Exclusive: U.S. total of Syrian gas deaths could include bomb casualties – sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One of the most precise and dramatic details cited by the Obama administration as proof that Syrian forces used chemical weapons in an August 21 attack was the death toll, which an official U.S. government assessment put at 1,429…
High-stakes U.S.-Russian talks open, Syria to join chemical arms ban
GENEVA/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States and Russia began high-stakes talks on Thursday on Moscow’s plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons as Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban, but Secretary of State John Ke…
Cairo accuses Gaza’s Hamas of training Egyptian militants
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian state television accused Palestinian Hamas on Thursday of training Egyptian Islamists in how to carry out bombings, putting more pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood, ally of Hamas.
U.N. report may hint at source of Syria chemical weapons attack
UNITED NATIONS/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – U.N. chemical weapons investigators will not explicitly blame anyone in their forthcoming report on the August 21 poison gas attack in Syria, but diplomats say their factual reporting alone could suggest which side …
U.S. scolds North Korea on Yongbyon nuclear reactor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States scolded North Korea on Thursday over reports indicating the reclusive nation has restarted a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor, emphasizing that such a move would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
China navy chief says operational aircraft carrier a few years away
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Chinese navy is using its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, for training and testing and will decide on an operational carrier for the fleet after a few years of evaluation, Admiral Wu Shengli said on Thursday.
U.N. deployment of surveillance drone in Congo delayed to December
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The unprecedented deployment of an unarmed surveillance drone by U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been delayed several months due to procurement procedures, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Thursda…
Mr Clean catches China’s graft tigers by the tail
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Behind China’s aggressive drive to root out corruption is Wang Qishan, a historian-turned-economist who once felt so bad about getting free parking that he reportedly sent a colleague back to pay the fee.
Rape trial puts focus on India’s death penalty paradox
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian judge will announce on Friday whether four men should hang for fatally raping a young woman on a bus last December, in one of the biggest tests in years of India’s paradoxical attitude towards the death penalty.
U.S., Russia differ on military force as Syria talks open
GENEVA (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opened high-stakes talks on Thursday on disarming Syria’s chemical weapons programs, but differences emerged at the outset over U.S. military threats again…
