WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Central African Republic’s former president, François Bozizé, and four other men linked to violence and human rights abuses in the country, the White House said on Tuesday. Also sanctioned ... More »
AAB BAREEK, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Six-year-old Abdul Maqsood stood outside his neighbor’s simple mud-brick home, staring aghast at the damage caused by a landslide which had slammed into his village in remote northeast Afghanistan. Then the rumbling started.... More »
SLAVIANSK/KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s president on Monday threatened military action after pro-Russian separatists occupying government buildings in the east ignored an ultimatum to leave and another group of rebels attacked a police headquarters in the trouble... More »
ABUJA (Reuters) – A bomb at a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Abuja killed at least 35 people during rush hour on Monday morning, witnesses said, the first such attack near the Nigerian capital for two years. Body parts and blood were strewn across the... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The family of an Iranian-American former U.S. Marine held in Iran since 2011 called on Saturday for senior Iranian officials to review his conviction and 10-year prison sentence on charges of collaborating with the U.S. government and to... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Within the small community of minority Arabs where he lived in southwest Iran, Hashem Shaabani was known as a teacher, an advocate for civil rights and a poet. But to the Islamic Republic he was seen as a threat. Shaabani, 32, was arrested i... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea fired artillery close to a disputed maritime border with the South on Monday, prompting the South to fire back, although the military exercise appeared to be yet more saber rattling from Pyongyang rather than a prelude to a sharp ... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has selected a new ambassador to represent Tehran at the United Nations, Hamid Abutalebi, a veteran diplomat who has held key European postings in the past, Iranian sources said. Abutalebi, who has se... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The ageing parents of a 13-year-old Japanese girl abducted nearly 40 years ago by North Korea urged their government on Monday to heed signs of change in Pyongyang in order to find out what happened to their daughter. Japan and North Korea ar... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – China dismissed a U.N. report alleging North Korea has committed crimes against humanity on Monday, effectively confirming the fears of human rights advocates that Beijing will shield its ally Pyongyang from international prosecution. The re... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is expected to steer clear of controversial issues such as human rights when she visits China this week but her trip could help advance a top item on her husband’s foreign policy agenda: deepening Washingto... More »
BERLIN/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia launched new military exercises near its border with Ukraine on Thursday, showing no sign of backing down on plans to annex its neighbor’s Crimea region despite a stronger than expected drive for sanctions from the EU and Unite... More »
BRUSSELS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – European Union leaders were set to warn but not sanction Russia on Thursday over its military intervention in Ukraine after Moscow rebuffed Western diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Crimea back to their bases. Russ... More »
KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukraine said Russia was building up armored vehicles on its side of a narrow stretch of water near the Ukrainian region of Crimea after President Vladimir Putin said he had the right to invade his neighbor, prompting a sell-... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday a U.N. resolution on humanitarian aid access in Syria could be agreed in days if Security Council members do not try to “politicize” the issue, Interfax news agency reported. Moscow cr... More »
MOSCOW/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia denounced on Wednesday a Western-Arab draft U.N. Security Council resolution on humanitarian aid access in Syria as a bid to lay the groundwork for military strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A confidential U.N. monitors’ report warns of “systematic abuses” by Somalia’s government, which the monitors say has allowed the diversion of weapons that Somali authorities purchased after the U.N. Security Council eased an arms em... More »
GANDHINAGAR, India (Reuters) – With flowers, smiles and handshakes, the U.S. ambassador to India met the Hindu nationalist leader who could be India’s next prime minister on Thursday – a big step towards ending Washington’s shunning of him over sectarian viole... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian authorities have detained 336 men who left Homs and are still questioning most of them without direct supervision by any neutral third party, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The men, deemed to be of fighting age by the Syrian auth... More »
(Reuters) – Shirley Temple Black, who lifted America’s spirits as a bright-eyed, dimpled child movie star during the Great Depression and later became a U.S. diplomat, died late on Monday evening at the age of 85, her family said in a statement. Temple Black, ... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations food agency is ready to deliver a month of rations to the Old City of Homs in Syria for 2,500 people once it gets a green light from all sides, a World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The U.N. hub in Homs... More »
MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) – Syria’s government and opposition, meeting for the first time, vented their mutual hostility on Wednesday but a U.N. mediator said the enemies may be ready to discuss prisoner swaps, local ceasefires and humanitarian aid. Russ... More »
UNITED NATIONS/ANKARA (Reuters) – An unexpected last-minute U.N. invitation for Iran to attend a peace conference on Syria threw the talks into doubt on Monday, with the Syrian opposition saying it would pull out unless Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon withdraws ... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s main opposition body, the National Coalition, will not attend peace talks in Switzerland scheduled for this week unless the United Nations retracts its invitation to Iran by 1900 GMT (14:00 PM EST) on Monday, a senior coalition mem... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea demanded that South Korea and the United States halt annual military drills due in February and March, saying they were a direct provocation, a statement that suggested a re-run of a sharp escalation in tension last year. But in a... More »
HERMEL, Lebanon (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed three people in a Hezbollah stronghold on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria on Thursday, the latest sign of the Syrian civil war’s creeping impact on its small Mediterranean neighbor. The blast came as... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An Indian diplomat whose arrest and strip-search caused a major rift in U.S.-Indian ties was effectively expelled from the United States on Thursday as part of a deal in which she was granted diplomatic immunity from charges of ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – An international media frenzy over reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s uncle had been executed by throwing him to a pack of dogs appears to have originated as satire on a Chinese microblogging website. The story, which spread like ... More »
ADDIS ABABA/JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan’s army (SPLA) advanced towards the rebel-controlled town of Bor on Thursday, its spokesman said, as both sides gathered in Ethiopia for peace talks to end three weeks of violence that has pushed the country towards civi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Trebling tobacco tax globally would cut smoking by a third and prevent 200 million premature deaths this century from lung cancer and other diseases, researchers said on Wednesday. In a review in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientis... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For years, U.S. officials have pointed to the improvements in the everyday lives of Afghans made possible by billions of dollars in aid from the United States and elsewhere. In Afghanistan, people now live 20 years longer on average than... More »
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has withdrawn its sponsorship of retired U.S. basketball player Dennis Rodman’s visits to North Korea, saying it was a result of general condemnation of Pyongyang. Rodman returned on Monday from a four-day trip to... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Iran wants to improve bilateral relations with the United States and other Western powers, President Hassan Rouhani said in an editorial published in a German newspaper on Monday, broaching an issue he has so far avoided since he took office... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India said on Saturday that it had transferred the diplomat at the center of a row with the United States to its U.N. delegation, a move that it hopes will give her protection from prosecution for visa fraud and underpaying a maid. Whethe... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British and U.S. spies targeted a senior European Union official, German government buildings, and the office of an Israeli prime minister, according to the latest leaked documents from Edward Snowden published on Friday. Other targets from ... More »
JUBA (Reuters) – Fighting between South Sudanese soldiers spread to the flashpoint town of Bor on Wednesday, raising fears of a broader civil conflict in the two-year-old nation. An official in Bor, north of Juba, said soldiers attacked each other at two milit... More »
TIKRIT (Reuters) – Suicide bombers and gunmen killed at least 54 people in Iraq on Monday, medical and police sources said, in attacks mostly targeting Shi’ite Muslims, who mark a big religious festival next week. Al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim militants have in... More »
HAVANA (Reuters) – For sure it’s just what Nelson Mandela would have wanted, but does it amount to more than that? The historic handshake between U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba’s Raul Castro at a memorial for Mandela on Tuesday in Johannesburg was greete... More »
BANGUI (Reuters) – Gunfire echoed through the capital of Central African Republic on Thursday in the heaviest clashes there for months, hours before the U.N. was expected to authorize a French mission to curb escalating Muslim-Christian sectarian violence. For... More »
(Reuters) – Soon after he joined Barrick Gold Corp’s (ABX.TO ) board last year, John Thornton, the designated successor to founder and chairman Peter Munk, took a company team to visit Ford Motor Co (F.N ) and learn about the automaker’s turnaround story. Ford... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday announced a boost to funding for research into HIV/AIDS prevention and pledged up to $5 billion to support an international effort aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the White House to mark World AI... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Tuesday his group would shun a planned peace conference in Switzerland in January and would pursue its fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad regardless. General Salim Idriss’s sta... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that additional polio cases had been confirmed in two new areas of Syria, including near Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo near Turkey. “In addition to 15 polio cases in Deir al-Zor pro... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – The U.S. military has began scaling back its emergency relief operations in the Philippines as work shifts to recovery and rehabilitation in typhoon-hit areas, a U.S. aid agency official said on Saturday. Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful st... More »
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar rejected on Thursday a U.N. resolution urging it to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority group, and accused the United Nations of impinging on its sovereignty. The U.N. General Assembly’s human rights commit... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China is sending a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world’s biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 peop... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Imelda Marcos’ former secretary was convicted on Monday of conspiring to sell art that the former Philippine first lady acquired during her husband’s presidency, including a famous Claude Monet water-lily painting. After deliberating 2-1/2... More »
BRUSSSELS (Reuters) – Al Qaeda members may be among thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat from Africa to Europe, posing a potential security risk for the European Union, Italy’s Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said on Monday. Italy is seeking m... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – The United Nations expressed fear on Monday that some Philippine islands hit by a giant typhoon have not been reached 10 days after disaster struck and President Benigno Aquino said the scale of suffering “tempted him to despair”. Authoritie... More »
MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) – Low turnout and complaints of coercion in a re-run election in northern Kosovo on Sunday underscored the challenge facing the European Union in implementing an accord designed to end the country’s ethnic partition. Under tight sec... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Hollywood film industry recognized Angelina Jolie on Saturday with a humanitarian award for her work with refugees and advocating for human rights through her film career. Actors Angela Lansbury and Steve Martin and costume designer... More »
TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) – A U.S. aircraft carrier “strike group” started unloading food and water to the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines on Thursday, as President Benigno Aquino faced mounting pressure to speed up the distribution of supplies. Whil... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military has ordered the activation a Navy hospital ship for possible deployment to the Philippines in December, as the United States ramps up its relief mission after that country’s devastating typhoon, officials said on Wednes... More »
TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) – Desperation gripped Philippine islands devastated by Typhoon Haiyan as looting turned deadly on Wednesday and survivors panicked over shortages of food, water and medicine, some digging up underground water pipes and smashing ... More »
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile is set to take a moderate turn to the left in elections on Sunday with the popular and charismatic ex-president Michelle Bachelet almost certain to win a triumphant return to power. Bachelet has promised to redress inequality by hiki... More »
TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) – Dazed survivors begged for help and scavenged for food, water and medicine on Monday after a super typhoon killed an estimated 10,0000 in the central Philippines. President Benigno Aquino declared a state of national calamity ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House national security adviser Susan Rice on Saturday urged Congress to allow the United States to regain its vote at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which it lost for not paying dues. “Shame... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Friday that it may be time for the United States to revise its policies toward Cuba, against which it has had an embargo for more than half a century. “We have to be creative and we have to be thoughtful and we ... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab states formally endorsed proposed peace talks to end the Syrian civil war that have been delayed by disputes between world powers and divisions among the opposition. A final communiqué after an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign mi... More »
MBUZI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Congolese troops and M23 rebels bombarded each other near the Ugandan border on Monday and international envoys called on both sides to cease fire and allow a peace deal to take hold. Congo’s army accused the reb... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey and Iran said on Friday they had common concerns about the increasingly sectarian nature of Syria’s civil war, signaling a thaw in a key Middle Eastern relationship strained by stark differences over the conflict. Iran has been a st... More »
(This story was reported by a visiting journalist whose name has been withheld for security reasons) DAMASCUS (Reuters) – One Syrian security official called it the “Starvation Until Submission Campaign”, blocking food and medicine from entering and people fro... More »
ABYEI (Reuters) – Abyei officials welcomed a push by the African Union to involve the U.N. Security Council in helping plan a referendum to resolve a dispute in the remote border region. The AU last year promised Abyei a plebiscite in October 2013 but shied aw... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the National Security Agency defended his beleaguered organization on Tuesday, saying it acts within the law to stop militant attacks and calling reports that the NSA collected data on millions of phone calls in Europe false.... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An estimated $1.3 million worth of art from more than 130 artists, mostly from Syria and Lebanon, is being auctioned at below-gallery prices in Beirut to raise money for Syrian refugee children. “This is first time that you have so many arti... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders rebuffed calls from southern European states on Friday for emergency action to tackle a wave of illegal migration from Africa despite the deaths of hundreds of people in Mediterranean boat disasters. EU leaders meeti... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – In a small park on the edge of old Istanbul’s Eminonu square, women sit begging, Syrian passports in their outstretched hands, “Please help in the name of God” on sheets of paper at their feet. In this bustling city, where fisherman line t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior White House official who was helping negotiate nuclear issues with Iran has been fired after being unmasked as the acidic voice behind a Twitter account known for its insults of public figures at the White House and on Capitol H... More »
CONAKRY (Reuters) – The United Nations and the international community on Sunday called upon Guinea’s electoral commission to publish results of a September 28 election aimed at completing a transition to democracy, saying it was concerned over the delay. Disp... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A series of bombs killed at least 25 people across Iraq on Sunday ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, police and medical sources said. Altogether 16 bombs went off, the deadliest of which was in the mainly Shi’ite city of Hilla, 100 k... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemicals weapon arsenal, it set to win the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said. Set up in 1997... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – As President Hamid Karzai’s brothers began a campaign this week to take power in war-shattered Afghanistan, they left open the prospect that the incumbent will be able to use family ties to remain in government after his second term ends next... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels killed at least 190 civilians and took more than 200 hostage during an offensive in Latakia province in August, Human Rights Watch said on Friday, in what it calls the first evidence of crimes against humanity by opposition for... More »
LAMPEDUSA, Italy (Reuters) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso vowed on Wednesday to step up efforts to stem the region’s long-running immigration crisis in a visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, where a migrant boat sank last week killing... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – When Saudi Arabia’s veteran foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, made no annual address to the United Nations General Assembly last week for the first time ever, his unspoken message could hardly have been louder. For most countries, ref... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Over half of the people surveyed in an international Reuters/Ipsos poll are opposed to foreign military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and more are against their own countries intervening in the conflict. The poll, conducted... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Human rights lawyers representing Haitian victims of a cholera epidemic they blame on U.N. peacekeepers announced on Wednesday they were filing a lawsuit against the United Nations, with a New York court seeking compensation from the... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria won foreign praise on Monday for starting to destroy its chemical arsenal, although an opposition activist said the world was merely giving President Bashar al-Assad time to kill more people with conventional weapons. An official from ... More »
BISSAU (Reuters) – Under pressure from Western donors, Guinea-Bissau is struggling to organize elections to turn the page on a military coup but many in the West African country say a failure to reform the army means a new government will be vulnerable. The ti... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A Pakistani teenage activist shot by the Taliban and a Japanese author who writes about alienation and a fractured modern world are tipped as Nobel Prize winners ahead of the annual awards that start on Monday. Malala Yousafzai, 16, shot ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States hopes to engage with the new Iranian administration, but Tehran must first prove it is willing to end the stand-off over its nuclear weapons program. If Iran intends t... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s parliament strongly endorsed President Hassan Rouhani’s diplomatic bid to dispel mistrust at the United Nations last week during a visit which ended with an historic phone call with President Barack Obama, Iranian media said. The backi... More »
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) – Nearly 900 civilians were killed across Iraq in September as sectarian violence worsened, raising the death toll for 2013 to more than last year’s total, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Most of the bloodshed was instigated by Sunni... More »
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Six months after President Barack Obama eased a strained relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel dubbed “Operation Desert Schmooze,” the two leaders now face the biggest test of whether they... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N. chemical weapons inspectors in Syria are investigating seven cases of alleged chemical or biological weapons use, including three incidents around Damascus after the August 21 attack which almost triggered U.S. air strikes. A statement ... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would demand Syria give up its chemical arms, but does not threaten military force if it fails to c... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran played down prospects for a quick breakthrough in talks with the U.N. nuclear agency on Friday over a stalled inquiry into its atomic work, the first such meeting under the new relatively moderate Iranian government. The discussions in ... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran and the United States held their highest-level substantive talks in a generation on Thursday, saying the tone was positive but sounding cautious about resolving the long-running standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. U.S. Secreta... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran and the United States held their highest-level substantive talks in a generation on Thursday, saying the tone was positive but sounding cautious about resolving the long-running standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. U.S. Secreta... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Six major powers and Iran on Thursday agreed to meet in Geneva next month for further talks on resolving the standoff with Tehran on its nuclear program, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Thursday. “W... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is ready to help guard Syria’s chemical weapons sites when President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical arms stockpiles and factories are destroyed, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying on Thursday by news agencies. “We... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to intensify their peace talks and to increase the U.S. role, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday in a rare comment on the negotiations. Speaking to donors who support the Pale... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations envoy for Somalia called on Tuesday for additional African troops to counter al Shabaab, which he said numbered some 5,000 people and posed an international threat. Nicholas Kay, U.N. special representative for Somalia, co... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – A meeting between Iran’s top diplomats and world powers at the United Nations this week will start a “new era” in efforts to end the dispute with the West over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. I... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel voiced concern on Tuesday over a potential meeting of the U.S. and Iranian presidents, saying Tehran’s conciliatory overtures to world powers masked an acceleration of its disputed nuclear program. An official Israeli assessment sa... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will turn to his unofficial “secretary of explaining stuff,” former President Bill Clinton, on Tuesday to help with a final push to extol the benefits of U.S. healthcare reform before new insurance exchanges go live ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Four senior senators on Monday urged President Barack Obama to stick to tough policies against Iran, despite overtures from Tehran ahead of this week’s U.N. General Assembly in New York. In a pair of letters, Democrats Robert Menendez an... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will join the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany later this week to discuss the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ash... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A United Nations panel of experts met on Monday to review a draft report that raises the probability that climate change is man-made to 95 percent and warns of ever more extreme weather unless governments take strong action. Scientists an... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Scientists meet on Monday to prepare the strongest warning yet that climate change is man-made and will cause more heatwaves, droughts and floods this century unless governments take action. Officials from up to 195 governments and scientists ... More »
