Minister intervenes to give Chinese artist Ai Weiwei full UK visa
LONDON (Reuters) – British Home Secretary Theresa May has intervened to reverse a decision by her officials and grant dissident Chinese artist and free speech advocate Ai Weiwei a full six-month visa to enter Britain, her government department said on …
Vaccine success holds hope for end to deadly scourge of Ebola
LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) – The world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against Ebola, the World Health Organization said on Friday, as a trial in Guinea found a vaccine to have been 100 percent effective.
Spain’s Rajoy loosens purse strings, recovery boosts election-year budget
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Mariano Rajoy sought to persuade Spaniards on Friday that earlier austerity would be reverted if he won re-election later this year, unveiling a 2016 budget featuring the first spending hikes since he took office.
Malaysia says charge sheet against Najib is false, an attempt to topple PM
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s newly-appointed attorney general said on Friday a purported draft of a charge sheet against Prime Minister Najib Razak published on the Sarawak Report website was false, and part of a plot to topple the country’s lea…
Greek PM defends controversial ‘Plan B’ for euro zone exit
ATHENS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras acknowledged on Friday that his government had made covert contingency plans in case Greece was forced out of the euro, but rejected accusations that he had plotted a return to the drachma.
Yemen’s Houthis suffer more setbacks near Aden-southern sources
ADEN/SANAA (Reuters) – Southern Yemeni fighters backed by a Saudi-led air coalition took more territory from Houthi militiamen on Friday, expanding their control around the port city of Aden, sources in the southern force said.
IAEA chief ‘positively’ mulling U.S. Senate invite to speak on Iran
VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief is “positively considering” a U.S. Senate invitation to speak about his agency’s monitoring role in Iran following the country’s deal with world powers on curbing its atomic activity, a diplomatic sour…
German parliament shuts computer network after May hacker attack
BERLIN (Reuters) – The German parliament will switch off its entire computer system for several days next month in order to repair the network after a cyber attack in May, its president said.
China, Southeast Asia to set up hotline for South China Sea issues
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – China and Southeast Asian nations have agreed to set up a foreign ministers’ hotline to tackle emergencies in the disputed South China Sea, a senior official of the ASEAN grouping told Reuters on Friday.
U.S.-led coalition stages 41 air strikes on Islamic State: military statement
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and its allies hit Islamic State forces with 41 air strikes in Iraq and Syria on Thursday, concentrating the attacks on the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, a joint command statement said on Friday.
