World Digest: June 18, 2013

Two suicide bombers targeted a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, one blowing himself up at a nearby checkpoint while the other slipped inside during prayers. The blasts killed 29 people, Iraqi officials said. Read full article >>

Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings, a contributor to Rolling Stone and BuzzFeed, died on Tuesday morning in a car crash in Los Angeles at the unforgivably young age of 33.He is best known, rightly, for his 2010 Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who as commander of the U.S.-led force in Afghanistan was the face of the war that Hastings saw as misguided and poorly managed. His profile, "The Runaw

G-8 leaders call for Syrian peace talks, sidestep issue of whether Assad should go

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — Leaders of the Group of Eight nations called Tuesday for a negotiated resolution to the worsening conflict in Syria, but in a concession to Russia, they did not declare that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must resign. Read full article >>

In Turkey, protesters try a new approach: Standing still

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s demonstrations took a new twist on Tuesday, as plazas, malls and public spaces across the country filled with people trying a new form of protest: doing nothing.Protesters opposed to the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that he may have driven them from central Istanbul’s Gezi Park, which they had occupied for more than two weeks, but that h

Explaining Brazil's protest movement with photos and tweets

Brazil is experiencing its largest protests in more than 20 years, as more than 200,000 demonstrators take to the streets of Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and four other major cities to rally on a range of social issues. Read full article >>

NATO transfers full responsibility for security to Afghan forces

KABUL — Afghanistan’s military assumed the leadership role on security matters for every part of the country Tuesday, leaving the U.S.-led coalition even more firmly on the sidelines but raising the stakes for Afghan politicians, generals and soldiers, who still face grave threats from Taliban fighters. Read full article >>

Egypt appoints member of terror group that once massacred tourists to run tourism region

It was only 16 years ago, in 1997, that members of an Egyptian militant group called Gamaa Islamiya stormed the ancient Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, a tourism magnet, and massacred 62 tourists before killing themselves, part of their insurgent campaign against the government. This week, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi swore in Adel Mohamed al-Khayat, a former leader of Gamaa Islamiya and now

Sunnis, Shiites clash in Lebanese town

BEIRUT —Fighting erupted in the southern Lebanese town of Sidon on Tuesday between the supporters of a Salafist sheik and local Shiites affiliated with the Hezbollah movement in the latest example of sectarian tensions fueled by the conflict in neighboring Syria . Read full article >>

Amazing point-of-view video shows what it feels like in the middle of Rio's massive protest

Protests across Brazil, which began as a movement against rising bus fares, have since escalated into mass demonstrations challenging the rising cost of living and what is seen as the government's emphasis on large-scale projects such as the World Cup over basic social services. Read full article >>

Indian court rules that any couple who sleeps together is considered married

NEW DELHI It is a bit of a cliche to say that Indian society is in the throes of change these days. But it appears that the more things change, the more they remain the same.A court verdict in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Monday seems to conclude that adult couples who have slept together should be considered legally akin to married. The judge directed a man to pay alimony to a woman w

Israeli politicians form new caucus to track the U.S. relationship

JERUSALEM As the United States' position toward Israel and the Middle East continues to evolve, lawmakers in Israel have established, for the first time, a parliamentary caucus aimed at tracking their country's relationship with the U.S. and any issues that might affect relations with their staunchest ally. Read full article >>

In Israel, mixed signals on prospect for peace with Palestinians

JERUSALEM — As the United States seeks to revive Middle East peace talks, the coalition government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a babel of voices whose members issue contradictory statements, sometimes hourly, declaring that negotiations with the Palestinians are: Read full article >>

The two surprisingly small but notoriously difficult issues standing between the U.S. and Iran

It's only Tuesday, and already both President Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have made comments this week hinting at their willingness to hold direct talks over the nuclear standoff that has created such antagonism between their countries. It's a promising sign. And both leaders might find that their end goals are actually quite similar. The big challenge actually has much more t

Obama's doctrine on Syria: 'What we're trying to do is take sides against extremists'

President Obama offered some clues to his thinking on U.S. involvement in Syria in a Monday evening interview with Charlie Rose. He hinted that one of his major goals is to slow or prevent the rise of extremists, such as the al-Qaeda-allied rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra. "Really what we're trying to do is take sides against extremists of all sorts," Obama said. This strategy seems to imply he pref

Bomb at Pakistan funeral kills at least 27

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — More than two dozen people were killed Tuesday when at least one suicide bomber detonated explosives at a funeral packed with prominent local officials in northwestern Pakistan, the latest in a string of gruesome attacks in a country struggling to combat terrorist threats. Read full article >>

Egypt’s Morsi gets poor reviews from Islamists after first year of presidency

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT — As the first year of Mohamed Morsi’s presidency draws to a close later this month, this country is bracing for what organizers promise will be massive protests by liberal and secular Egyptians who demand his ouster. Read full article >>

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 >>