China ditches pointless awards in latest anti-waste push
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Wednesday that it will ditch 76 pointless official – and sometimes obscure – awards as it seeks to rein in waste and extravagance, part of President Xi Jinping’s crusade against pervasive corruption.
Israel to pay $1.1 million to family of “Prisoner X”
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will pay $1.1 million to the family of alleged Mossad spy Ben Zygier, a dual Australian-Israeli national who hanged himself in prison three years ago, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.
Blast damages Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – An explosion damaged a Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi, local officials said on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in the country’s second largest city.
Six killed in two blasts near army sites in Egypt’s Sinai
CAIRO (Reuters) – Six Egyptian army officers were killed on Wednesday in two car bomb explosions near military units in the Sinai Peninsula, close to the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a military statement said.
Bulgaria closes probe in Umbrella killing after 35 years
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria said on Wednesday it was closing its investigation into one of the most notorious assassinations of the late Cold War, the killing of exiled dissident Georgy Markov with the poisoned tip of an umbrella on London’s Waterloo Br…
Iran’s Khamenei hopeful new U.S. policy on Syria is ‘serious’
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday he hoped that a U.S. promise to pursue diplomacy to remove the threat of chemical weapons in Syria was “serious”, the state news agency IRNA reported.
China cool on French U.N. proposal for Syria weapons
BEIJING (Reuters) – China responded coolly on Wednesday to a French draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council to control Syria’s chemical weapons, saying any decisions must be based on consensus and promote a peaceful resolution.
Myanmar Buddhist committee bans anti-Muslim organizations
YANGON (Reuters) – A government-appointed body that oversees Myanmar’s Buddhist monkhood has issued a directive intended to check the influence of a monk-led movement accused of stoking violence against minority Muslims.
EU’s Barroso warns Europe not to derail fragile recovery
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on the EU on Wednesday to cement its fragile economic recovery even as an emergence from crisis reduces pressure to act, saying political upheaval was still the big…
France says military option in Syria still valid
PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Wednesday it remained determined to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over what it calls his use of chemical weapons if diplomacy fails, and a military strike was still possible.
