By Tom Perry, Mariam Karouny and Laila Bassam BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Syrian army made big advances against insurgents in mountains north of Damascus on Wednesday, Hezbollah and Syrian state media said, shoring up President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on a crucial border zone. The gains in the Qalamoun region close to Lebanon against groups including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front come at a time when Assad has
What the operator did next will melt your heart.
Pistol-wielding gunmen in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi on Wednesday stormed a bus carrying members of the Shiite Ismaili minority, killing at least 43 in the second deadliest militant attack in the country this year. The Jundullah militant faction, a splinter of the Pakistani Taliban, later said it was responsible for the massacre while police said they also found leaflets at the scene claiming the attack on behalf of the Islamic
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch appeals court on Wednesday cleared a man of any criminal responsibility for helping his 99-year-old mother take her own life — a case that aimed to create precedents for assisting suicide in a country where euthanasia already is legal under certain circumstances.
Clarence Blackmon, 81, returned home to an empty refrigerator after being hospitalized for months for cancer treatments.
By Andrew MacAskill and Krista Mahr KATHMANDU/CHARIKOT, Nepal (Reuters) – The powerful 7.3 magnitude tremor that struck Nepal this week left an already traumatized population gripped by even deeper fear, underlining concerns that the country is ill-prepared to cope with the mental side effects. Tuesday’s quake caused a fraction of the fatalities inflicted by the huge 7.8 earthquake that killed some 8,000 people less than three weeks earlier, but left
The FDA has released new blood donation recommendations for men who have sex with men — involving a year of abstinence. Some say the advice, while better than an all-out ban, is still stigmatizing. But health experts explain why the “year” aspect isn’t totally arbitrary.
Alberto Contador moved into the overall lead of the Giro d’Italia after the battle for the pink jersey burst into life on a mountainous fifth stage won by breakaway rider Jan Polanc.
By Adrian Croft and Tulay Karadeniz ANTALYA, Turkey (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for a halt to fighting around the Ukrainian coastal town of Shyrokyne on Wednesday as NATO backed his demand that Russia fully implement a Ukraine ceasefire agreement. Kiev fears separatists may try to seize the port to help cement a long-term hold on eastern districts of Ukraine. Russia denies providing any troops or
By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The family of a 19-year-old Indian girl has been ostracized and fined 1.6 million rupees ($25,000) by a village council after she rejected a marriage arranged when she was a baby, the girl and her parents said on Wednesday. Santadevi Meghwal, from the western desert state of Rajasthan, said she was married off at 11 months old to a nine-year-old boy
