French public sector gets pay rise as government courts angry unions, students
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s Socialist government sought to dispel anger at its pro-business labor reforms with a modest pay rise for public sector workers on Thursday as riot police clashed with students demonstrating against the changes for a second da…
Ukraine tears down giant Lenin statue, live on YouTube
KIEV (Reuters) – Exhaustive efforts to tear down Ukraine’s largest remaining monument to Vladimir Lenin bore fruit on Thursday when workers prised the late Soviet leader’s statue from its plinth in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya.
Sudan threatens to close border with South Sudan again
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan threatened on Thursday to close its recently reopened border with South Sudan, accusing its neighbor of supporting rebel groups.
Small militant faction joins Afghan peace process, Taliban still refuse
KABUL (Reuters) – A small but significant militant faction on Thursday joined Afghanistan’s fledgling peace process, a rare positive for an initiative that has been fraught with false starts and publicly rejected by the main Taliban insurgency.
Iraq’s Sadr spurns calls to drop planned sit-in over ‘bastion of corruption’
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Influential Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rejected calls to cancel a planned sit-in on Friday at the gates of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which he called “a bastion of support for corruption”.He published a…
With Gambia move, China ends diplomatic truce with Taiwan
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) – China resumed ties with former Taiwan ally Gambia on Thursday, ending an unofficial diplomatic truce between China and Taiwan following January’s landslide election of the leader of a pro-independence party as the self-ruled …
Morocco asks U.N. to remove 84 staffers from West Sahara mission: source
RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco has asked the United Nations to remove 84 international staff members from its Western Sahara mission after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon made what it called unacceptable remarks about the territory, a Moroccan official source said o…
German intelligence worker sentenced for passing secrets to CIA
MUNICH (Reuters) – A German court sentenced a former intelligence worker to eight years in prison on Thursday for treason and betraying state secrets by giving the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over 200 secret documents.
Slovak PM Fico says new government could be in place next week
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Slovakia’s ruling leftist party Smer has drafted a coalition agreement with three centrist and right-wing parties, and a new government could be in place by the middle of next week, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday.
Hallowed leader’s name behind U.S. student’s jailing in North Korea
SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.S. student sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by North Korea’s supreme court was convicted for trying to steal a banner invoking former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, state media footage of the trial indicates.
