WORLD HEADLINES
BEIRUT/DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Islamic State militants published photos on Tuesday purporting to show the destruction of a Roman-era temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an act the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO has called a war crime. Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters the images did appear to show the destruction of the ancient Baal Shamin temple and correlated with descriptions given by residents of the explosion detonated
By Ju-min Park and Tony Munroe SEOUL (Reuters) – North and South Korea agreed early on Tuesday to end a military standoff that sparked an exchange of artillery fire and had ratcheted up tension on one of the world’s most heavily-fortified borders. Under an accord reached in the early hours, following more than two days of talks, North Korea expressed regret over the recent wounding of South Korean soldiers in
Iran is not considering a prisoner exchange with the United States, a senior official said on Tuesday, ahead of an expected verdict for an Iranian-American journalist held in Tehran for more than a year. “The reports on the possible exchange of prisoners are not true and it is not on the table,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi was quoted as saying by Iran’s ISNA news agency. There has been speculation
The Swedish author of the highly-anticipated sequel to the Millennium crime trilogy said Tuesday he supported a Danish newspaper boycott of him over his publisher’s refusal to let literary critics read the book in advance. The boycott concerns David Lagercrantz’s book “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” — the fourth instalment of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium trilogy which is due for release in 25 countries on Thursday and in the
Zimbabwe’s veteran President Robert Mugabe was booed and heckled by opposition lawmakers over the deteriorating economy as he gave his state of the nation address to parliament Tuesday. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawmakers questioned his economic policies, jeering as the 91-year-old delivered a policy speech which lasted less than half an hour. When Mugabe — who has been in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980 — outlined
VEJER DE LA FRONTERA, Spain (AP) — Former champion Alejandro Valverde won the fourth stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Tuesday, while Colombian Esteban Chaves protected the leader’s jersey for a third day.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan court says former dictator Efrain Rios Montt can stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity — but can’t be sentenced because the 89-year-old suffers from dementia.
By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Park Geun-hye demanded on Monday that North Korea apologize over recent landmine blasts, even as the bitter rivals held marathon talks to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula back to the brink of armed conflict. Park said anti-North propaganda broadcasts would continue unless Pyongyang took responsibility for landmine explosions early this month that wounded two South Korean
By Guy Faulconbridge TEHRAN (Reuters) – International sanctions on Iran could start to be lifted as early as spring next year, Britain’s foreign minister said on Monday, as Tehran and the West rebuild their ties and potentially open up billions of dollars of trade deals. Six world powers agreed in July to lift sanctions in return for Iran accepting long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West suspected was
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday the United States has been sending “signals” that it wants to start mending ties with Moscow, badly strained over the past year and a half by the conflict in Ukraine. The United States and European Union slapped economic sanctions on Russia last year after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
