Mursi’s hardline allies call on him to give ground
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s hardline Islamist allies in al-Gamaa al-Islamiya want him to call a referendum on early presidential elections to avoid bloodshed and a military coup, Tarek al-Zumar, a senior member of the group sai…
Egypt opposition leader El-Baradei meets army chief: sources
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei met army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday, two political sources said, hours before an army deadline for Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to yield to mass protests or…
Iran’s Rouhani urges end to meddling in private lives
DUBAI (Reuters) – President-elect Hassan Rouhani called on Wednesday for the government and powerful clergy to end interference in the private lives of the Iranian people, free up Internet access and allow state media to be more open about Iran’s probl…
Analysis: Sudan’s Bashir plays to hardliners to stem succession debate
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – When Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir returned a few weeks ago from a summit in Ethiopia with his South Sudanese counterpart and former civil war foe, many people here expected him to talk of peace.
Germany confident Lisbon will stick to agreed reforms
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is confident Portugal will stick to reforms agreed with international lenders in return for a bailout, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said on Wednesday, as the political crisis in Lisbon deepened.
Egypt’s Armed Forces General Command holds crisis meeting: military source
CAIRO (Reuters) – The general command of the Egyptian armed forces is currently holding a crisis meeting, a military source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Police seize 30 metric tons of drugs in Central America, Caribbean
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – About 30 metric tons of cocaine, heroin and marijuana with a street value of $822 million was seized in Central America and the Caribbean last month in one of the biggest international drug hauls, pan-European police force Europol…
Russia asks trial judge to close case against dead whistleblower
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian prosecutor asked a court on Wednesday to close the posthumous tax evasion case against late whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky and sentence his former boss William Browder to nine years in prison in absentia, news agencies repo…
Ex-Taliban official vows to protect Afghan women, but alarm bells ring
KABUL (Reuters) – Just 16 years ago, Abdul Rahman Hotak helped prop one of the world’s most austere regimes for women as a newspaper editor and bureaucrat for the Taliban. Now, as a one of Afghanistan’s top human rights protectors, he says he has turne…
Portugal president to meet PM, parties over political crisis
LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal’s president will meet representatives of the main political parties and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho this week to discuss an impasse created by the resignation of a key government minister and leader of CDS-PP ruling c…
