By Maha El Dahan and Sami Aboudi ABU DHABI/DUBAI (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed four people at a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, the second attack claimed by the Sunni militant group in a week in the world’s top oil-exporting country. The Interior Ministry said a car exploded outside al-Anoud mosque in Dammam during noon prayers on Friday, while witnesses
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for bombings outside two heavily fortified five-star hotels in the Iraqi capital that killed 10 people. In a statement, Islamic State said a suicide bomber called Abu Qutaiba had parked a car outside the Ishtar hotel in central Baghdad late on Thursday before driving another vehicle laden with 230 kg of explosives to the nearby Babylon hotel. Iraqi authorities lifted a decade-old night-time curfew
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Kanupriya Kapoor BANGKOK (Reuters) – Southeast Asian nations agreed on Friday to intensify search and rescue efforts to help vulnerable “boat people” stranded in the region’s seas, as Myanmar said its navy had seized a vessel off its coast with more than 700 migrants aboard. More than 4,000 migrants have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh since Thailand launched a crackdown on people-smuggling
By Clement Manirabarusha BUJUMBURA (Reuters) – An explosion shook the center of the Burundi capital on Friday but no one was injured, a police source said, as deadly unrest against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office rumbled on. “We don’t know the cause of the explosion yet,” said one police officer who had visited the scene of the blast. The demonstrations, which began a day after
By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) – An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Thursday a delegation of North Korean experts in nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles visited a military site near Tehran in April amid talks between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program. The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002.
By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) – By releasing video of Beijing’s island reclamation work and considering more assertive maritime actions, the United States is signaling a tougher stance over the South China Sea and trying to spur Asian partners to more action. The release last week of the surveillance plane footage – showing dredgers and other ships busily turning remote outcrops into islands with runways and harbors – helps ensure
By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) – By releasing video of Beijing’s island reclamation work and considering more assertive maritime actions, the United States is signaling a tougher stance over the South China Sea and trying to spur Asian partners to more action. The release last week of the surveillance plane footage – showing dredgers and other ships busily turning remote outcrops into islands with runways and harbors – helps ensure
By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) – An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Thursday a delegation of North Korean experts in nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles visited a military site near Tehran in April amid talks between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program. The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002.
CAIRO/ADEN (Reuters) – Two Saudi border guards were killed and five wounded by shells fired from Yemeni territories, an Interior Ministry spokesman said late on Wednesday, as the United Nations said the war’s death toll was close to 2,000. Saudi forces and the Houthis have been trading fire across the border since an Arab alliance began military operations against the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group in March to try to restore exiled
By Mike Collett and Brian Homewood ZURICH (Reuters) – FIFA President Sepp Blatter rejected an emotional plea to resign from one of the world’s soccer greats on Thursday as the corruption scandal engulfing the game’s governing body drew warnings from sponsors and political leaders. As FIFA faced the worst crisis in its 111-year history, Michel Platini, the former French international who now heads UEFA, Europe’s soccer confederation, said he had