By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s opposition resumed talks on Saturday aimed at creating a coherent front crucial to a proposed international peace conference, struggling under Western and Arab pressure to close their fractious ranks and elect a viable leadership. Failure of the opposition to unite could weaken the hand of conference co-sponsors [...]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL – Syrian opposition talks aimed at presenting a coherent front at an international peace conference to end the civil war faced the prospect of collapse after President Bashar al-Assad’s foes failed to cut an internal deal, opposition sources said on Friday. The failure of the Syrian National Coalition to alter [...]
By Marina Lopes MAPUTO (Reuters) – Human Rights Watch accused Mozambique’s government and foreign mining companies on Thursday of "serious shortcomings" in resettling communities to make way for coal mines, leaving thousands without proper homes, food or sources of income. In a report on the social impact of a mining boom in the war-scarred southern [...]
By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s clerical rulers may have sought to remove any challenge to their grip by barring two vivid contenders from next month’s presidential election, but they risk alienating voters already disillusioned by the violent aftermath of the 2009 poll. The June 14 vote will have little bearing [...]
By Nick Macfie ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – China and Pakistan should make cooperation on power generation a priority, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, as Islamabad seeks to end an energy crisis that triggers power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing the economy to a near standstill. Li arrived in the Pakistan capital under [...]
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he would take up the ban of his close aide from the June 14 presidential election with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian media reported. Iran’s electoral watchdog on Tuesday disqualified Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad’s former chief of staff, and moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [...]
By Deepa Seetharaman DETROIT (Reuters) – A boutique carmaker led by former General Motors Co executive Bob Lutz and China’s largest auto parts supplier made an offer this month to buy cash-strapped "green" car company Fisker Automotive, people familiar with the matter said. VL Automotive and China’s Wanxiang Group are looking to gain control of [...]
By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian authorities barred two potentially powerful and disruptive candidates from running in next month’s presidential election on Tuesday, ensuring a contest largely among hardliners loyal to the clerical supreme leader. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a veteran companion of the Islamic Republic’s founder, a former president and thought potentially sympathetic to [...]
By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s electoral watchdog said on Monday it would bar physically feeble candidates from running for president, in an apparent hint that it could disqualify 78-year-old former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from the race. Rafsanjani, if he is allowed to run, would be a significant challenge to conservative hardliners who [...]
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan has told civil servants not to wear socks as the country turns off air-conditioners amid a chronic power crisis and soaring temperatures. The government has turned off all air-conditioning in its offices as the country endures blackouts of up to 20 hours a day in some places. "There shall be no [...]
