Ministers try to limit impact of defense cuts on NATO
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO ministers wrestled on Tuesday with how to prevent austerity-driven defense cuts in many member countries from undermining the power of the 63-year-old Western alliance.
China to send deputy finance minister to IMF Tokyo meeting amid island spat
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s delegation to the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Tokyo will not be led by its most senior finance officials, a report from state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday, in what looked like a deliberate snub of …
Syria clashes intensify near Turkey border
HACIPASA, Turkey (Reuters) – NATO said on Tuesday it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary against any further spillover of violence from Syria’s border areas where rebels and government forces are fighting for control.
Huge ammunition explosion rocks Russian city
MOSCOW (Reuters) – An explosion at a weapons disposal site in central Russia on Tuesday blew windows shut in a city 30 kilometers away but preliminary reports indicated no one was hurt, according to the government and witnesses.
Iran budget under pressure, Ahmadinejad says
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s state budget is under pressure and the government has cut spending in some areas, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying as the country struggles to cope with Western economic sanctions.
U.S. will "do what we must" on Iran, U.N.’s Ban opposes threats
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will say on Tuesday the United States will “do what we must” to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned against threatening attacks whose consequences w…
Fearful Alawites pay sectarian militias in battered Homs
(The identity of the journalist has been withheld for security reasons)
Door for Israeli-Palestinian peace may be closing: U.N.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday the “door may be closing, for good” on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying the continued growth of Jewish settlements undercuts peace.
Former fighters exchange fire outside Libya congress
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Former Libyan rebel fighters exchanged fire outside the national congress in Tripoli on Tuesday, a member of the national assembly said.
Remains of Smolensk plane crash victims swapped: prosecutors
WARSAW (Reuters) – A plane crash in Russia in 2010 that claimed the lives of Poland’s president and 94 others is once again troubling ties between Moscow and Warsaw after the revelation that some grieving families received the wrong bodies to bury.
