Pope to canonize Portuguese shepherd children for Madonna visions
FATIMA, Portugal (Reuters) – Pope Francis will make two Portuguese shepherd children saints this week, crowning a belief that started with reported visions of the Madonna 100 years ago which have turned the Shrine of Fatima into one of the most famous …
Merkel: Germany not ‘first in line’ to boost troops in Afghanistan
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will continue to lead NATO’s military training mission in northern Afghanistan, but is not looking to increase its presence there, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.
Kremlin says feels ‘cautious optimism’ after Trump meeting with Lavrov
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin feels cautious optimism about the prospects for an improvement in U.S.-Russian relations after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, a Kremlin spokesman said on Thursday.
Macron team to announce candidates for June parliamentary election
PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron’s start-up political party was to announce on Thursday the names of several hundred candidates to do battle in a French parliamentary election that will decide how much power the centrist president-elect will enjoy onc…
A Bible and a cell: a new life for Jakarta’s high-flying Christian governor
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Jakarta’s once hugely popular governor is being held in a simple room at a high-security detention center, his only comforts a Bible and visitors twice a week. It’s a grim new life following his conviction for insulting Islam in Mus…
Ex-rebel leaders detail role played by Putin aide in east Ukraine
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A top aide to Vladimir Putin decides how the pro-Moscow administration of eastern Ukraine is run and who gets what jobs there, three former rebel leaders said, challenging Kremlin denials that it calls the shots in the region.
Le Pen must realize debate over quitting euro is over, top aide says
PARIS (Reuters) – Marine Le Pen needs to learn the lessons from her French presidential election defeat to Emmanuel Macron and accept that her National Front (FN) party must drop its policy of quitting the euro, one of her top aides said on Thursday.
North Korean university draws U.S. evangelicals despite risks
SEOUL (Reuters) – Like many other Americans who came to teach at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), Kim Hak Song was a Christian missionary who raised money from a church to come to North Korea.
‘Complete nonsense’: Britain’s Hammond dismisses report of rift with May
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond on Thursday dismissed a Times newspaper report suggesting that his relationship with Prime Minister Theresa May had deteriorated as “complete nonsense”.
Austrian court jails Syrian for life for killing Assad soldiers
VIENNA (Reuters) – An Austrian court jailed a Syrian asylum seeker for life for murdering 20 wounded soldiers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army while fighting alongside an anti-Assad militia near the city of Homs, a court spokesman said.
