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.
Syrian car bomb kills at least 18, dozens wounded
BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least 18 people, including women and children, were killed by a car bomb that went off near a school in the village of Al-Kafat in central Syria on Thursday, a monitoring group said.
Philippines typhoon rebuilding may cost 50 pct more this year than estimated
MANILA (Reuters) – The cost of typhoon reconstruction this year could reach 138 billion pesos ($3.1 billion), more than 50 percent higher than initially estimated, as the Philippines seeks to build back better and put in safeguards for future disasters…
Thai anti-government protesters march, consumer confidence slumps
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Protesters trying to topple Thailand’s prime minister marched in Bangkok again on Thursday, testing support for a planned “shutdown” of the capital next week, and a survey showed consumer confidence slumped last month because of the…
Germany will help dispose of Syrian chemical weapons
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will help destroy Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons materials as part of an international disarmament program, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday.
Iran, big power nuclear talks hit snag on centrifuge research
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Negotiations between Iran and six world powers on implementing a landmark November deal to freeze parts of Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing some sanctions have run into problems over advanced centrifuge researc…
Japan aims to register 280 remote islands as national assets
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan is set to clarify the ownership of 280 remote islands in its territorial waters and register them as national assets, a move that could rile China and South Korea, which are engaged in territorial disputes with Tokyo.
