Lebanon’s Hariri backs businessman Khatib for prime minister
Lebanon’s Saad al-Hariri on Tuesday backed businessman Samir al-Khatib to head the next government, though he said some details still had to be discussed.
Rockets hit base hosting U.S. forces in western Iraq
Five rockets landed on Tuesday on Ain al-Asad airbase, which hosts U.S. forces in Anbar province in western Iraq, an Iraqi military statement said.
Lebanon’s Bassil suggests government talks near ‘happy ending’
Lebanon’s caretaker foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, signaled on Tuesday that progress had been made in talks on forming a new government that must pull the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades.
Lebanon faces tough path to soft landing or deeper crisis
Lebanese politicians must agree a new government that can stabilize the economy and attract international support if the country is to stave off even deeper economic crisis.
Twenty-three killed in ceramics factory fire in Sudan
Twenty-three people were killed and more than 130 injured when a fire broke out after a gas tanker exploded while unloading at a ceramics factory in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, the government said.
China signs on for ‘gigantic’ investment in El Salvador infrastructure
China will help build several major infrastructure projects in El Salvador including a stadium and water treatment plant, the two countries said on Tuesday, signaling China’s growing role in the region after El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan.
SPD to distance itself from budget policy of no new debt: document
Leaders of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) are set to call for a large public investment push that should not be hindered by “dogmatic positions” such as the government’s ‘black zero’ budget policy of no new debt, a document showed on Tuesday.
New SPD leaders to avoid outright call to quit German government
Leaders of Germany’s Social Democrats are leaning away from proposing the party quit Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government as they work on a motion to put to delegates at a party congress, party sources said.
Factbox: German SPD leaders’ wish-list to save Merkel coalition
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition may collapse because of new demands put to her conservatives from a new leftist Social Democrat (SPD) leadership chosen by party members on Saturday.
Press watchdogs call for EU to act over Hungary media curbs
Hungary has stifled its independent media and imposed a level of control over journalists that is unprecedented in an EU country, according to a joint report from six international press watchdogs that calls on EU leaders to take action.
