Indonesian president orders new cabinet to get to work
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo held his first cabinet meeting on Monday and gave his top four ministers until the end of the week to identify policy changes that would remove growth bottlenecks.
China, Vietnam say want lasting solution to sea dispute
HANOI/BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Vietnam agreed on Monday to use an existing border dispute mechanism to find a solution to a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, saying they did not want it to affect relations.
Suicide bomber in Yemen kills 20 Houthi fighters: sources
SANAA (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed about 20 Houthi fighters in central Yemen late on Sunday including a prominent tribal leader who had just defected to the Shi’ite Muslims’ side, tribal sources said.
Suicide bomber in Iraq kills 27 Shi’ite militiamen near Baghdad: police
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least 27 Shi’ite militiamen on the outskirts of the Iraqi town of Jurf al-Sakhar on Monday after security forces pushed Islamic State militants out of the area over the weekend, army and police sources sai…
China bans private clubs in parks, historical buildings in graft crackdown
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has banned private clubs in historical buildings, parks and other public facilities because they are hindering the fight against corruption, state media said on Monday, as the government broadens its anti-graft and frugality c…
South Korea prosecutors seek death for captain of doomed ferry
GWANGJU South Korea (Reuters) – South Korean prosecutors on Monday sought the death penalty for the captain of a ferry that capsized in April, leaving 304 people, most of them school children, dead or missing, in a trial of 15 crew who abandoned ship b…
Suspicious powder sent to Hungarian consulate in Istanbul
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Hungary’s consulate in Istanbul received packets of an unidentified yellow powder on Monday, the city governor’s office said, after similar envelopes sent to five Western consulates in Turkey’s largest city last week prompted secur…
Japan trade minister got funds from foreign-owned firm, returned
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s new trade and industry minister received contributions from a firm in which foreign investors held a majority stake, but was not aware of the possible violation of the political funds law at the time and has returned the money…
Explosions heard in Donetsk after Ukraine election: mayor
DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) – Heavy shelling rocked the outskirts of the pro-Russian rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Monday, one day after Ukraine held a parliamentary election, the city mayor’s office and officials in Kiev said.
Reinventing Socialism: a risky business for French left
PARIS (Reuters) – As a young aide to then-French prime minister Lionel Jospin in the late 1990s, Manuel Valls sat in on meetings as Britain’s Tony Blair and Germany’s Gerhard Schroeder tried to persuade his boss to help them reinvent Europe’s Left.
