Australia seeks Triton superdrones for Indian Ocean overwatch
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Rising Indian Ocean rivalries as China seeks to safeguard key energy lifelines loom behind an Australian push for a $3 billion fleet of maritime superdrones, which will likely boost intelligence sharing with the United States.
New emir seen maintaining Qatar’s role as power broker
DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar’s new emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is widely expected to push ahead with his father’s drive that transformed the wealthy Gulf Arab gas exporter into a regional power broker.
Qatar’s outgoing emir, a visionary for tiny Gulf state
DOHA (Reuters) – To his admirers, Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is a champion of the common man’s struggle against tyranny, and a visionary who turned billions of dollars in energy revenues into strategic international investments.
Iran condemns Egypt’s sectarian killings as ‘contradicting Islam’
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the killing of four Shi’ite Egyptians near Cairo, saying such extremism violated the tenets of Islam, state television reported late on Monday.
Ten car bombs kill 39 in Iraqi capital
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Ten car bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital on Monday, killing nearly 40 people in markets and garages on the evening of a Shi’ite Muslim celebration, police and medical sources said.
Singapore smog eases as Indonesian planes waterbomb fires
SINGAPORE/JAKARTA (Reuters) – Air quality in Singapore improved significantly to “moderate” pollution levels on Saturday, as Indonesian planes waterbombed raging forest fires and investigators scrambled to determine the cause of one of Southeast Asia’s…
No sign of Snowden as Aeroflot plane lands in Havana
HAVANA (Reuters) – An Aeroflot flight from Moscow that was being closely tracked by media organizations in case Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who revealed details of U.S. surveillance programs, was on board, landed in Cuba uneventfully…
Brazil’s Rousseff calls for constitutional vote to quell protests
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff sought to overcome a sudden wave of national discontent with a surprising call on Monday for a referendum on what would be the country’s most ambitious political reform in decades.
Asia driving ‘explosion’ in global arms trade: study
LONDON (Reuters) – Asian powers are outpacing the United States to become the biggest spenders on defense by 2021 and are fuelling an “explosion” in the global arms trade, a study showed.
Lebanon faces tumult after deadliest Syria-related clashes
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Lebanese government will try on Tuesday to secure the country after the deadliest violence since the start of a two-year conflict in neighboring Syria that has pushed Lebanon’s myriad militia to clashes.
