Former China mining boss denies charge of leading gang
BEIJING (Reuters) – A former Chinese mining magnate with suspected links to the eldest son of retired security tsar Zhou Yongkang has denied leading a 36-member gang on a crime spree of murder and gun-running over the past two decades.
Malaysia PM visits search base for missing jet; sub joins hunt
PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s prime minister visited the Australian search base for missing Flight MH370 on Thursday as a nuclear-powered submarine joined the near-four week hunt that has so far failed to find any sign of the missing airlin…
Reports of deaths at Chinese chemical protest false: state media
BEIJING (Reuters) – Reports that police killed 15 people and injured more than 300 during protests in southern China on Sunday are false, the website of the People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, reported on Thursday.
Guatemalan president eyes drug legalization proposal in late 2014
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemala could present a plan to legalize production of marijuana and opium poppies towards the end of 2014 as it seeks ways to curb the power of organized crime, President Otto Perez said on Wednesday.
Russia could achieve Ukraine incursion in 3-5 days
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russia has massed all the forces it needs on Ukraine’s border if it were to decide to carry out an “incursion” into the country, and it could achieve its objective in three to five days, NATO’s top military commander said on Wednes…
New Zealand tops social progress index, world’s biggest economies trail
LONDON, April 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – New Zealand came first in a global index published on Thursday that ranks countries by social and environmental performance rather than economic output in a drive to make social progress a priority for pol…
U.S. calls for end to humanitarian curbs in Myanmar’s Rakhine
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States called on Myanmar on Wednesday to lift travel restrictions on U.N. and other humanitarian staff to allow them to resume work in the country’s Rakhine State, which has been hit by ethnic and religious violence.
Suicide bomber kills six police at Afghan ministry ahead of vote
KABUL (Reuters) – A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside Afghanistan’s interior ministry in central Kabul on Wednesday, killing himself and at least six policemen, the latest in a string of attacks ahead of Afghanistan’s April 5 presidential …
Catholic Church blasts Venezuela for ‘brutal repression’ of protesters
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s Roman Catholic Church accused President Nicolas Maduro’s government on Wednesday of “totalitarian” tendencies and “brutal repression” of demonstrators during two months of political unrest that has killed several dozen p…
Almost 2 tons of cocaine seized off Puerto Rico coast
SAN JUAN (Reuters) – A 1.8 ton cocaine shipment worth an estimated $50 million that was thought to be destined for the U.S. market was seized off the coast of Puerto Rico, federal authorities said on Wednesday, in one of the largest drug busts there in…
