World Cup leaves Brazil costly stadiums, poor public transport
BRASILIA (Reuters) – When the final whistle blows at the World Cup, Brazilians will be left with some of the world’s costliest soccer stadiums and few of the public transport improvements they were promised.
Pope fires entire board of Vatican financial watchdog
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog on Thursday – all Italians – in the latest move to break with an old guard associated with a murky past under his predecessor.
Israel says Iran giving ‘false explanations’ to U.N. nuclear inquiry
VIENNA (Reuters) – Israel has condemned as unacceptably slow Iran’s cooperation with a U.N. watchdog inquiry into suspected nuclear bomb research and accused Tehran of providing “false” explanations for its disputed activities.
Iraq dislodges insurgents from city of Samarra with airstrikes
TIKRIT Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi helicopters bombed the city of Samarra after insurgents overran parts of it early on Thursday, bringing them within striking distance of a Shi’ite shrine the destruction of which in a 2006 attack unleashed a bitter sectari…
Left out of G7 summit, Putin wishes world leaders “bon appetit”
ST PETERSBURG Russia (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin, shut out of a G7 summit over Russia’s role in Ukraine, parried the snub on Thursday with a terse message for world leaders who lunched without him in Brussels on Thursday: “Bon appetit”.
Family of convicted Lockerbie bomber launches legal bid to clear his name
LONDON (Reuters) – Relatives of the late Libyan intelligence officer convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing have launched a bid to clear his name, their lawyer said on Thursday.
Two-dinner Hollande hosts Obama and Putin seeking Ukraine thaw
PARIS (Reuters) – Criticized at home for a lack of initiative on Ukraine, French President Francois Hollande will hold separate dinners on Thursday with the U.S. and Russian leaders in an attempt to unlock Europe’s worst security crisis since the Cold …
Venezuela’s ‘very weak’ judiciary undermines rules of law: jurists group
GENEVA (Reuters) – Venezuela’s judiciary is persecuting students, dissidents and independent judges while turning a blind eye to most crimes in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates, an international human rights watchdog said on Thurs…
After Assad’s election triumph, fear grips stay-at-home Syrians
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – (The identity of the reporter has been withheld for security reasons)
Kosovo votes under shadow of war crimes probe
GJAKOVA Kosovo (Reuters) – Hashim Thaci’s “thumbs-up” gesture has become his trademark in election campaigns since he helped lead the guerrilla insurgency to throw off Serbian rule over Kosovo 15 years ago.
