Kerry Is Hoping to Nudge Egypt Toward Reforms

CAIRO — Secretary of State John Kerry told Egypt’s political and business leaders on Saturday that it was urgent their country institute economic reforms and satisfy the conditions the International Monetary Fund has set for a $4.8 billion loan. “It is paramount, essential, urgent that the Egyptian economy get stronger, that it gets back on its feet,” Mr. Kerry told a group of Egyptian and...

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French and Chad Forces Bear Down on Militants in Mali

DAKAR, Senegal — The French military struck at Islamist militants dug in along the remote, rocky mountain ranges of northern Mali over the last week, killing scores, a French military spokesman said Friday. The week’s operations, conducted with Chadian troops, were a further sign that the French military intervention against the jihadists in Mali, initially viewed as a quick strike, was not...

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Czechs Split Deeply Over Joining the Euro

PRAGUE — Vaclav Klaus, the departing president of the Czech Republic, has equated the European Union to the former Soviet bloc, blamed the euro for the Greek crisis and called the single currency a mistake. He has even refused to hang the Union’s gold-starred flag at the Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech president. So when Mr. Klaus, a Thatcher-loving economist who became a potent spokesman...

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The Lede: Syrians Describe Apparent Missile Strikes on Aleppo

A Human Rights Watch video report on the aftermath of apparent missile strikes in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo.Human Rights Watch investigators who visited Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, have concluded that the Syrian government fired at least four ballistic missiles into civilian neighborhoods there last week, killing more than 141 people, including 71 children. As my colleague Anne Barnard explained,...

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Balloon Explosion in Egypt Kills at Least 19 Tourists

CAIRO — The explosion of a hot-air balloon over the ancient temples at Luxor killed at least 19 sightseers Tuesday, delivering a grim blow to Egypt’s critical tourism business just as it had begun to show signs of recovery from the shock of the revolution two years ago. All of those killed were tourists, including nine Chinese from Hong Kong, four Japanese, two French, two Britons, a Hungarian...

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2 Palestinian Youths Hurt in Clashes With Israel

Mussa Issa Qawasma/ReutersA Palestinian protester threw stones during clashes with Israeli soldiers on Monday in Hebron, West Bank, after a funeral for a Palestinian prisoner. JERUSALEM — Two Palestinian teenagers were seriously injured Monday when Israeli soldiers used live ammunition to disperse a demonstration at a holy site outside Bethlehem, as clashes in the West Bank continued for a fifth day...

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Kerry’s Meeting With Syrian Opposition at Risk

Pool photo by Jacquelyn MartinSecretary of State John Kerry spoke to reporters on the way to London on Sunday. Mr. Kerry has said that he has new ideas on how to force President Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria. Mr. Kerry and foreign ministers from Europe and the Middle East are scheduled to meet in Rome on Thursday with opponents of President Bashar al-Assad...

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Syrian Flood Into Lebanon Stirs Fear of Looming Disaster

QAA, Lebanon — Quietly but inexorably, a human tide has crept into Lebanon, Syria’s smallest and most vulnerable neighbor. As Syrians fleeing civil war pour over the border, the village priest here, Elian Nasrallah, trudges through muddy fields to deliver blankets. His family runs a medical clinic for refugees. When Christian villagers fret about the flood of Sunni Muslims, he replies that...

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The Lede: Police Brutality, Catalyst for Egypt’s Revolution, Continues Under Morsi

More than two years after tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Police Day to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and an end to impunity for the security forces, activists report that civilians continue to be raped, tortured and killed in police custody.As one of the protesters who marched that day, Adel Abdel Ghafar, recalled in a post for The Lede last year, anger over routine...

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At War Blog: Treasure Hunters in Uniform: ‘Monuments Men’ Remembered

We don’t tend to think of World War II as a setting for one of history’s biggest art thefts. Now some veterans of that war are being honored for recovering some of the most famous – and not so famous – art of the Western world: so much of it, in fact, that there’s a good chance you’ve seen some of the thousands of works they have tracked down.As German forces bombed and invaded Europe, they also removed...

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Pistorius Denies Murdering Girlfriend

PRETORIA, South Africa — Early on Feb. 14, Oscar Pistorius says, he heard a strange noise coming from inside his bathroom, climbed out of bed, grabbed his 9-millimeter pistol, hobbled on his stumps to the door and fired four shots. “I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated,” Mr. Pistorius said in an affidavit read Tuesday to a packed courtroom by his...

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For His Second Act, Japanese Premier Plays It Safe, With Early Results

Toru Hanai/ReutersPrime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose policies have sent the Tokyo stock market up, will visit Washington this week. TOKYO — Since taking office less than two months ago, Japan’s outspokenly hawkish new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been in what some political analysts are calling “safe driving mode.” He has carefully avoided saying or doing anything to provoke other Asian nations,...

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Netanyahu Defends Israel’s Handling of Prisoner X Case

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended his government’s handling of an Australian-Israeli who was held under a pseudonym for months in a maximum-security prison until he committed suicide in 2010, suggesting that the threats his country faces justify the extraordinary measures and the secrecy shrouding the case. “We are not like other countries,” Mr. Netanyahu told...

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Karzai to Forbid His Forces to Request Foreign Airstrikes

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he would issue a decree forbidding his military forces from turning to NATO or American forces to conduct airstrikes, and he condemned the use of torture on detainees by his security forces. He made his comments in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy in Kabul. It was the first time he had dwelt at such length and...

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Venezuela Releases First Pictures of Chávez

CARACAS, Venezuela — Amid a heated national debate over the state of the health of President Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan government on Friday released photographs of him for the first time since his cancer surgery in Cuba more than nine weeks ago. Officials also provided a rare glimpse into the sequestered world of the convalescing leader, saying he has difficulty breathing and speaking but...

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Pakistani Political Parties Call for Talks With Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Representatives from many of Pakistan’s political parties Thursday called on their government to engage in peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, on a day when continuing militant violence in the country’s northwest killed at least 18 people. The call for a “peace through dialogue” was spearheaded by the Awami National Party, a secular political party that rules the...

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IHT Special: Sanctions Chill Reaches Banking Clients in the Persian Gulf

DUBAI — For Syrian and Iranian citizens living in the Gulf, finding a bank to deal with just became a little tougher. Banks like Barclays and HSBC have begun turning away new customers from countries that are facing sanctions. They are closing down some existing accounts, further isolating Syrian and Iranian citizens from the global financial industry. Mary Rose Khamasmieh, a Syrian...

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