TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia’s government says a gunbattle between security forces and extremists preparing an imminent attack has left three troops and one of the attackers dead. Mohamed Ali Aroui, a spokesman for Tunisia’s Interior Ministry, says the firefight in the tense region of Sidi Bouzid began around dawn on …
Read More »
JERUSALEM – An online group promoting Mideast peace is receiving a high-powered boost of support as it prepares to pass a key milestone. The YaLa-Young Leaders program says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and five European foreign ministers will address its online peace conference on July 2. Former President Bill Clinton …
Read More »
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Pirates who hijacked a Malaysian oil tanker last week have fled on the ship’s lifeboat after being pursued by a Malaysian navy ship, an official said Friday. Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said the eight pirates, believed to be Indonesians, abandoned the MT Orkim Harmony late …
Read More »
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia’s prime minister has established a special commission to investigate the long-unsolved killings of three labor leaders. It was unclear why Prime Minister Hun Sen would revive the murder cases, which sparked international accusations of impunity for human rights abuses under his government — a concern …
Read More »
BAMAKO, Mali – A local official says gunmen identifying as Islamic extremists have attacked and occupied a village in southern Mali near the border with Ivory Coast. Mamadou Tangara, the mayor of Sikasso, said the gunmen arrived in Fakola village on motorcycles early Sunday morning. A military police official, who …
Read More »
BEIRUT – The Central Bank of Syria has put into circulation a new 1,000-pound banknote, one that doesn’t include the image of President Bashar Assad’s father and the country’s former president, Hafez Assad. Governor Adib Mayaleh’s statement, carried by the state news agency SANA, says the move is part of …
Read More »
MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Defense Department says its troops were instructed to have “unrestricted” respect for human rights a year ago when soldiers allegedly killed at least 12 suspected drug gang members after they had surrendered. The statement issued late Friday was the army’s first response to the documents released …
Read More »
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan official says a suicide car bomber has targeted a NATO convoy in the capital, Kabul, wounding at least two people. The city’s police chief who is at the scene of the blast, Gen. Andul Rahman Rahimi, says one of the wounded was an Afghan civilian …
Read More »
LONDON – Police in Scotland have launched an investigation after a couple was found in a crashed car three days after reports of a crash near a busy highway. Authorities say that a dead man and seriously injured woman were found off the roadway in the car on Wednesday near …
Read More »
JERUSALEM – The families of two Israelis missing in Gaza are complaining over their treatment by government officials, saying their anguish is being ignored. Friday’s remarks came a day after Israeli officials’ stunning announcement that two men — Avraham Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian descent, and a Bedouin from Israel’s …
Read More »