muslim fighters attacked Sunni rebel areas in southern Damascus on Sunday in an offensive aimed at breaking resistance to President Bashar al-Assad around the capital, activists said.
UK response to Snowden data ‘imperils press freedom’: rights groups
LONDON (Reuters) – The British government’s response to leaks of intelligence information by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has eroded human rights and press freedoms, rights groups said on Sunday.
South African mob burns, stones five to death in vigilante riot
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Five alleged criminals including a witch doctor were killed by an enraged South African mob in a township on Sunday, police said, the latest act of vigilantism in a country plagued with high rates of violent crime.
British minister says Islamic veil should be banned in courts
LONDON (Reuters) – Muslim women should be banned from wearing a veil when giving evidence in British courts, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister David Cameron’s government said on Sunday, arguing it was hard to judge someone’s testimony otherwise.
Berlin prosecutors investigate ex-Merkel ally who joined Daimler
BERLIN (Reuters) – Berlin prosecutors are investigating ex-German state minister Eckart von Klaeden over a potential conflict of interest after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s former ally joined carmaker Daimler as a lobbyist, a spokeswoman for the prosecut…
Kosovo vote, key to Serb integration, marred by violence, boycott
MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) – An election in Kosovo designed to help end years of de facto ethnic partition was marred by violence and intimidation by Serb hardliners on Sunday, undermining a fragile EU-brokered pact between the Balkan country and form…
Bahrain charges top opposition leader
MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain’s public prosecutor has charged the head of the main Shi’ite opposition group with insulting the interior ministry, state news agency BNA said on Sunday, in a move that could further unsettle the Gulf island state.
Britain scraps immigration bond plan after outcry, coalition split
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has scrapped a plan to force people from certain African and Asian countries to pay a cash bond in return for a visitor’s visa after it caused an outcry at home and abroad and exposed a rift in the governing coalition.
Mursi to go on trial as Egypt struggles for democracy
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, goes on trial on Monday under a security crackdown that has devastated his Muslim Brotherhood movement and raised concerns that the army-backed government is reimposing a police s…
