World Digest: June 17, 2013

Egyptian tourism workers and residents of the ancient city of Luxor voiced their anger Monday after an Islamist linked to a former militant group that carried out the city’s deadliest terrorist attack, killing nearly 60 tourists in the 1990s, was appointed governor of their province. Read full article >>

Turkish government could use armed forces against protesters, senior official warns

ISTANBUL —Turkey’s leaders are prepared to use the armed forces against protesters if they consider it necessary, the deputy prime minister said Monday, raising the threat of military intervention for the first time during the ongoing unrest, in a country that has only recently moved away from its long history of army coups. Read full article >>

Syrian refugees find little help in Greece

Thousands of Syrians fleeing war and misery are making their way to Europe, and many are coming through Greece, whose Mediterranean islands stretch within tantalizing reach of home. Once they get here, many wish they’d never come. Read full article >>

Obama and Putin fail to resolve differences over Syria

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladi­mir Putin, failed to resolve on Monday their significant differences over how to bring about an end to Syria’s civil war, as each leader steps up military support for opposite sides in the worsening conflict. Read full article >>

Fareed Zakaria's case against U.S. involvement in Syria

Fareed Zakaria: Stay Out Of Syria from The Dish on Vimeo.About two weeks ago, Washington Post columnist and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria recorded a video for blogger Andrew Sullivan explaining why he believes the United States is right to practice "strategic restraint" on Syria; to not get involved. Now, as the Obama administration says it will respond to Syria's use of chemical weapons by prov

Report: Kim Jong Un handing out copies of 'Mein Kampf' to senior North Korean officials

Senior North Korean officials received copies of "Mein Kampf," Adolf Hitler's rambling prison memoir, as gifts for Kim Jong Un's birthday this January, according to a report by New Focus International, a North Korean news organization that sources from defectors and volunteer citizens within the country. Read full article >>

Five astonishing videos from Turkey's protests and crackdowns

After two weeks of demonstrations, police cleared protesters from Istanbul's Taksim square and the surrounding area this weekend. You might have missed the intense clashes, which left a number of people injured and saw police deploying tear gas and water cannons against protesters. Read full article >>

Iran’s new president says U.S. outreach possible if ‘our nuclear rights’ are respected

TEHRAN — In his first news conference since being elected president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani said Monday that he wants to improve his country’s relations with the United States, but not at the expense of Iran’s nuclear program. Read full article >>

New poll finds Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan still popular; though support is declining

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a forceful denunciation of the demonstrations in Istanbul's Taksim Square and an even more forceful police operation to clear the protesters, is still popular with 53.5 percent public support, according to a new poll. That makes his approval rating one of the highest among European heads of state. Read full article >>

5 things to know about Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani

Iranian officials announced Saturday that Hassan Rouhani, perhaps the most moderate candidate in the country's six-way presidential race, had won the votes to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Young Iranians filled the streets in celebration, a striking contrast with the protests and crackdowns that followed 2009 s disputed election. Though observers in and outside of Iran are watching with

Deadlock in Julian Assange saga continues

LONDON— British and Ecuadoran officials said Monday that they had failed to make a breakthrough in the standoff over Julian Assange, the controversial Wiki­Leaks founder who has spent the past year holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy. Read full article >>

The Guardian: Britain, United States spied at summits

LONDON — British and U.S. spy agencies monitored the e-mails and phone calls of foreign dignitaries at two international summits in London in 2009, the Guardian newspaper reported Monday, citing documents it received from former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. Read full article >>

Philippines reproductive-health law tests power of Catholic Church as it lobbies Supreme Court

MANILA — In what is expected to mark a pivotal moment in this rapidly developing but still impoverished nation, the Supreme Court of the Philippines will weigh next month the constitutionality of a new reproductive-health law that pits the entrenched power of the Roman Catholic establishment against a rising tide of modernization and economic aspiration. Read full article >>

Tunisia faces political struggle over Islam

TUNIS — Two and a half years after kindling a revolution that flamed across the Arab world, Tunisians have moved on to the next chapter, a political struggle between Islamic fundamentalism and the tolerant, Mediterranean-style Islam that has characterized their nation’s 57 years as an independent state. Read full article >>

On Europe trip, Obama will face a continent frustrated by his actions and inaction

SLIGO, Ireland — President Obama this week will visit a European continent deeply worried about its economy, the worsening conflict in Syria and the uncertain direction of American leadership abroad in the fifth year of his administration. Read full article >>

Turkey turmoil could lead to new flash points

ISTANBUL — The turmoil in Turkey entered a new stage Sunday, with riot police tearing through residential neighborhoods in Istanbul to clear streets of protesters as Prime Minister Recep Tay­yip Erdogan delivered a fiery speech to tens of thousands of supporters on the city’s outskirts. Read full article >>

Multiple attacks kill 32 people across Iraq

BAGHDAD — A string of nearly a dozen apparently coordinated bombings and a shooting in cities across Iraq killed at least 32 people and wounded dozens Sunday, extending a wave of violence that is raising fears of a return to widespread killing a decade after the U.S.-led invasion. Read full article >>

Iran’s new president more cautious than reformist

TEHRAN — This capital city was calm on Sunday after a long night of spontaneous street celebrations following the surprise victory of president-elect Hassan Rouhani, a cleric whose moderate views have inspired hope among Iranians eager for new personal freedoms and quick social change. Read full article >>

Defector Syrian general will be conduit for U.S. military aid to rebels

BEIRUT — A mild-mannered ­Syrian general who taught at a military academy before he defected last year is poised to play a key role in shaping the outcome of Syria’s war now that the United States has said it will provide direct military assistance to the rebels. Read full article >>

Turkish police seal Istanbul’s Taksim Square from protesters

ISTANBUL — Police sealed Istanbul’s central Taksim Square on Sunday, a day after they cleared it in a tear-gas-filled conclusion to two weeks of anti-government protests in Turkey. Clashes between protesters and the police lasted far into the night around Istanbul and the country, as confrontation prevailed over a compromise that had briefly seemed attainable only hours earlier. Read full artic

N. Korea proposes ‘senior-level’ talks with U.S.

SEOUL — North Korea on Sunday proposed wide-ranging “senior-level” talks with the United States, an offer it said Washington should accept without setting any “preconditions” about de­nuclearization.The North’s proposal marked the latest attempt at reconciliation by a family-run police state that spent much of March and April making threats. In a statement issued by its official news agency a

Private money pours into Syrian conflict as rich donors pick sides

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Syrian tanks were closing in on the rebel-held town of Qusair last month when a Kuwaiti sheik named Hajjaj al-Ajmi and his money machine roared into action. In a series of urgent messages on his Twitter account, Ajmi appealed for cash to help save the town’s defenders. Read full article >>

Attacks in Benghazi kill 6 Libyan soldiers

TRIPOLI, Libya — Gunmen staged overnight attacks on at least six security buildings and outposts throughout Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi, killing six soldiers, military officials said Saturday.The assaults, which included snipers, rocket-propelled grenades, knife-wielding assailants and explosives thrown onto rooftops, come after a number of smaller targeted attacks and assassinations of

Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani wins Iran’s presidential vote

TEHRAN — Iranians took a step toward ending their country’s isolation by voting overwhelmingly in weekend presidential elections for a moderate reformer who promised a clean break from policies that put Iran on a collision course with the West. Read full article >>

About Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president-elect

President-elect of the Islamic Republic of Iran Age: 64 Education: PhD in law from the Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland Read full article >>

Pope names interim prelate to Vatican bank

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis took a big first step toward reforming the troubled Vatican bank Saturday by tapping a trusted prelate to help oversee its management, a sign that he wants to know more about the bank’s activities. Read full article >>

Al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq defies boss over Syria fight

BAGHDAD — The leader of al-Qaeda’s Iraq arm defiantly rejected an order from the terror network’s central command to stop claiming control over the organization’s Syria affiliate, according to a message purportedly from him that was posted online Saturday. Read full article >>

Iran's next president, in speech: 'I will try to improve peace in the world by engagement'

Hassan Rouhani, the political moderate who was announced Saturday as the winner of Iran's presidential election, gave a victory speech in Tehran that offered an early hint of diplomatic engagement. A former nuclear negotiator who agreed to halt uranium enrichment in 2004, Rouhani is seen as much more predisposed toward pragmatism and diplomacy than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some Iran

Video: Young Iranians fill streets in celebration of their new president, Hossan Rouhani

This video, uploaded by a popular Persian-language YouTube channel and circulated by the Iran news site Tehran Bureau, purports to show young Iranians celebrating in the streets of Shiraz, a city in the country's south. They are said to have gathered spontaneously in support of Hassan Rouhani, the moderate former nuclear negotiator, who has won Iran's election to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as p

Iran's next president, Hassan Rouhani, seen as best hope for ending nuclear standoff with West

Almost a day after polls closed, Iranian authorities have announced that the race's leading moderate, a cleric and former nuclear negotiator named Hassan Rouhani, has won the election outright to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran. Read full article >>