Italy police take over four Lidl offices in mafia swoop
MILAN (Reuters) – Police in the Italian regions of Lombardy and Sicily arrested 15 people and put four management offices of supermarket chain Lidl under state control on Monday as part of a swoop on a mafia gang.
Tehran mayor Qalibaf quits presidential race, backs hardliner Raisi
LONDON (Reuters) – Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf quit Iran’s presidential race on Monday and said he would back hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi in Friday’s vote.
Anti-Maduro protests persist in Venezuela, policeman shot dead
CARACAS (Reuters) – Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro staged sit-ins and roadblocks across Venezuela on Monday to press for elections, sparking new unrest that killed a policeman.
North Korea missile detected by THAAD, program progressing faster than expected: South Korea
SEOUL/GENEVA (Reuters) – North Korea’s missile program is progressing faster than expected, South Korea’s defense minister said on Tuesday, after the U.N. Security Council condemned the weekend launch of a new long-range missile and demanded Pyongyang …
Evacuation deal completed as Syrian rebels leave Damascus district: state TV, monitor
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An agreement between the Syrian government and rebels to evacuate an opposition-held district of Damascus was completed on Monday as more insurgents left the area, Qaboun, Syrian state TV and a monitoring group said.
France’s Macron picks PM from the right, blowing apart old boundaries
PARIS (Reuters) – Newly inaugurated French President Emmanuel Macron appointed a conservative prime minister on Monday in a move to broaden his political appeal and weaken his opponents before parliamentary elections in June.
U.N. restarts Syria talks with fresh format, same challenges
GENEVA (Reuters) – Syria peace talks in Geneva this week should prosper from a tighter format and a recent deal to reduce the violence, U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Monday, playing down dismissive comments by President Bashar al-Assad.
U.S. plan to arm Kurdish militia casts shadow over Trump-Erdogan talks
ANKARA (Reuters) – Angered by a U.S. decision to arm Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan heads to Washington this week for talks with Donald Trump seeking either to change the president’s mind or to “sort things out ourselv…
On both sides of Turkish border, peace with Kurds in ruins
SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) – The rise of a Kurdish militia in Syria over the course of the Syrian civil war has expanded Turkey’s 30-year Kurdish conflict beyond its frontiers and, to some degree, beyond its control. In few places is this as evident as i…
Putin blames off-key piano for hesitant musical rendition
BEIJING (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday an impromptu piano rendition he gave on the sidelines of a meeting in Beijing had been hampered by an out of tune instrument.
