By Gabriela Baczynska and Wiktor Szary MOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) – A plan by Washington to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia’s border would be the most aggressive U.S. act since the Cold War, and Moscow would retaliate by beefing up its own forces, a Russian defense official said on Monday. The United States is offering to store military equipment on allies’ territory in eastern Europe, a proposal
By Donny Kwok and Clare Baldwin HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong police arrested nine people and seized suspected explosives, authorities said on Monday, as the city goes on high alert ahead of a crucial vote on a China-backed electoral reform package that sparked widespread protests last year. As tensions run high before debate in the Legislative Council begins on Wednesday, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said it was investigating
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop and papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic, will stand trial on criminal charges of paying for sex with minors and possessing child pornography, the Vatican said on Monday. Vatican sources said the decision by the president of the Vatican’s tribunal to indict Wesolowski could not have been taken without a green light from Pope Francis. Wesolowski’s trial will
By Tom Perry and and Umit Bektas BEIRUT/AKCAKALE, Turkey (Reuters) – The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Monday it had seized a major road that brought reinforcements from Islamic State’s defacto capital of Raqqa, enabling YPG fighters to lay siege to the militant’s stronghold of Tel Abyad. YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said the militia had surrounded the town along the Turkish border, pushing ahead with an offensive with the
By Dinky Mkhize PRETORIA (Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir flew out of South Africa on Monday in defiance of a Pretoria court that later said he should have been arrested to face genocide charges at the International Criminal Court. Despite a legal order for him to stay in the country ahead of the ruling on his detention, the government let Bashir leave unhindered, with South Africa’s ruling party accusing
Damascus (AFP) – At least 17 people were killed and 100 wounded on Monday in Syrian rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the city of Aleppo, Syrian state media said.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Plummeting auto sales in Brazil amid the nation’s worst economic crisis in a decade have battered the industry that makes up one-fourth of the country’s industrial gross domestic product and has led to widespread layoffs and mandatory leaves.
Britain has been forced to remove some of its spies after Russia and China accessed the top secret raft of documents taken by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, British media reported. The BBC and the Sunday Times cited senior government and intelligence officials as saying agents had been pulled, with the newspaper saying the move came after Russia was able to decrypt more than one million files. Downing Street
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Khartoum from Johannesburg Monday, an AFP correspondent said, after a court ordered him not to leave as it decided whether to arrest him over alleged war crimes. Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur region, was returning from an African Union summit. Dressed in his traditional white robes, a triumphant