Saudi Arabia invites Iraq’s Abadi to visit in big sign of thaw
BAGHDAD/RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has invited Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to visit the kingdom, Abadi’s office said on Monday, in the biggest sign yet of improving ties between the countries after decades of tension.
Activists urge Lebanon to make marital rape illegal
BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Lina met her husband she was drawn by his warmth and quiet nature. At 19 she was keen to settle down and start a family, but she never imagined the nightmare ahead.
Syrian insurgents ‘mimicking ruthlessness’ of army: rights group
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Insurgent groups in Syria have carried out scores of indiscriminate attacks that have killed and maimed civilians in violation of the laws of war, a Human Rights Watch report said on Monday.
Mexican journalist in censorship row says bosses tried to block story
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A Mexican broadcast news journalist, fired after helping to reveal a conflict of interest scandal that embarrassed the country’s president, said her former employer tried to suppress the report before she published it on her own…
Cyclone on course to smash into Australian coast a second time
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Three days after making landfall, Cyclone Nathan continued to threaten Australian coastal communities, with 400 residents of a remote northern island on Monday ordered to evacuate after meteorologists warned the storm was intensifyin…
Slum kids confront sexism as India grapples with abuse of women
MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Standing before a classroom packed with teenagers, Yojana Salunke begins her weekly one-hour lesson on a subject which many experts say is crucial to helping India address one of its biggest challenges – gender ine…
Uprooted by violence, Afghan women held like prisoners in camps: report
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Afghan women and girls uprooted by violence and living in camps in major cities are most vulnerable to abuse by male family members, who treat them like prisoners and sell them “like animals” into marriage, aid age…
Modern Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, dies at 91
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, died on Monday aged 91, triggering a flood of tributes to the man who oversaw the tiny city-state’s rapid rise from a British colonial backwater to a global trade and financial cente…
Spain’s Andalusia vote sets stage for national upheaval
SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) – Leftist newcomer Podemos made spectacular inroads in elections in the Spanish region of Andalusia on Sunday, with the vote splitting over the political spectrum in a foretaste of the upheaval likely in national elections befo…
Sarkozy denies far-right Le Pen victory in French polls
PARIS (Reuters) – Former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party and their allies won the first round of French local elections on Sunday, denying Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front (FN) first place.
