Spain says will seek to block watered-down Catalan vote on independence
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain will seek to block in the courts a watered-down version of a Catalan vote on independence planned for Nov. 9 in the same way it stopped a non-binding referendum, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said on Friday.
Hungary’s Orban puts Internet tax on hold after huge protests
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban froze plans on Friday to impose a tax on Internet traffic, climbing down in the face of massive street protests and warnings from the European Union that the levy was a mistake.
UK says will pay off part of World War One-era debt next year
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will pay back part of the outstanding debt used to fund World War One next year, when it redeems government bonds first issued almost 90 years ago by then-finance minister Winston Churchill.
Kurds’ battle for Kobani unites a people divided by borders
ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) – Cloaked in Kurdish flags, thousands of people lined the roads to cheer on a military convoy headed for what was — until recently — an obscure Syrian border town, now the focus of a global war against the militants of Islamic St…
Child stabbed to death, two injured in latest China attack
BEIJING (Reuters) – An 8-year-old Chinese boy was stabbed to death and two classmates seriously injured on Friday in the latest attack on school children in the country, state media reported.
Myanmar’s leaders seek to revive peace talks, maintain reforms
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s political and ethnic leaders agreed on Friday to work together on reforms and peace talks ahead of a 2015 election after U.S. President Barack Obama urged the government to make every effort to end ethnic conflict.
China says nets 180 graft suspects in overseas manhunt
BEIJING (Reuters) – China says it has captured 180 people suspected of committing economic crimes as part of an aggressive anti-corruption campaign targeting suspects who have fled abroad, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Iraqi Kurdish forces enter Syria to fight Islamic State
SURUC Turkey (Reuters) – A first group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani on Thursday to help push back Islamic State militants who have defied U.S. air strikes and threatened to massacre its Kurdish defender…
Juppé’s star rises amid French leadership void
PARIS (Reuters) – He has a criminal record for corruption and as prime minister in the 1990s caused France’s worst unrest since May 1968 with a failed austerity push. Two decades on, opinion polls show he is the country’s most respected politician in o…
Australia lifts Fiji sanctions as foreign minister visits
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Friday took a major step toward resetting frayed relations with Fiji, lifting the final sanctions against the country during the most senior visit by an Australian diplomat since a military…
