Turkey

Security forces arrest dozens

Police raided addresses across Turkey on Tuesday and detained dozens of people in an operation linked to three weeks of often violent protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Overnight in Ankara, riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters who had gathered in and around the government quarter of Kizilay.

Ethiopia

Tensions cool over Nile dam

Ethiopia and Egypt cooled talk of war on Tuesday and agreed to more dialogue to resolve a row over a giant dam that the Horn of Africa nation is building on the Nile, on which Egyptians depend for almost all their water. Africa's second and third most-populous nations have traded barbs in past weeks about Ethiopia's new hydroelectric project.

United States

Washington to talk with Taliban

The United States will meet with the Taliban in Doha next week for talks aimed at achieving peace in Afghanistan, where the US has battled the insurgents for 12 years, US officials said on Tuesday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that the process would likely be lengthy.

Afghanistan

President announces talks

Afghanistan will send a team to Qatar for peace talks with the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday, as the US-led NATO coalition launched the final phase of the 12-year war with the last round of security transfers to Afghan forces. Karzai's announcement was the first possible step forward in the peace process, which has struggled to achieve results despite many attempts.

Hungary

Man charged with war crimes

Hungarian prosecutors on Tuesday charged Laszlo Csatary, 98, with war crimes committed during World War II, saying he helped deport Jews to Auschwitz. "He is charged with the unlawful execution and torturing of people thus committing war crimes partly as a culprit, partly as an accomplice," Bettina Bagoly, a spokeswoman for the Budapest Chief Prosecutor's Office said.

Brazil

Protesters take to the streets

In some of the biggest protests since the end of Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship, demonstrations have spread across this continent-sized country and united people from all walks of life behind frustrations over poor transportation, health services, education and security despite a heavy tax burden. More than 100,000 people were in the streets on Monday for largely peaceful protests in at least eight big cities.

Reuters-AP

(China Daily 06/19/2013 page11)