Turkey plays big in Kurdistan’s energy game
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has quietly built up a large presence in Kurdistan’s oil and gas industry, teaming up with U.S. major Exxon Mobil, as Ankara bets on Iraq’s semi-autonomous republic to help wean it off costly Russian and Iranian energy imports…
Analysis: Powerless West gropes for way to sway Egypt
PARIS (Reuters) – Having failed to dissuade Egypt’s military-dominated rulers from launching a bloody crackdown on supporters of an ousted Islamist president, Western governments are venting condemnation and groping for ways to influence the outcome.
Obama condemns Egypt violence, cancels joint military exercises
CHILMARK, Massachusetts (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out on Thursday against the violence in Egypt, condemning a military crackdown there and saying the United States had canceled joint military exercises scheduled for next month.
New Serb finance minister says has political support, investors unsure
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s incoming finance minister, a 29-year-old McKinsey consultant with little political clout, said on Thursday he was determined to reverse the “negative spiral” in which the country’s economy was trapped.
EU likely to hold meeting on Egypt next week: Italy
ROME (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers are likely to meet next week to discuss Egypt after security forces raided two protest camps in Cairo on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said on Thursday.
Frontrunner to be next British prime minister dealt poll blow
LONDON (Reuters) – Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labor party and the frontrunner to succeed David Cameron as Britain’s prime minister in 2015, saw his popularity rating fall to an all-time low on Thursday.
Islamist rebels execute two Shi’ite youths in Syria: monitoring group
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Two youths from Shi’ite villages in northern Syria have been executed by members of an al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebel group, according to a video uploaded to the Internet on Wednesday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
U.N. rights boss calls for credible probe into Egypt killings
GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Thursday for an independent investigation into the killing of hundreds of Egyptians when security forces crushed Islamist protest camps.
U.S. asks Ireland to extradite ‘largest facilitator of child porn’
DUBLIN (Reuters) – The United States has asked Ireland to hand over a 28-year-old man who the Federal Bureau of Investigation says is the world’s largest facilitator of child pornography, the Irish High Court heard on Thursday.
Border firing continues as India, Pakistan mark independence
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire across their frontier in Kashmir and, in a sign of increased tension, skipped their custom of exchanging sweets to mark the nuclear-armed rivals’ independence days.
