Australian Senate gives PM milestone victory, then defeat
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull secured the passage of some cornerstone legislation on Wednesday but quickly suffered an embarrassing defeat of a government plan for a lower “backpacker tax” on work done by young, foreign …
After Castro’s death, attention turns to Cuba’s heir apparent
HAVANA (Reuters) – With revolutionary leader Fidel Castro dead and his brother Raul vowing to step down as president in 15 months, it will soon be the hour of heir apparent Miguel Diaz-Canel, an advocate for modernizing Cuba’s state-run media and abysm…
Fire in Turkish dormitory kills 12, including 11 teenage girls: officials
ANKARA (Reuters) – Twelve people, including eleven teenagers, were killed when a fire swept through a girls dormitory in the southern Turkish province of Adana on Tuesday, officials said.
EU globalization fears most acute in Austria and France: study
BERLIN (Reuters) – Fear of globalization is the most important factor in pushing European citizens towards populist right-wing parties and those fears are most acute in Austria and France, a survey by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation showed on Wednesda…
Taiwan protests against Malaysia’s deportation of fraud suspects to China
TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Taiwan has expressed its “stern opposition” to Malaysia’s deportation of 21 Taiwanese suspected of multi-million dollar telecoms fraud to China, the latest example of a problem that has strained cross-Strait ties.
To cheers of “I am Fidel,” Cubans and allies say goodbye to Castro
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba’s leftist allies joined a sprawling multitude of Cubans chanting “I am Fidel” at a rally on Tuesday to commemorate Fidel Castro, offering eulogies to the man who built a Communist state on the doorstep of the United States.
China says foreign NGOs must provide funding proof
BEIJING (Reuters) – Foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China must provide details of where their funding comes from and show that their chief representative has no criminal record, the government said of new rules due to come into effect …
Labor abuses found at Indonesian palm plantations supplying global companies: Amnesty
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Global consumer companies, including Unilever, Nestle, Kellogg and Procter & Gamble, have sourced palm oil from Indonesian plantations where labor abuses were uncovered, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
Brazil Senate backs spending cap despite violent protests
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Senate on Tuesday approved a strict cap on federal spending in a first-round vote that hands a timely victory to President Michel Temer, who is struggling to restore fiscal discipline amid an economic recession and politic…
Assad, allies aim to seize all Aleppo before Trump takes power: official
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria and its allies aim to drive rebels from Aleppo before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. President, a senior official in the pro-Damascus military alliance said, as pro-government forces surged to their biggest victories in the …
