Costa Rica probes soapy money-laundering link to Venezuela
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) – Costa Rica said on Thursday it was investigating two men suspected of laundering money for Venezuelan government firms after detecting a shady scheme to buy millions of bars of soap.
One dead as Egypt simmers ahead of rallies
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood said one man was shot dead and four wounded in an attack on a provincial party office, stoking factional rivalries ahead of mass rallies starting on Friday.
Obama jabs Russia, China on failure to extradite Snowden
DAKAR (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday he would not start “wheeling and dealing” with China and Russia over a U.S. request to extradite former American spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Daughter says Mandela ‘still there’, raps media ‘vultures’
PRETORIA (Reuters) – Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter lambasted foreign media “vultures” for violating her father’s privacy as he lay critically ill in hospital, and said the former South African president was still clinging to life on Thursday.
With multiple missions, U.S. military steps up Africa focus
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Striking Islamist militants with drones, supporting African forces in stabilizing Somalia and Mali and deploying dozens of training teams, the U.S. military has returned to Africa.
Costa Rica probes soapy money-laundering link to Venezuela
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) – Costa Rica said on Thursday it was investigating two men suspected of laundering money for Venezuelan government firms after detecting a shady scheme to buy millions of bars of soap.
At least 22 killed as bombs tear through coffee shops in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Bombs exploded in busy coffee shops and at other targets across Iraq late on Thursday, killing at least 22 people, police and medics said.
Egypt’s Mursi circles wagons as trouble looms
CAIRO (Reuters) – President Mohamed Mursi came to office promising to be a president for all Egyptians. A year into his term, the divisions deepened by his rule have pitched the nation into crisis.
Analysis: Egypt prepares leap in the dark. Again
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is heading for a “dark tunnel”, says the head of its armed forces. How he and his generals respond to a political showdown in the streets may determine whether its new democracy survives to see the light.
U.S. suspends trade benefits for Bangladesh over safety
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday cut off longtime U.S. trade benefits for Bangladesh in a mostly symbolic response to dangerous conditions in that country’s garment industry that have cost more than 1,200 lives in the past year…
