Taiwan’s Ma forces out speaker of parliament in lobbying scandal
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou forced out speaker of parliament, widely seen as the government’s second most powerful figure, over accusations of illegal lobbying on Wednesday, a move that could usher in a period of political instabil…
Crude in deadly Canadian crash was ‘violently’ explosive: newspaper
TORONTO (Reuters) – Investigators believe the crude oil aboard a Canadian train that derailed in the center of a small Quebec town in July, killing 47 people, was “violently” explosive and likely not correctly labeled, the Globe and Mail newspaper repo…
Muslim rebels display human shield tied by rope in southern Philippine standoff
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – Rogue Muslim rebels seeking to declare an independent state put a dozen civilians tied together by rope on display as a human shield on Wednesday as a standoff with security forces in a southern Philippine city e…
EU rejects Russian pressure on Ukraine, seeks trade ties
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – The European Union rejected on Wednesday Russian pressure to deter Ukraine and other former Soviet republics from deepening trade ties with Europe, saying any kind of retaliation was unacceptable.
Islamist rebels kill 12 Alawites in Syrian village: monitors
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group killed 12 members of the minority Alawite sect in central Syria after seizing their village, an opposition monitoring group said on Wednesday.
China ditches pointless awards in latest anti-waste push
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Wednesday that it will ditch 76 pointless official – and sometimes obscure – awards as it seeks to rein in waste and extravagance, part of President Xi Jinping’s crusade against pervasive corruption.
Israel to pay $1.1 million to family of “Prisoner X”
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will pay $1.1 million to the family of alleged Mossad spy Ben Zygier, a dual Australian-Israeli national who hanged himself in prison three years ago, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.
Blast damages Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – An explosion damaged a Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi, local officials said on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in the country’s second largest city.
Six killed in two blasts near army sites in Egypt’s Sinai
CAIRO (Reuters) – Six Egyptian army officers were killed on Wednesday in two car bomb explosions near military units in the Sinai Peninsula, close to the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a military statement said.
Bulgaria closes probe in Umbrella killing after 35 years
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria said on Wednesday it was closing its investigation into one of the most notorious assassinations of the late Cold War, the killing of exiled dissident Georgy Markov with the poisoned tip of an umbrella on London’s Waterloo Br…
