The United States killed deputy leader of al Qaeda, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in a strike in Yemen, U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday. Two of the officials said the White House would make an announcement on Wuhayshi shortly. Wuhayshi, a close associate of Osama bin Laden in the years before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, was once seen as a successor to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
Turkey on Tuesday briefly detained four journalists covering the seizure by Kurdish forces of the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, reportedly because they asked the local governor a tricky question on Islamic State (IS) militants. Hasan Akbas of the daily Evrensel, Cumhuriyet reporter Pinar Ogunc, Ozlem Topcu of German weekly Die Zeit and Deniz Yucel of German daily Die Welt were all detained, the reporters announced on Twitter.
By Francesco Guarascio LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – France, Italy and Germany agreed on Tuesday to join forces to identify migrants arriving by sea and to swiftly relocate them across the European Union or send them back to their home countries if their claims for asylum in Europe are rejected. Ministers from the three countries put on a show of unity after the arrival in Europe of thousands of migrants, who make
N’Djamena (AFP) – Scores of police and soldiers patrolled Chad’s capital N’Djamena on Tuesday, a day after twin suicide bombings blamed on Boko Haram jihadists killed 24 people and wounded more than 100 in the first such attacks in the city. The security forces had sealed off the area around the presidential palace, as well as the police headquarters — which was one of the bombers’ targets. Chad, which has
By Ahmed Elumami and Peter Cooney TRIPOLI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A veteran Islamist militant blamed for a deadly attack on an Algerian gas field and who ran smuggling routes across North Africa has been killed in a U.S. air strike inside Libya, Libya’s government said on Sunday. The recognized government said the strike had killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant who became a major figure in insurgencies across North Africa and
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