WORLD HEADLINES
MADRID (Reuters) – Russia is escalating Syria’s civil war by targeting the moderate opposition, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday, comparing Moscow’s effort to bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to tethering itself to a sinking ship. “By taking military action in Syria against moderate groups targets, Russia has escalated the civil war,” Carter said in a speech during a trip to Spain. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by
By Simon Johnson and Ben Hirschler STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – Three scientists from Japan, China and Ireland whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases including malaria and elephantiasis won the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday. Irish-born William Campbell and Japan’s Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people
By Mohammed Mukhashaf PERIM ISLAND, YEMEN (Reuters) – Perim Island may be a small lump of windswept volcanic rock at the entrance to the Red Sea but its capture by Gulf Arab forces from Houthi fighters was a welcome victory for Yemen’s government and its allies. Gulf Arab troops swooped in from air and sea last week to take back Perim, which sits on one of the world’s most important
By Ayla Jean Yackley and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The United States and its NATO allies denounced Russia on Monday for violating Turkish air space along the frontier with Syria, and Ankara threatened to respond if provoked again, raising the prospect of direct confrontation between the Cold War enemies. NATO held an emergency meeting of ambassadors of its 28 member states to respond to what Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called
Ukraine has started withdrawing tanks and light artillery from the frontline in the eastern region of Luhansk in line with an agreement with Russian-backed separatists, Kiev’s military said on Monday. Ukraine and separatist leaders agreed last week to extend a pull-back of weapons in eastern Ukraine, which rebels said could mean an “end to the war” with the Ukrainian government. “Today at 11.00 (4:00 a.m. EDT) in Luhansk region we
By Krista Mahr and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s reticence since a suspected U.S. air strike hit a hospital in northern Afghanistan on Saturday speaks volumes about how much he relies on Washington after 14 years of war. The air strike in Kunduz that killed 22 staff and patients at a clinic run by the medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has fueled Afghan anger
ZURICH (AP) — A senior South American soccer official has been denied bail on health grounds in Switzerland as he fights extradition to the United Sates after being indicted in the FIFA bribery case.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Turkey’s president sought European backing on Monday for the creation of buffer and no-fly zones on the Syrian border, saying that such moves are key to ending the refugee crisis.
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – European Union countries might be allowed to exclude costs of the refugee crisis from budget deficit calculations on a case-by-case basis, EU officials said, as Austria pushed for its spending on refugees to be exempt. Euro zone countries are obliged by EU laws to bring their budget close to balance or into surplus in structural terms, which exclude one-off items and revenue and spending fluctuations caused by
By Alexander Winning and Suleiman Al-Khalidi MOSCOW/AMMAN (Reuters) – Russian jets hit Islamic State targets and other rebel groups in Syria on Saturday, on a fourth day of air strikes by Moscow in support of President Bashar al-Assad which have dramatically escalated foreign intervention in Syria. Russia’s air campaign in Syria, where a U.S.-led air coalition and fighters on the ground from regional states are already entangled in the four-year-old
