Middle East

France's President Francois Hollande used his White House debut Friday to restate his intention to get French combat troops home from Afghanistan this year -- breaking with NATO's 2014 schedule.

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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Late last year, Iran issued a series of not-so veiled threats to the West, suggesting it could use its "oil weapon" to show displeasure over toughening sanctions by halting exports or disrupting the Strait of Hormuz. This weekend, the Group of Eight nations may offer a timely retort: We've got an oil weapon of our own, and we're not afraid to use it. After months of intense but quiet diplomacy with key allies, President Barack Obama may secure the support of the G8 to essentially pre-authorize a release of strategic reserves later this summer, just as U.S. ...

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The king of Bahrain, whose regime has been accused of rights abuses, was among nearly 50 foreign royals at a lunch Friday to mark the diamond jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

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Regime forces fired on protesters who took to the streets of Aleppo on Friday, wounding several people at the biggest rally seen in Syria's second city since a revolt erupted last year, a watchdog said.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's high court on Friday put the onus on employers to pay men and women equally in a landmark ruling that may help narrow wage gaps, which are bigger than in most Western countries. The high court struck down the decision of a lower court against a female former store employee whose wages were 35 percent lower than those of a male colleague. That court had said the difference was legitimate and a result of contract negotiations not gender discrimination. ...

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VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog are nearing a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats say, a potential bargaining chip for Tehran in next week's negotiations with world powers. Iran says such an agreement is needed before it can consider a request by U.N. inspectors to visit the Parchin military site where they believe explosives tests relevant for developing nuclear weapons may have been carried out. ...

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Three near-simultaneous bomb blasts at a pet market in east Baghdad killed five people on Friday, officials said, just hours after an attack in the city's southeast left five dead.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - A small group of anti-war demonstrators staged a peaceful "die in" on Thursday at President Barack Obama's election campaign headquarters in Chicago to demand an end to the war in Afghanistan and unmanned drone aircraft attacks overseas. Despite calling ahead, some of the roughly 50 protesters said they were unable to deliver a letter to the Obama campaign calling for the United States to leave NATO and its "violent mission of protecting the 1 percent in the global economy who represent 99 percent of corporate wealth in the world. ...

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. panel of experts that monitors compliance with sanctions on North Korea is investigating reports of possible weapons-related shipments by Pyongyang to Syria and Myanmar, the panel said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Thursday. "The DPRK (North Korea) continues actively to defy the measures in the (U.N. sanctions) resolutions," the panel said in the report, which it submitted to the U.N. Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee earlier this week. ...

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has complained to the United Nations that its tourism industry has been severely damaged by a 14-month conflict between government forces and rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, which has raised fears of civil war. In a letter to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly made public on Thursday, Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, said hotel occupancy had dropped from an average of 90 percent before the crisis began in March 2011 to less than 15 percent. ...

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