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…
Insight: Smooth Qatar handover rooted in turbulent past of ‘Father Emir’
DUBAI (Reuters) – Qatar’s outgoing emir wanted to abdicate while he was still able to help his 33-year-old heir consolidate his authority, so ensuring minimal discord inside a family with a long record of palace intrigue.
Former South African president de Klerk discharged from hospital
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – South Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk, was discharged from hospital on Wednesday after a successful operation to install a pacemaker, his assistant said.
Militant Islamist in Russia urges followers to prevent 2014 Olympics
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The leader of an Islamist insurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus region urged followers on Wednesday to use “maximum force” to prevent President Vladimir Putin staging the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Al-Ahram: Egypt’s Mursi to resign or be sacked on Wednesday
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s flagship state newspaper Al-Ahram said it expected President Mohamed Mursi would either step down or be removed from office on Wednesday when a deadline set by the army for resolving the country’s political crisis expires.
Drone attack kills 17 in Pakistan’s Waziristan region
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed at least 17 people in Pakistan’s restive border region early on Wednesday, Pakistani security officials said, in the biggest such attack this year, and the second since Prime Minister Nawaz Shar…
South African police investigating Mandela grandson in grave dispute
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African police opened an investigation on Tuesday into Nelson Mandela’s grandson on suspicion of illegally exhuming the bodies of three of the ailing anti-apartheid hero’s children, a police spokesman said.
Merkel’s conservatives struggle for modern message in German cities
BERLIN (Reuters) – Tall, blond and smartly dressed, Lars Zimmermann is the kind of young man conservative German mothers would like their daughters to bring home to dinner.
Rivals play down China’s overture in S.China Sea, no breakthrough
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) – Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario walked into a regional security forum this week to hear his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi reel off a list of complaints against Manila for stirring tensions over the South Chi…
