Western, Arab states to step up Syrian rebel support
DOHA (Reuters) – International opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed on Saturday to give urgent military support to Western-backed rebels, aiming to stem a counter-offensive by Assad’s forces and offset the growing power of jihadist figh…
Political crisis, privatization gap won’t derail bailout: Greek PM
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s recent government crisis and failure to meet privatization targets will not derail an international bailout, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Saturday.
Junior Czech coalition party wins speaker post in reshuffle plan
PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech coalition agreed on Saturday that the junior party can have the post of parliamentary speaker if the current one becomes prime minister in a reshuffle caused by a spying and bribery scandal.
Iraq attacks kill more than 30
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shi’ite mosque in northern Baghdad killing at least 12 people during evening prayers, police and medics said, in the deadliest of a series of attacks that claimed more than 30 lives across I…
Vatican paper contests study on alleged Nazi collaborator
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican newspaper said on Saturday a decision by scholars to brand a wartime Italian previously praised for saving Jews as a Nazi collaborator was part of an attempt to smear the Catholic Church during the papacy of Pope Pi…
Shi’ite man shot dead in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH (Reuters) – A Shi’ite man was shot dead late on Friday in the fractious Qatif district of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, home to many of its Shi’ite Muslim minority.
Al Qaeda says hostages in North Africa alive, open to talks
DAKAR (Reuters) – Eight European hostages, including five from France, being held by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are safe, the Islamist group said in a statement posted on its Twitter account on Saturday.
Kerry presses Taliban to revive Afghan peace bid
DOHA (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry put the onus on the Taliban to revive stalled efforts to end Afghanistan’s 12-year-old war and warned the militants on Saturday they might lose their new office in Qatar if the peace bid collapsed.
India monsoon floods kill at least 560; thousands missing
RUDRAPRAYAG, India (Reuters) – Flash floods and landslides unleashed by early monsoon rains have killed at least 560 people in northern India and left tens of thousands missing, officials said on Saturday, with the death toll expected to rise significa…
German minister seeks answers from UK over spying ‘catastrophe’
BERLIN (Reuters) – Britain’s European partners will seek urgent clarification from London about whether a British spy agency has tapped international telephone and Internet traffic on a massive scale, Germany’s justice minister said on Saturday.
