Samsung chief questioned behind closed doors in arrest warrant hearing
SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean judge questioned Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee behind closed doors on Wednesday to decide whether he should be arrested over his alleged role in a corruption scandal that led parliament to impeach President Park Geun-…
In LGBT ‘paradise’, Thai transgender activist breaks barriers to education
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thai transgender activist Nada Chaiyajit completed her undergraduate studies in August, and two months later, school officials told her 12 classmates – all men – that their graduation certificates were ready.
U.S. carries out strikes near Syria’s al-Bab after Turkish criticism
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Tuesday it carried out air strikes in Syria against Islamic State targets of interest to both Washington and Ankara near the town of al-Bab, following Turkish criticism of insufficient U.S. support for i…
U.S. imposes sanctions on Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Dodik
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States imposed sanctions on Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik on Tuesday for actively obstructing efforts to implement the 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the more than three-year war in Bosnia and Herzegovi…
Italian conservative Tajani is new EU parliament speaker amid surging eurocepticism
STRASBOURG (Reuters) – Antonio Tajani of Italy was elected president of the European Parliament on Tuesday, consolidating a conservative grip on key EU institutions as the mainstream right and left struggle to unite against insurgent eurosceptics.
Britain to leave EU market as May sets ‘hard Brexit’ course
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will quit the EU single market when it leaves the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday in a decisive speech that set a course for a clean break with the world’s largest trading bloc.
Exclusive: Canadian energy firms at bigger risk from cyber, bomb attacks – spy agency
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada’s main spy agency last year warned energy companies about an increasing risk of cyber espionage and attacks on pipelines, oil storage and shipment facilities and power transmission towers using homemade explosives, a…
Iran’s Rouhani says talk about renegotiating nuclear deal ‘meaningless’
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday U.S. President-elect Trump could not unilaterally cancel the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers including Washington and that talk of renegotiating it was “meaningless”.
Turkey says captures nightclub attacker who acted for Islamic State
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have captured the gunman who killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Day, an Uzbek national they said was trained in Afghanistan and had clearly acted on behalf of Islamic State.
Russia says ready to talk to Trump about nuclear arms, Syria
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was ready to talk to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration about nuclear weapons and Syria, saying the two countries could together solve many of the…
