Italy minister faces more pressure over Kazakh case
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta defended his interior minister from growing calls for him to resign over the expulsion of a dissident Kazakh oligarch’s wife and daughter, as pressure on his fragile coalition mounted on Wednesday.
Guinea deploys troops as 17 killed in ethnic clashes
CONAKRY (Reuters) – Guinea deployed security forces to towns in the southeast on Wednesday in a bid to stem three days of ethnic violence in the West African country in which at least 17 people have been killed, officials said.
Russian protest leader wins one battle, faces another
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny won a rare victory on Wednesday by being accepted as a candidate in a Moscow mayoral election which he sees as a stepping stone to challenging Vladimir Putin for the presidency.
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.
