Spotlight
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World
Taliban Open Qatar Office, U.S. Signals Meetings to Begin
The Taliban opened a political office in Doha on Tuesday, as Washington said it hoped to begin talks with its Afghan foe in the Qatari capital "in ...
18 June 2013, 13:30
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Lebanon
1 Dead, 4 Hurt as Asir Supporters, Resistance Brigades Clash in Abra
Clashes erupted on Tuesday afternoon between supporters of Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and members of the Hizbullah-affiliated Resistance ...
18 June 2013, 13:00
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Middle East
G8 Calls for Syria Peace Conference 'As Soon As Possible'
G8 leaders on Tuesday strongly endorsed calls for a peace conference to be held in Geneva on the Syria conflict "as soon as possible".
At the en...
18 June 2013, 11:54
North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un has reportedly given copies of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to his top officials, urging them to study it as a leadership skills manual.
Kim handed out translations of the German dictator's manifesto to select officials at the time of his birthday in January, reported New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors.
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Suspected Islamists shot dead nine students as they sat an exam in an attack on a private school in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, local people said Tuesday.
The attack, in a region that is a stronghold of the Islamist rebel group Boko Haram, happened on Monday in the Jajeri suburb of the city, they said.
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Four Americans were killed Tuesday in an attack on Bagram air base by insurgents in Afghanistan, a U.S. defense official said.
The deaths were caused by insurgent "indirect fire," either mortars or rockets, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Fiji has offered more than 500 troops to the U.N. Golan Heights peacekeeping force after several countries withdrew because of the spillover from the Syria conflict, diplomats said Tuesday.
Fiji will supply 170 troops this month to replace Japanese and Croatian soldiers who have left in previous weeks. Diplomats said it has also offered to replace the 370 troops that Austria is withdrawing.
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Barack Obama arrived for his first visit as U.S. president to Berlin on Tuesday for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a major open-air speech at the city's Brandenburg Gate.
Obama arrived at Berlin's Tegel Airport from Northern Ireland where he and Merkel took part in a G8 summit dominated by the bloodshed in Syria and a bid by the European Union and the United States to create the world's biggest free trade area.
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Two rockets fired from Syrian territory hit on Tuesday the eastern region of Bekaa, a security source told Agence France Presse.
"Two rockets landed in the Brital countryside and the nearby Taybeh valley," the source said on condition of anonymity. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages.
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Jordan's King Abdullah II has endorsed a treaty with Britain expected to pave the way for the extradition of radical cleric Abu Qatada who has resisted deportation for the past decade, official Petra news agency reported Tuesday.
Petra said the king issued a royal decree "endorsing the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between Jordan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
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The five defendants accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks refused to appear Tuesday at a Guantanamo hearing to lay the groundwork for their eventual trial.
The men on Monday attended the first of five days of pre-trial hearings, held in a courtroom at the remote U.S. naval base in Cuba.
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French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that Iranian president-elect Hassan Rowhani would be welcome at Syria peace talks "if he can be useful".
"Let's wait for the new president's statements," Hollande said at the end of a G8 summit, adding: "My position is that if he can be useful, yes, he would be welcome" at a peace conference mooted for later this year in Geneva.
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Six people belonging to Tunisia's hardline Salafist movement have each been handed five year jail sentences for torching an important Sufi shrine, the country's Sufi union said on Tuesday.
"It's the first time such a sentence has been pronounced. It shows that the law can be applied in Tunisia when the political will exists," Mohamed El Heni, one of the union's leaders, told Agence France Presse.
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