Russian prime minister angers Ukraine by visiting Crimea
SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia’s grip on Crimea by flying to the region and holding a government meeting there on Monday, angering Ukraine and defying Western demands to hand the peninsula back to Kiev.
Former U.S. hostages angry about new Iran U.N. envoy appointee
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Former U.S. embassy workers held hostage in Iran in 1979-1981 are outraged that Tehran has selected a new U.N. envoy who may have played a role in the 444-day crisis and want him barred from U.S. territory, lawyers for the ex…
China summons Manila envoy over South China Sea legal case
BEIJING (Reuters) – China summoned the Philippines ambassador on Monday to lodge a strong complaint over Manila’s seeking of international arbitration in a festering territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
Cameroon education minister arrested for suspected embezzlement
YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Cameroon’s secondary education minister Louis Bapes Bapes was arrested and remanded in custody on suspected embezzlement of public funds, a court official and state radio in the central African nation said on Monday.
Six killed in blast in Kenyan capital: emergency services
NAIROBI (Reuters) – An explosion in an area of Kenya’s capital Nairobi that is popular with Somalis killed six people and wounded several others on Monday, the National Disaster Operations Centre said.
Italian PM Renzi: If Senate reform is blocked, I’ll quit
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi tied his political future on Monday to a reform package aimed at creating more stable government by stripping the upper house of parliament of key functions and concentrating power in the lower chamb…
France’s Hollande names new PM, pledges tax cuts after poll rout
PARIS (Reuters) – President Francois Hollande named centrist Interior Minister Manuel Valls as his new prime minister on Monday, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault who quit after ruling Socialists were trounced in local French elections.
U.N. chief warns against aiding Central African Republic militias
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Monday against any support or facilitation of violence by armed groups in Central African Republic after Chadian troops were accused of opening fire on civilians and killing at lea…
Kerry meets with Lavrov on Ukraine, urges troop pullback
PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on Sunday about ways to defuse the crisis over Ukraine, with Kerry telling Moscow that progress depended on a Russian troop pullback from …
U.S. could free Israeli spy in deal to save peace talks: source close to talks
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli spy serving a life sentence in the United States and groups of Palestinian prisoners could be freed under an emerging deal to salvage Middle East peace talks, sources close to the negotiations said on Monday.
