Iran denies missing World Bank payments, blames sanctions
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran denied on Sunday it had failed to make payments on its loans to the World Bank for the last six months, blaming Western sanctions for preventing an intermediary from forwarding funds to the global lender, Iran’s IRNA state news a…
Hamas reeling from Egyptian crackdown on Gaza tunnels
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are reeling from another devastating blockade but this time they are blaming Egypt, the neighboring Arab power they once hoped would end their isolation, rather than their old foe Israel.
Kidnapped Mali election workers freed in north: official
BAMAKO (Reuters) – Gunmen have freed four election workers and a deputy mayor a day after they were kidnapped in Mali’s remote northern town of Tessalit, a local official said on Sunday.
Poor quality and bad management: India ignored warnings in free meal program
GANDAMAN, India/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The village school in India where 23 children died by poisoning last week had been providing lunch under a government-sponsored scheme without checks or monitoring by local officials to see if the food was stored c…
Japan PM’s coalition gets majority in upper house: exit polls
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc won a convincing victory in an upper house election on Sunday, media exit polls showed, giving the hawkish leader a mandate for his recipe to revive the economy, while ending a politica…
Gunmen abduct Iran embassy employee in Yemen: police sources
SANAA (Reuters) – Armed men seized an employee of the Iranian embassy in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Sunday, police sources said, the latest in a series of abductions of foreigners in the lawless Arab country.
Tensions simmer in Israel coalition over possible Palestine talks
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tentative agreement to revive U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians met skepticism and scorn on Sunday from some members of his rightist coalition government, including within…
Analysis: France’s Hollande in tight spot on pension reform
PARIS (Reuters) – President Francois Hollande may only manage a lightweight reform of France’s indebted pension system, with trade unions preparing street protests and his own Socialist Party warning it would oppose painful measures.
Philippe sworn in as new Belgian king
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium swore in Philippe as its new king on Sunday after the abdication of his 79-year-old father Albert.
Insight: By relying on Iran, Syria’s Assad risks irrelevance
AMMAN (Reuters) – Military support from Iran and its Shi’ite ally Hezbollah has given Syrian President Bashar al-Assad new impetus in his fight against the insurgents intent on ousting him, but at a price.
