Pope hosts Syrian refugees at lunch, sees children’s drawings of war
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Thursday hosted 21 Syrian refugees for lunch at his residence, where children gave him their drawings of war and their dramatic escapes by sea.
Late Toronto mayor smokes crack in infamous video released Thursday
TORONTO (Reuters) – The infamous video of late Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking from what appears to be a crack pipe while slurring his words has been made public after a Toronto court lifted a publication ban on Thursday.
Military attaches, diplomats flee Turkey’s post-coup inquiry
ANKARA (Reuters) – Two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month’s failed military coup, Turkey’s foreign minister said o…
German defense, interior minister to pump up joint training for attacks
BERLIN, UEDEM, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s Defence Minister said on Thursday the country lay in the “crosshairs of terrorism” and pressed plans for the military to train more closely with police in preparing for potential large-scale militant attacks…
Renewed Yemeni fighting points to society broken beyond repair
DUBAI (Reuters) – The whitewashed dome of a Sufi shrine in the Yemeni city of Taiz gleamed for centuries until a band of hardline Sunni Islamist gunmen blew it up last month, victim to a civil war that may have disfigured a once-tolerant society beyond…
Dutch investigate death threats against Palestinian ICC activist
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch authorities are investigating death threats against a Palestinian rights activist in The Hague targeted because she has made submissions to the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Putin discusses Crimea security after alleged Ukrainian incursions
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a meeting with his Security Council to discuss additional security measures for Crimea after the clashes on the contested peninsula, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
China power plant blast kills at least 21 -state media
BEIJING (Reuters) – An explosion at a power plant in China killed at least 21 people and injured five on Thursday, state media said, the latest deadly industrial accident in a country that struggles with poor safety standards.
Blast wounds 13 in Pakistani city on edge after big suicide attack
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – A roadside bomb hit a Pakistani security vehicle and wounded 13 people on Thursday in the southwestern city of Quetta, days after a suicide bombing at a hospital killed at least 74 people, most of them lawyers, officials an…
Swiss court backs Iran in decades-old oil row with Israel
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s highest court has ordered Israel to pay Iran around $1.1 billion plus interest in a decades-old dispute over a secretive oil pipeline company predating the 1979 Islamic revolution which made the countries enemies.
