Mexico scours for dozens missing amid floods as storms abate
LA PINTADA, Mexico (Reuters) – Rescuers cleared mud from shattered houses on Friday, searching for dozens of people missing after a mudslide flattened their village in southwest Mexico as some of the most destructive storms to hit the country in decade…
Child labor rising among Lebanon’s Syria refugees: UNICEF
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian refugees in Lebanon are becoming increasingly reliant on child labor to earn money for families now desperate to maintain basic necessities, the director of the United Nations children’s agency said.
Security forces hunt militants after storming town near Cairo
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian security forces were hunting for armed supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood on Friday after retaking control of a town near Cairo in a crackdown on Islamists.
Britain’s surging anti-EU party promises ‘earthquake’ at polls
LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s rising right-wing anti-EU party on Friday promised a political “earthquake” with victory in next year’s European elections, a challenge that could threaten David Cameron’s hopes of a second term as prime minis…
Death toll from Boko Haram attack rises to 143: Nigerian official
MAIDUGURI (Reuters) – The death toll from an Islamist militant assault on travellers along a road in northeast Nigeria has risen to 143, an official from the local branch of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday.
Nigerian forces raid building in Abuja, seven killed
ABUJA (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday in what security forces said was a shootout with Islamists, but witnesses at a hospital said was an attack on unarmed squatters.
Swazis vote in an election bound to keep king on top
NKHABA, Swaziland (Reuters) – For most Swazis, polling day serves only as a galling reminder of the entrenched poverty, inequality and suppression of human rights in a country run as King Mswati III’s personal fiefdom.
Pope message heralds change of tone on gays, abortion
VATICAN CITY/PARIS (Reuters) – A landmark interview by Pope Francis will force conservative members of the Catholic Church to re-calibrate how they deal with gays, abortion and contraception but is not expected to be the precursor to seismic changes in…
Merkel fights for majority in tight German election race
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel looked on track to win a third term in a weekend election in Germany but faced a battle to preserve her center-right majority and avert a potentially divisive coalition with her arch-rivals, the center-left S…
Russia’s Putin brings ‘grey cardinal’ Surkov back to Kremlin
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin named his former deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov as an aide on Friday, bringing back the creator of modern Russia’s tightly controlled political system just four months after he quit the government in …
