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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Kerry Criticizes Turkish Prime Minister Over Zionism Remark

ANKARA, Turkey — Secretary of State John Kerry chastised Turkey’s prime minister on Friday for recently calling Zionism a “crime against humanity,” a comment that could frustrate Mr. Kerry’s desire to see an improvement in estranged Turkish-Israeli relations. When Mr. Kerry set off on Sunday on a nine-nation trip, his plan was to use his visit in Turkey to consult on trade, the crisis in...

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U.S. Aid to Syria Shows Obama’s Cautious Approach to Crisis

ROME — The food rations and medical supplies that Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday would be provided to the Free Syrian Army mark the first time that the United States has publicly committed itself to sending nonlethal aid to the armed factions that are battling President Bashar al-Assad. But the nature of the assistance also illustrates the Obama administration’s caution about...

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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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BP Executive Testifies That Rig Explosion Was Known Risk

NEW ORLEANS — On the first day of testimony in the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill trial, BP’s top executive for North American operations at the time of the disaster acknowledged on Tuesday that a well explosion had been identified as a risk before it happened. “There was a risk identified for a blowout,” said Lamar McKay, the former president of BP America and current chief executive in charge...

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Little Clarity in Italian Vote, Aside from Anger

Italians Head to the Polls: Italians voted Sunday and Monday in a general election that is being closely watched to see whether a clear winner will emerge.ROME — Italian voters delivered a rousing anti-austerity message and a strong rebuke to the existing political order in national elections on Monday, plunging the country into political paralysis after results failed to produce a clear winner. ...

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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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The Lede: Reeva Steenkamp, Steve Biko and the Quest for Justice in South Africa

LONDON – The title of the presiding judge 35 years ago was the same, chief magistrate of Pretoria, and the venue for the hearing, a converted synagogue, was not far from the modern courthouse seen on television screens around the world in recent days as Oscar Pistorius, the gold medal-winning Paralympic athlete, fought for bail in the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.The case that unfolded...

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At War Blog: A Modern Medal Is Met with Modern Protest

It is only fitting that the announcement of a medal created for the digital age spawned its own Internet memes. As soon as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced the creation of the new Distinguished Warfare medal — immediately dubbed the Drone Medal — images such as the one below began appearing on blog after blog; in tweet after retweet.The medal, Mr. Panetta explained, is intended to provide...

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Neighbors Kill Neighbors in Kenya as Election Tensions Stir Age-Old Grievances

MALINDI, Kenya — In a room by the stairs, Shukrani Malingi, a Pokomo farmer, writhed on a metal cot, the skin on his back burned off. Down the hall, at a safe distance, Rahema Hageyo, an Orma girl, stared blankly out of a window, a long scar above her thimble-like neck. She was nearly decapitated by a machete chop — and she is only 9 months old. Jonathan Kalan for The New York TimesOrma...

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Iceland Weighs Exporting the Power Bubbling From Below

Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York TimesThe Krafla plant is Iceland’s largest geothermal power station, a showcase of renewable energy. KRAFLA, Iceland — Soon after work began here on a power plant to harness some of the vast reserves of energy stored at the earth’s crust, the ground moved and, along a six-mile-long fissure, began belching red-hot lava. The eruptions continued for nine years, prompting...

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German Officials Hint Berlusconi Isn’t Their Man

Vincenzo Pinto/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThere is deep concern in Berlin that any government involving Silvio Berlusconi, above, could reverse economic changes. BERLIN — Asked in September if she feared a comeback by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany appeared at pains to hold back a smile as the room erupted in laughter. “I am, as you know,...

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Briefs | Middle East: Iran: Rivals Forced to Apologize to Supreme Leader

Rival politicians apologized to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the weekend for having been embroiled in an unusually public feud involving secret tapes and a tit-for-tat impeachment. On Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; the Parliament speaker, Ali Larijani; his brother, Sadegh Larijani; the chief of Iran’s judiciary; and all members of Parliament sent letters expressing sorrow and promising renewed...

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In Russia, Property Ruined and Spared by Meteor Share Space

CHELYABINSK, Russia — The shock wave from a meteor that exploded above Siberia last week somehow sheared the roof off a brick and steel factory building while leaving a nearby glass facade unscathed. In some high-rises in this city, the first modern urban community to have felt the breath of a cosmic close encounter, every window blew out on the top floor; elsewhere, the ground floors suffered....

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Supreme Leader Says Iran Not Seeking Nuclear Arms

TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader said Saturday that his country was not seeking nuclear weapons but added that if Iran ever decided to build them, no “global power” could stop it. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose 2005 edict banning nuclear weapons is regarded as binding in Iran, told a group of visitors to his home in Tehran, the capital, that his country favored the worldwide...

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Meteor Fragments Rain Down on Siberia; Hundreds of Injuries Reported

MOSCOW — Gym class came to a halt inside the Chelyabinsk Railway Institute, and students gathered around the window, gazing at the fat white contrail that arced its way across the morning sky. A missile? A comet? A few quiet moments passed. And then, with incredible force, the windows blew in. The scenes from Chelyabinsk, rocked by an intense shock wave when a meteor hit the Earth’s atmosphere...

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Britain Says Equine Drug May Have Entered Food Chain

PARIS — The scandal over horse meat in the European food chain widened Thursday from a case of mislabeling to one of food safety as public health authorities in Britain said that a powerful equine painkiller, potentially harmful to human health, “may have entered the food chain” in France. British officials sought to reassure the public that the drug — phenylbutazone, or bute, an anti-inflammatory...

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