U.S. Secretary of State makes unannounced visit to Kabul for talks with Karzai
KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Afghanistan on Friday to advance negotiations with President Hamid Karzai on a bilateral security pact which have hit a wall over two issues that have become deal breakers for the Afghan g…
Immigration dispute shows fault lines in Italy’s 5-Star
ROME (Reuters) – The leader of Italy’s 5-Star Movement has criticized party lawmakers for what he says is their lax stance on immigration, an issue that threatens to divide the party that took a quarter of votes in February’s deadlocked elections.
Nigeria’s Lagos set to turn vast trash into scarce power
LAGOS (Reuters) – One thing Nigeria’s megacity of Lagos, one of the world’s largest, generates in abundance is trash. Now it plans to turn that rubbish into electricity which the city desperately lacks.
U.N. urges Iraq to halt executions seen breaching international law
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations called on Iraq on Friday to halt all executions after 42 people were hanged this week in what it said were most probably illegal mass executions ordered by Baghdad’s “seriously flawed” justice system.
Car bomb at Swedish consulate in Libya’s Benghazi, no casualties
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – A car bomb exploded outside the Swedish consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, damaging the front of the building and nearby houses, but no casualties were immediately reported.
Turkish spending plans not an ‘election budget’: finance minister
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s government will not overspend next year in the run-up to a series of elections, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek promised on Friday.
African Union runs critical eye over International Criminal Court
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a “political instrument”, Ethiopia’s foreign minister said on Friday, opening a meeting at which Africa will review its ties with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal.
Russia refuses to bail two Britons held for Greenpeace protest
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Two Britons held in Russia for a Greenpeace protest were ordered to remain in pre-trial detention on Friday, a defeat for the first of the many foreigners among the 30 detainees to seek bail.
China criticizes U.S. for giving tacit backing to Philippines in sea dispute
BEIJING (Reuters) – China criticized U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday for giving tacit backing to the Philippines’ stance in a tense maritime dispute, stressing again that it rejects Manila’s attempt to seek arbitration.
Lebanese risk everything in perilous exodus from poverty
QABBAIT, Lebanon (Reuters) – Hussein Khodor sold his small poster shop in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli to pay the $80,000 cost of smuggling him and his family to Australia where he hoped to build a better life.
