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.
Germany learning to open arms to immigrants
BERLIN (Reuters) – Ata Ucertas, a doctor from Istanbul with a moustache that curls up his cheeks, was welcomed with open arms when he came to Germany this year, evidence of a shift in German attitudes as its population shrinks and labor becomes scarce….
Fatal Indian school meal contained concentrated pesticide
PATNA, India (Reuters) – The free school lunch that killed 23 Indian children last week was contaminated with concentrated pesticide which is not widely available, the district magistrate overseeing the police investigation told Reuters on Sunday.
New Zealand hit by quake of magnitude 6.9, minor damage
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 struck New Zealand on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey’s monitoring service reported, but there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.
In Kerry’s Mideast announcement, hints of success and challenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians had tentatively agreed to resume peace talks after three years, he did so standing alone as dusk fell over the Jordanian capital.
