PRISTINA (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead a European Union police officer in a mainly Serb region of Kosovo on Thursday, dealing the mission its first fatality since deploying in 2008 and shaking a fragile accord between the Balkan country and its former master Se... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes struck rebel-held areas and clashes between militants and government forces continued unabated on Wednesday, residents and opposition groups said, while key powers met to forge a deal that would eliminate Syrian chemical wea... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama disclosed in a television interview broadcast on Sunday that he had exchanged letters with new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and said diplomacy on Syria, backed up by a military threat, is a potential model for ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday that Syria will be held to account if it fails to live up to its promises to surrender chemical weapons as he faced questions about how a deal brokered by U.S. and Russian diplomats would be enfor... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Will top bankers’ behavior ever land them in jail? Or are bad business decisions even a crime at all? Five years on from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the debate over how to hold senior bank bosses to account for failures is far from ov... More »
GENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Russia and the United States agreed on Friday to push again for an international conference aimed at ending Syria’s civil war as talks on removing chemical weapons raised hopes for broader negotiations. After a further meeting Geneva ... More »
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Angered by reports that the U.S. government spied on her and other Brazilians, President Dilma Rousseff is pushing new legislation that would seek to force Google, Facebook and other internet companies to store locally gathered data insid... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to explore a diplomatic plan from Russia to take away Syria’s chemical weapons, but voiced skepticism about it and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed. Faced wit... More »
WASHINGTON/AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria accepted a Russian proposal on Tuesday to give up chemical weapons but U.S. President Barack Obama said it was too early to tell if the initiative would succeed and he vowed to keep military forces at the ready to strike if d... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – An initial French draft U.N. Security Council resolution would demand that Syria make a complete declaration of its chemical weapons program within 15 days and immediately open all related sites to U.N. inspectors or face possible pu... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House efforts to convince the U.S. Congress to back military action against Syria are not only failing, they seem to be stiffening the opposition. That was the assessment on Sunday, not of an opponent but of an early and ardent Rep... More »
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied that he was behind a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, as the White House on Sunday pressed ahead with the uphill effort of persuading Congress to approve a military strike to pu... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An al Qaeda affiliate has claimed responsibility for a series of car bombs that killed around 60 people in predominantly Shi’ite districts of the Iraqi capital last week. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which was formed earlier th... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The United States left the door open on Sunday to seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution that could endorse punishing Syria for a chemical weapons attack last month and indicated Arab countries were seeking a tough response. Spe... More »
VILNIUS/PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union blamed the Syrian government on Saturday for an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria but urged waiting for a report from U.N. weapons inspectors before any U.S.-led military response. The carefully worded mess... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Saturday the EU’s 28 nations agreed that available information seemed to show strong evidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical attack on civilians in August... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – France, which backs military action to punish Syria for a deadly chemical weapons attack, tried to rally support from its European Union partners on Friday but met scepticism from governments wary of turning their backs on the United Nation... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – The European Union and Iran will discuss a resumption of nuclear negotiations during a United Nations gathering this month, possibly setting a date for a new round of talks aimed ultimately at preventing a new Middle East war. Talks between... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s diplomatic chief Catherine Ashton will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a U.N. meeting this month to discuss stalled nuclear negotiations, Ashton’s spokesman said on Friday. Iran’s... More »
MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin offered a glimpse of international compromise over Syria on Wednesday, declining to entirely rule out Russian backing for military action as he prepared to host a summit of world leaders. As the United States ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s efforts to persuade the U.S. Congress to back his plan to attack Syria were met with skepticism on Monday from lawmakers in his own Democratic Party who expressed concern the United States would be dragged into a... More »
BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Syria hailed a “historic American retreat” on Sunday, mockingly accusing President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military response to last month’s chemical weapons attack near Damascus until after a c... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tennis players rarely talk about international conflicts, preferring to play it safe by limiting their comments to serves and volleys. But the possibility of air strikes against Syria has recalled some painful memories for Serbia’s Novak D... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Friday it still backed action to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government for an apparent poison gas attack on civilians, despite a British parliamentary vote against it. An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin,... More »
BUSHMILLS, Northern Ireland (Reuters) – One of the homes of Irish whiskey is fighting an economic downturn by investing in art projects to brighten up derelict shops and houses – an approach it says is boosting tourist numbers. The idea of cosmetically enhanci... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Susan Rice is facing her first key test as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser as she helps lead a White House effort to convince a skeptical Congress that the United States must respond to Syria’s apparent use of chemical... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Thursday gave American lawmakers what it called fresh evidence that Syria’s government was behind a chemical weapons attack, but faced strong resistance to military action from both U.S. political parties and ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel is relishing the chance to debate the euro zone crisis with challenger Peer Steinbrueck in their only TV duel of the election campaign, despite a row over Greek aid that has put her government on the defensive, her campaign chi... More »
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – United Nations inspectors should be given time to determine whether forces have used chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in The Hague on Wednesday. Referring to an alleged chemical weapons attack... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N. chemical weapons investigators crossed Syria’s front line into rebel-held territory on Wednesday for a second visit to the scene of a poison gas attack that has triggered Western plans for war. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Europe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama met on Tuesday with a five-member panel he appointed to review the privacy issues involved with U.S. government surveillance programs, the White House said, part of an effort to rebuild public trust after leaks by ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria denied reports on Wednesday that chemical weapons had been used in an attack on the eastern suburbs of Damascus which activists said killed more than 200 people. State television quoted a source as saying there was “no truth whatsoever... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak could be freed from jail after a court reviews his case on Wednesday, potentially stirring further unrest in a country where army-backed authorities are hunting down his Muslim Brotherhood enemies. The ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian activists accused forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday of using chemical agents during the heavy bombardment of rebel-held areas around Damascus. The reported use of the chemical agents could not be immediately verif... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission is to send a fact-finding mission to Gibraltar to examine the legitimacy of border controls imposed by Spain in a growing dispute over the British Mediterranean enclave. It broke out after Gibraltar’s construction o... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The death toll from a car bomb which ripped through the southern Beirut stronghold of Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah rose on Friday to 24, and the government said it was investigating whether the blast was a suicide attack. Interior Mini... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said on Thursday it would bring down the “military coup” but stressed it remained committed to a peaceful struggle, despite the heavy loss of life when government forces broke up its protest camps. The crackdown on ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia wants a Syria peace conference to be held as soon as possible but it is unlikely to go ahead before October because there is a busy diplomatic schedule before then, a Russian diplomat said on Tuesday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister G... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 16 people were killed and 41 wounded on Monday in a suicide bomb attack on a crowded cafe in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, part of the worst wave of violence in Iraq in around five years. Two roadside bombs – one plante... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s announcement of plans to expand Jewish settlements on land Palestinians seek for a state clouded the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks convening in the Middle East this week for the first time in three years. The talks, which opene... More »
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – A deadlock over Cambodia’s disputed election hardened on Monday as the opposition rejected official results confirming a victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s long-ruling party and raised the prospect of further street protests. The Cambo... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Global food prices could decline further in coming months after hitting their lowest level in more than a year in July, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, pointing to prospects of abundant grain supplies. Food prices surged duri... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A series of car bombs targeting busy markets and shopping streets in and around Baghdad killed at least 51 people and wounded more than 100 on Tuesday, Iraqi medical and police sources said, part of a surge in violence in recent months. Ins... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power faced some tough questions during her first day on the job on Monday, but they did not come from other U.N. Security Council envoys – instead she was grilled by refugee students in... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran and the United States signaled a fresh will on Sunday to seek to end the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program after Hassan Rouhani was sworn in as president and called for dialogue to reduce “antagonism and aggression”. Hopes for a dipl... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he was confident of victory against rebels and made a symbolic visit to a town once overrun by insurgents and now mostly retaken by his army. But Assad’s forces took a blow in the central cit... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. inspectors will travel to Syria “as soon as possible” to investigate claims of chemical weapons use during the country’s civil war after President Bashar al-Assad’s government granted access to three sites, the United Nations sa... More »
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodia’s government rejected on Tuesday calls by the opposition for an international inquiry into allegations it used massive fraud to win re-election, and said it wanted parliament to approve a new cabinet quickly. The United States a... More »
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – BMW aims to win a “meaningful” segment of the electric car market with its i-series battery-powered models by offering luxurious styling and packages designed to help owners overcome the traditional hurdles to electric car ownership... More »
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodia’s main opposition party on Monday rejected election results given by the government, which said long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party had won, and called for an inquiry into what it called massive manipulation of electoral... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken supporter of Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Mursi, lashed out at the European Union and others for failing to condemn strongly enough the killing of dozens in Cairo earlier on Saturday.... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – A deeply polarized Egypt braced for bloodshed on Friday in rival mass rallies summoned by the army that ousted the state’s first freely elected president and by the Islamists who back him. Both sides warned of a decisive struggle for the futu... More »
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, gave his support to a fragile truce between El Salvador’s gangs on Thursday, despite a recent uptick in murders. After meeting with El Salvador’s presid... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy said on Friday it would lead the effort to recover four unarmed bombs it was forced to drop in Australia’s World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef marine park. The U.S. 7th Fleet would take the lead in recovering the bombs, co... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will move forward with a plan for the United States to arm the struggling Syrian rebels after some congressional concerns were eased, officials said on Monday. “We believe we are in a position that the administrati... More »
NEW DELHI/LONDON (Reuters) – The pesticide that killed 23 Indian schoolchildren last week is a nerve poison banned by many countries because of what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as its “high acute toxicity”. As early as 2009, the United Nation... More »
PANAMA CITY/MIAMI (Reuters) – A U.N. team is due to arrive in Panama next month to inspect a North Korean ship which was seized carrying arms from Cuba, a potential breach of U.N. sanctions that the United States said was “incredibly concerning.” The five-memb... More »
PRETORIA (Reuters) – Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is “steadily improving”, South Africa’s government said on Thursday as the former president celebrated his 95th birthday in hospital showered by tributes from around the world. Thousands of South Africa... More »
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduran police said on Tuesday they believe a severed head and other body parts found in a region of the country ravaged by Mexican drug cartels belong to a popular television journalist kidnapped last month. Honduran police chief Juan... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – An Iranian ship laden with arms seized by Yemeni authorities in January may also have been bound for Somalia, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday. Yemeni forces intercepted the ship, the Jihan 1, off Yem... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jennifer Lopez would not have performed a private concert in Turkmenistan at the weekend had she known about charges of human rights violations in the Central Asian nation, her publicist said on Monday. Human rights campaigners, who acc... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Money at the Central Bank of Somalia is not used to run government institutions in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, with an average 80 percent of withdrawals made for private purposes, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters o... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany said on Monday if media reports of large-scale U.S. spying on the European Union were confirmed, it would be unacceptable Cold War-style behavior between partners who require trust to forge a new transatlantic trade area. “If it is c... More »
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Former Chilean leader Michelle Bachelet steamed toward another presidential bid on Sunday with a lopsided primary win that prompted her center-left rivals to concede early in the evening and vow to support her in the November election. On ... More »
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union has demanded that the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on the group, using strong language to confront its closest trading partner over its alleged surveillance activit... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Anti-smoking measures including higher taxes on tobacco products, bans on adverts and controls on lighting up in public places could prevent tens of millions of premature deaths across the world, researchers said on Monday. Similar steps tak... More »
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union has demanded that the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on the group, using strong language to confront its closest trading partner over its alleged surveillance activit... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Doctors could save three million more lives worldwide by 2025 if they offer AIDS drugs to people with HIV much sooner after they test positive for the virus, the World Health Organization said on Sunday. While better access to cheap generic ... More »
ZAGREB (Reuters) – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union at midnight on Sunday, a milestone that caps the Adriatic republic’s recovery from war but is tinged with anxiety over the state of the economy and the bloc it joins. EU flags fluttered f... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The United States has bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents cited in a German magazine on Saturday, the latest in a series of exposures of alleged U.S. spy programs. D... More »
BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) – Talks between the United States and Russia to set up a Syrian peace conference produced no deal on Tuesday, with the powers on either side of the two-year civil war failing to agree when it should be held or who would be invited. Saud... More »
GAZA (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of joyous fans turned out on Tuesday to welcome “Arab Idol” Mohammed Assaf on his return to the Gaza Strip and the song contest winner appealed for harmony among divided Palestinians. The fresh-faced 22-year-old from humble r... More »
GAZA/RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Palestinian cities erupted in joy after Gazan singer Mohammed Assaf won the “Arab Idol” song contest final held in Beirut on Saturday night, providing a welcome break from the grinding conflict with Israel. The fresh-faced 22-year-old... More »
BAGHDAD/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Neighboring Iraq warned that Syria’s civil war is tearing the Middle East apart and Lebanon’s president urged his country’s Hezbollah movement on Thursday to pull its fighters out of the conflict. After two years of fighting that has... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea rushed to the defense of American civil liberties on Tuesday, saying revelations of mass surveillance operations showed the United States was the “kingpin” of rights abuse. Rights groups and defectors have long accused the North, ... More »
ENISKILLEN, Northern Ireland/DUBAI (Reuters) – Rebels fought to halt an advance by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces into northern Syria on Monday while U.S. President Barack Obama faced a showdown with Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Obama’s decision last week ... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization on Monday urged health workers around the world to be on the alert for symptoms of the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), which has the potential to circle the globe and cause a pandemic... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Some 165 million children worldwide are stunted by malnutrition as babies and face a future of ill health, poor education, low earnings and poverty, the head of the United Nations children’s fund said on Friday. Anthony Lake, executive direc... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world’s poorest nations are set to nearly triple spending on nutrition programs for mothers and children over the next two years to help cope with volatile food prices, the World Bank said on Thursday. The Washington-based global dev... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Case numbers in Africa’s meningitis season this year were the lowest in 10 years thanks to a cheap new vaccine designed to treat a type of the disease common in the so-called meningitis belt, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. T... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The potential for social unrest in European Union countries is higher than anywhere else in the world and the already yawning gaps between rich and poor, a major trigger, are likely to widen globally, the International Labour Organisation sa... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Three more people have died in Saudi Arabia from the new SARS-like coronavirus, bringing the worldwide death toll to 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Saudi health officials also told the WHO of a new case in the easter... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A dream-like painting of children releasing kites by Brazil’s Candido Portinari sold for $1.4 million at Christie’s Latin American art sale and set a world auction record for the artist. Portinari’s 1941 “Meninos Soltando Pipas” was the to... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The new bird flu strain that has killed 36 people in China has proved resistant to Tamiflu for the first time, a development scientists said was “concerning”. The H7N9 virus was found to be resistant to Roche’s widely used flu drug in three ... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – The new H7N9 bird flu virus can be transmitted between mammals not only via direct contact but also in airborne droplets, and may be capable of spreading from person to person, Chinese and American researchers have found. A study publishe... More »
(Reuters) – My wife Becky and I experimented with radically cutting our food costs last week as part of a fundraising campaign created by a hunger charity. Under the “Live Below The Line” campaign sponsored by the Global Poverty Project, an Australian charity,... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Health groups said on Thursday they could rid the world of polio by 2018 with a $5.5 billion vaccination and monitoring plan to stop the disease taking hold once more now there are only a handful of cases worldwide. Experts say the plan offe... More »
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Commission encouraged EU governments on Monday to start membership talks with Serbia, in recognition of Belgrade’s accord with Kosovo last week that marked a milestone for the Balkans’ recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavi... More »
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union should start membership talks with Serbia, the bloc’s executive arm recommended on Monday, the last big hurdle the former pariah state had to pass before the EU’s 27 governments rule on opening the negotiations in June... More »
BELGRADE (Reuters) – The European Union summoned Serbia and Kosovo back to Brussels on Thursday, pressing for an historic accord to settle relations between the Balkan foes and open the door to membership talks with Belgrade. On the table is an agreement to en... More »
BRUSSELS/PRISTINA (Reuters) – Serbia’s hopes of starting talks this year on joining the European Union hung in the balance on Thursday after it balked at demands from its former province of Kosovo for a seat at the United Nations. Kosovo said the EU had summon... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Genetic sequence data on a deadly strain of bird flu previously unknown in people show the virus has already acquired some mutations that might make it more likely to cause a human pandemic, scientists say. But there is no evidence so far th... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The remarkable case of a baby being cured of HIV infection in the United States using readily available drugs has raised new hope for eradicating the infection in infants worldwide, but scientists say it will take a lot more research and mu... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli settlement construction on occupied land poses the most serious threat to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, European Union consuls general based in the region said in a report released on Wednesday. The non-bin... More »
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – The European Union is calling on Cambodia to come up with more cash for a Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, where resignations have slowed proceedings and some staff are threatening to strike after going for more than two months without p... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – China wants a third party to verify beginning March 1 that U.S. pork shipped to the country is free of a feed additive used to promote lean muscle growth, a U.S. Meat Export Federation spokesman told Reuters. The reasons for China’s timing ... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Iran on Wednesday to show flexibility at this month’s talks between Tehran and six world powers aimed at defusing tensions over the Iranian nuclear program. The five permanen... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – For pharmaceutical companies, Africa is changing. Not only is the continent’s economic growth grabbing attention in boardrooms but the shifting nature of its disease burden is luring Big Pharma, as new opportunities open up for treating chron... More »
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia held out the chance of a seat at the United Nations for Kosovo on Tuesday, contradicting a historic claim over its former province as it tries to remove the biggest obstacle to joining the European Union. Serbia has vowed never to r... More »
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia indicated on Wednesday it was ready to loosen its hold on a minority Serb region of neighboring Kosovo in what may mark a major concession by Belgrade as it pushes for talks on joining the European Union. Majority-Albanian Kosovo de... More »
