Renzi struggling to rein in Italy’s big-spending state
ROME (Reuters) – Carlo Cottarelli left a high-level job at the International Monetary Fund last year to help the Italian government cut high public spending. Nine months on, the craggy 59-year-old economist and newly minted “spending commissioner” has …
Iraqi factions hit new delay in forming government
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament failed on Sunday to break a political deadlock that is holding up the formation of a new government to tackle an Islamist-led insurgency raging less than 50 miles (80 km) from Baghdad.
Clashes in northern Mali kill at least 30 ahead of peace talks
BAMAKO (Reuters) – More than 30 people were killed in desert clashes in northern Mali, the army and Tuareg rebels said, just days before the start of internationally-brokered peace talks.
Amid new spy scandal, Kerry calls U.S. and Germany ‘great friends’
VIENNA (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, standing alongside Germany’s foreign minister, on Sunday stressed the strategic importance of relations between the two countries, which have been battered by new allegations of U.S. spying on Berl…
China’s Guangdong offers big rewards for terrorism informants
BEIJING (Reuters) – Police in China’s southern Guangdong province are offering up to $80,000 for tips about terrorism suspects and potential attacks, state media said on Sunday, announcing some of the biggest rewards yet in a nationwide “anti-terror” c…
Four bodies found in India’s volatile northeast, army deployed
GUWAHATI India (Reuters) – The bodies of four men have been recovered from a river in a remote part of northeastern India that saw sectarian violence in the run-up to the national election in May, police said on Sunday, raising fears of a fresh round o…
Boko Haram leader claims blast in Nigeria’s Lagos: AFP
ABUJA (Reuters) – Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has claimed responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a fuel depot in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, AFP reported on Sunday, which, if true, would be the first recorded attack on the city by t…
Exclusive: Egyptians fear Islamist militants gathering on Libyan border
SALLOUM Egypt (Reuters) – A few days before he was elected Egypt’s president in May, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discreetly visited tribesmen living along the border with Libya. Tribal leaders there say Sisi, former head of the army, urged them to help Egypt confront what could be a security nightmare for the biggest Arab nation: Islamist militants operating just over the frontier in Libya.
One man killed as shell from Ukraine hits Russian border town: reports
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian man was killed and two women were injured when shells fired from Ukrainian territory hit two houses in Russia’s Rostov region, Russian news agencies said on Sunday, an attack denied by the Ukrainian authorities.
Iraq headed for chaos unless politicians unite, U.N. says
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi soldiers backed by Shi’ite militias fought Sunni rebels for control of a military base northeast of Baghdad on Saturday as a U.N. envoy warned of chaos if divided lawmakers did not make progress on Sunday towards naming a gove…
