South Africa graft watchdog to release Zuma report March 19
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s main anti-corruption watchdog said on Thursday it would release its report into a $21 million state-funded security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s private home on March 19, less than two months before a genera…
China apprehending boats weekly in disputed South China Sea
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese patrols enforcing disputed new fishing rules in the South China Sea are apprehending foreign boats on a weekly basis, Communist Party officials said on Thursday.
Germany offers fund to defuse Greek war reparation claims
ATHENS (Reuters) – German President Joachim Gauck dismissed Greek demands for compensation for Nazi-era crimes during a symbolic visit to Greece on Thursday, and instead offered to set up a new fund to remind Germans of their past.
Top Turkish court backs ex-army chief’s bid for release
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s constitutional court ruled on Thursday in favor of former military chief Ilker Basbug’s appeal against his detention on a life sentence for plotting against the government, saying his right to freedom had been violated.
Qatar ‘will not bow to pressure to alter foreign policy’
DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar will not bow to demands from three Gulf states to alter its foreign policy, sources close to its government said, suggesting Doha is unlikely to abandon support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Syrian Islamists.
Tunisia lifts state of emergency, three years after revolt
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia has lifted a state of emergency three years after it was imposed, in a largely symbolic move to show security is improving in the North African state.
Macedonia calls early parliamentary election for April 27
SKOPJE (Reuters) – Macedonia’s parliamentary speaker on Thursday scheduled an early national election for April 27, a day after lawmakers in the multi-ethnic coalition dissolved parliament after failing to agree on a candidate for president.
Bahrain and Iran trade accusations at U.N. rights forum
GENEVA (Reuters) – Bahrain accused Shi’ite Iran on Thursday of fomenting deadly violence in the kingdom, and a Tehran official accused the Sunni-ruled island state of torturing and imprisoning its critics.
Kunming attack shouldn’t be treated as ethnic issue: China official
BEIJING (Reuters) – A deadly knife attack at a Chinese train station last week should not be linked to ethnicity, a senior government official said, days after authorities blamed the incident on separatists from the country’s troubled far western regio…
France’s Sarkozy to sue over secret audio recordings: lawyers
PARIS (Reuters) – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni are to file a legal complaint over secret audio recordings made of them by an adviser during the 2012 election campaign, lawyers for the couple said on Thursday.
