Cuba continues to trim state payroll, build private sector
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba continued to shed state jobs and move workers into the private sector in 2013, according to a report issued by the official labor federation at the weekend, as President Raul Castro pressed forward with reforms to the Soviet-sty…
Bosnia unrest is ‘local fire’ that can be put out: PM
LONDON (Reuters) – The recent unrest in Bosnia is a local “fire” than can be quickly put out by moves to raise living standards, Prime Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda said on Monday.
U.N. rights envoy points to apartheid in Palestinian areas
GENEVA (Reuters) – Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip appear to amount to apartheid due to its systematic oppression of the Palestinian people and de facto expropriation of their land, a United Nations investigator said in a report.
India says drops anti-piracy charges against Italian marines
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has dropped a plan to prosecute two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen under a tough anti-piracy law, a government lawyer said on Monday, offering a chance to end a diplomatic row between the two countri…
Iran’s Zarif under fire for stance on Holocaust
DUBAI (Reuters) – Islamic hardliners in Iran’s parliament have summoned Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over public comments condemning the Holocaust, the official news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
Seven Egyptian Christians found shot execution-style on Libyan beach
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan police have found seven Egyptian Christians shot dead on a beach in eastern Libya, security officials and local residents said on Monday, in the second such execution-style killing since the start of the year.
Two killed in suicide attack outside Iranian consulate in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Two security guards were killed and more than a dozen people wounded on Monday in a suicide bombing outside the Iranian consulate in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, police said.
Russian police detain protesters outside trial over anti-Putin rally
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian riot police detained over a hundred protesters on Monday at a Moscow courthouse where seven opponents of President Vladimir Putin were jailed from two and a half to four years over a demonstration that turned violent.
In sweeping move, Pope creates office to oversee Vatican finances
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has taken his boldest step yet to overhaul the Vatican’s scandal-plagued finances, creating a new department with broad powers to oversee all of its economic and administrative affairs, the Vatican said on Monday.
Italy’s new PM Renzi faces first parliamentary test
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi faces his first test before a fractious national parliament on Monday when he goes to the Senate to put flesh on ambitious reform plans and seeks to win a confidence vote in his newly installed gover…
