Early Zimbabwe vote raises fears of election chaos
HARARE (Reuters) – President Robert Mugabe’s rivals said on Wednesday the chaotic organization of early voting for soldiers and police showed Zimbabwe was not ready for a July 31 general election in which more than six million people are registered to …
Kerry says no U.S. rush to judgment on Egypt coup question
AMMAN (Reuters) – Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday there would be no hasty U.S. decision on whether Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s ouster constituted a coup, a determination that would affect U.S. aid for Cairo.
Egypt finance minister says IMF loan is ‘part of the solution’
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s finance minister said on Wednesday that an IMF loan was only “part of the solution” to the country’s problems and the new transitional government would have to draw up a plan that would start to fix the troubled economy.
Stray bullets from Syria kill two in Turkish border town
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – A man and a 15-year-old boy were killed by stray bullets shot from Syria into a Turkish border town, officials said on Wednesday. Turkish troops returned fire, in the most serious spillover of violence in weeks.
Captain of cruise liner disaster seeks new plea deal
GROSSETO, Italy (Reuters) – Lawyers for Francesco Schettino, captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner, will again request a plea deal in a trial over the disaster in which 32 people died, his defense said on Wednesday.
Italy PM Letta backs deputy over Kazakh deportation
LONDON (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta backed his deputy Angelino Alfano, who is under fire over the deportation of the wife of a dissident Kazakh oligarch, saying on Wednesday that a police report had shown he bore no responsibility fo…
Turkish agency warns of donor fatigue as Syria aid drops sharply
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – International aid for Syria has tailed off sharply in recent months with the conflict apparently slipping from people’s minds even as the humanitarian crisis deepens, Turkey’s IHH relief agency warned on Wednesday.
Obama’s U.N. nominee calls world body’s inaction on Syria a ‘disgrace’
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Samantha Power, President Barack Obama’s nominee as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the U.N. Security Council’s response to Syria’s civil war a “disgrace” on Wednesday at her confirmation hearing before the Senate F…
Czech parliament rejects early election plan
PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech lower house of parliament rejected a motion on Wednesday to dissolve itself and force an early election in September, setting up more months of political uncertainty.
Kerry urges Israel to ‘look hard’ at Arab peace initiative
AMMAN (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel on Thursday to consider carefully a 2002 Arab League peace initiative that it rejected in the past.
