Christian leaders urge churches to back Syria peace plan
PARIS (Reuters) – The World Council of Churches (WCC) urged its Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member churches on Thursday to lobby their congregations and national governments to support a political solution to the war in Syria.
Attacks on journalists threaten Yemeni freedoms-rights group
SANAA (Reuters) – Attacks on journalists in Yemen, including an unsolved murder, threaten to undermine gains in media freedoms as the U.S.-backed government enacts pro-democracy reforms, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
French pension reform leaves big drain on finances
PARIS (Reuters) – A planned French retirement reform will do little to cut the deficit in public-sector workers’ pensions, leaving a big drain on state finances, a government document showed on Thursday.
Swiss banker in Cahuzac case released from jail-bank lawyer
ZURICH (Reuters) – A former Geneva-based private banker who was a witness in a tax fraud probe into a French government minister has been released on bail by a Swiss prison, his former employer’s lawyer was quoted saying in a newspaper interview on Thu…
Analysis: Poker ace Santos must play smart Colombia re-election cards
BOGOTA (Reuters) – As a young business student at the University of Kansas, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos spent many a late night playing low-stakes poker and then invested his early winnings in shares of a pizza company.
Russia says no plans yet to destroy Syrian chemical arms on own soil
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has no current plans to destroy Syrian chemical weapons on its own territory under a Russia-U.S. deal to eliminate President Bashar al-Assad’s stockpiles, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday.
Vote in Sri Lanka’s north stirs Tamil calls for army to get out
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Voters in northern Sri Lanka go to the polls on Saturday in a provincial election that threatens to stir up old animosity between the government and ethnic minority Tamils.
Children find 10 handcuffed, blindfolded corpses in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Children discovered the handcuffed and blindfolded corpses of 10 unidentified young men in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, apparently killed by gunshots to the head, Iraqi police said.
Days before death, Pakistani ganglord vowed to protect Karachi turf
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Days before he was killed in a drive-by shooting in Karachi, one of Pakistan’s most feared men said he would rather see the city in ruin than give up control over his turf in the country’s volatile commercial capital.
Fourteen Alawites killed by bomb in central Syria: group
BEIRUT (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed at least 14 members of President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite on Thursday in the central Syrian province of Homs, an opposition monitoring group said.
