French presidential campaign tightening in final weeks, polls show
PARIS, (Reuters) – France’s presidential race is tightening in its final weeks with a far-left and a conservative candidate narrowing the gap on long-time frontrunners Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, two polls showed on Friday.
U.N. says Syria action must abide by international law
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Immediate action is needed to protect the Syrian people but it should be “rooted in the principles of the United Nations and international law,” U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said on Friday.
Turkey’s Erdogan courts nationalists, Kurds alike with hard line on PKK
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – In rallies from the Kurdish southeast to the northern Black Sea coast, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has seemed to attempt the impossible: win over both nationalists and Kurds with threats to make spring a “black winte…
Merkel defends Germany’s deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday defended Germany’s stepped up deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers, saying other European countries were doing the same in response to a large influx of migrants since summer 2015.
U.N. Security Council to meet Friday on U.S. strikes in Syria: diplomats
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council will meet at 1130 EDT (1530 GMT) on Friday to discuss Thursday’s U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria, diplomats said.
Four killed by truck driven into crowd in Swedish capital
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A truck ploughed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing four people and wounding 15 in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
Cyprus peace deal needs to be watertight for vote, says President
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus’s president said on Friday he would not be willing to put any peace deal to a popular vote unless he was convinced a blueprint to reunite estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriots would work.
Leading Venezuela opposition figure barred from office 15 years
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles on Friday was banned from holding political office for 15 years, a move that could galvanize protests against the leftist government and upend a presidential election in 2018.
Exclusive: Situation in Syria constitutes international armed conflict – Red Cross
GENEVA (Reuters) – The situation in Syria “amounts to an international armed conflict” following U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airbase, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters on Friday.
China and Norway resume free trade negotiations after diplomatic freeze
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Norway signed a pact on Friday to resume free trade negotiations, marking the end of a six-year diplomatic freeze, a move China called internationally significant, against the backdrop of a rise in protectionist sentiment …
