Two dead in Beirut clashes after killing of anti-Assad cleric
ALBIREH, Lebanon (Reuters) - Hundreds of Islamist gunmen fired in the air on Monday at the funeral of a Sunni Muslim cleric whose killing ignited street battles and brought the bloodshed from Syria's 14-month-old uprising spilling across the border into Lebanon. Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, an opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was buried in northern Lebanon a day after he was shot dead at a Lebanese army checkpoint in a part of that country where Sunni sympathy for Syria's rebels and the uprising against Assad is particularly strong. ...
White House denies arming Syrian rebels
President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly said over the past few months that it won't ship arms to Syria's outgunned opposition, warning that doing so will only escalate the bloody conflict there. But the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the U.S. has been helping to coordinate shipments [...]
Obama administration denies role in arming Syrian rebels
President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly said over the past few months that it won't ship arms to Syria's outgunned opposition, warning that doing so will only escalate the bloody conflict there. But the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the U.S. has been helping to coordinate shipments [...]
Caught in Syrian crossfire, U.N. monitors handed over
AMMAN (Reuters) - Six ceasefire monitors, who were caught overnight in the crossfire of Syria's civil conflict, were handed back to their U.N. colleagues on Wednesday by rebels fighting the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. The stranding of the observers in a gun and bomb attack at a funeral that killed at least 21 civilians underscored the relentlessness of the violence challenging a U.N. ceasefire that is meant to lead to a peaceful resolution to the uprising. "We gave the six with their cars to a U.N. convoy near the entrance of Khan Sheikhoun. ...
Thousands flee to Uganda as Congo hunts renegade commander
KISORO, Uganda (Reuters) - It was the six rebel soldiers who hacked down the door of Elias Ngahaga's house one night two weeks ago in Kesaha, eastern Congo, who led him and his family to flee to Uganda from his village, where government troops and rebels are fighting. "We were frightened. They had guns and pangas (machetes)," said Ngahaga, 20, sheltering from the rain in an abandoned building on the edge of a temporary refugee camp in western Uganda. "They took clothes, potatoes, sheets, goats and money. ...
Syria attack kills 21; rebels say protect U.N. monitors
BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 21 people were killed on Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, activists said, and members of a team of U.N. monitors caught in the incident said they were in rebel hands "for their own protection." When Reuters asked one of the four monitors by phone if they were being held prisoner, he said: "We are safe with the (rebel) Free Army." A spokesman for the rebel military council said the rebels were working on a safe exit for the monitors. An internal U.N. ...
Bomb targeting former Colombian minister kills two
BOGOTA (Reuters) - In a rare attack in the Colombian capital Bogota, a bomb targeting a former interior minister on Tuesday killed his driver and a police officer, President Juan Manuel Santos said. The Andean country has battled left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and drug lords for decades, but a campaign since 2002 against cocaine traffickers and rebels coupled with the demobilization of paramilitaries has sharply reduced violence. "We condemn this attack ... this government will not be thrown off course by these terrorist attacks. ...
Syrian attack kills 21; rebels hold U.N. monitors
BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 21 people were killed on Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, activists said, and members of a team of U.N. monitors caught in the battle said they were left in rebel hands. Reuters asked one of the four monitors by phone if they were being held prisoner. He did not reply. Another said: "We are safe with the (rebel) Free Army." A spokesman for the rebel military council said the rebels were working on a safe exit for them. "They are now with the Free Army which is protecting them. ...
Rebels kill 23 Syrian soldiers, opposition snubs Arab talks
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels killed 23 government soldiers on Monday, activists said, and efforts to find a viable political alternative to Bashar al-Assad faltered when an opposition group said it would boycott Arab-backed talks to unite its splintered ranks. The latest bloodshed centered in the town of Rastan, where opposition sources said President Assad's forces killed nine other people, further unraveling a month-old U.N. ceasefire pact that is being overseen by international monitors. ...
Mali coup leaders threatened with new sanctions
ABUJA (Reuters) - West Africa's 15-nation ECOWAS bloc threatened on Monday to impose new sanctions on Mali's coup leaders and their allies, accusing them of blocking a return to civilian rule and further destabilizing the divided nation. Mali's neighbors and donors are furious that the officers who led a March 22 coup are still meddling in politics despite a pledge to stand down. They have also criticized the coup leaders for failing to tackle separatist and al Qaeda-linked rebels in control of the north. ...
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