Condition of former Israeli leader Sharon worsens
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The condition of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in a coma since 2006, has deteriorated sharply in recent hours and he is close to death, the hospital treating him said on Thursday.
Japan urges ‘hotline’ with China, plays down shrine visit
PARIS (Reuters) – Japan, at odds with China on territorial and other issues, took its case to Europe on Thursday, defending Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to a war shrine and reiterating its call for an emergency hotline between Tokyo and Beijing.
Tunisia’s premier resigns for caretaker government, protests hit south
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s Islamist Prime Minister Ali Larayedh resigned on Thursday to make way for a non-partisan caretaker government as part of a deal with his opponents to complete a transition to democracy.
Syria opposition holds first “unified” meet ahead of peace talks
CORDOBA, Spain (Reuters) – Disparate Syrian opposition groups, including several Islamist rebel representatives, met for the first time in the Spanish city of Cordoba to seek common ground ahead of peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s governmen…
Egyptian courts convict 113 over pro-Mursi protests
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian courts convicted 113 Muslim Brotherhood supporters on Thursday on charges including attacking police, rioting and weapons possession in three separate cases brought after protests against the army-backed government.
Belgium to let child killer accomplice go abroad to find new home
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The ex-wife and accomplice of Belgian child killer Marc Dutroux, whose crimes sparked mass protests from a shocked Belgian public, will be allowed to travel abroad with a view to finding a new home, a Belgian court has ruled.
U.N. strike stokes Palestinian refugee protests
JALAZOUN, West Bank (Reuters) – Residents of Palestinian refugee camps burnt tires and closed roads in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday in protests stemming from a month-long strike by the U.N. agency that operates the camps.
French court rules Kazakh dissident should be extradited
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (Reuters) – Dissident Kazakh Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank BTA, should be extradited from France to Ukraine or Russia, a French court ruled on Thursday.
Israeli military lifts veil on its Iran listeners
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Iranian-born immigrants to Israel are drafted to its military intelligence units in disproportionately large numbers, an official report said on Thursday, reflecting high demand for Farsi speakers to monitor the Jewish state’s arc…
Afghanistan to free all but 16 of 88 prisoners seen as threat by U.S.
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan has enough evidence to try only 16 of 88 prisoners that the United States considers a threat to security and plans to free the remaining detainees, the president’s spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
