Reuters - Page 33

An historic meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church is “getting closer every day,” a senior Orthodox prelate said in an interview published on Sunday.

EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker urged Greeks on Monday to back a cash-for-reform package rejected by their government, saying a ‘no’ vote in Sunday’s referendum would mean Greece was turning its back on the European Union. Following a breakdown of

British officials on Monday rejected another Cuadrilla Resources shale gas project in northwest England on the grounds of visual and noise impact, just four days after refusing a different shale gas planning application. Cuadrilla’s project at Preston New Road near

One of Burundi’s vice presidents has fled to Belgium, saying he had been threatened after denouncing President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office, an allegation denied by the government.

China on Wednesday gave its first-ever assessment of the scourge of drug abuse, saying it caused annual economic losses of 500 billion yuan ($80.54 billion) and as many as 49,000 deaths last year.

Greece’s international creditors will put their own final proposal for a cash-for-reform deal to avert a Greek default to euro zone finance ministers for approval on Thursday after Athens let a deadline pass, euro zone officials said. “If Greece says

Greece’s ruling Syriza party dismissed reform demands from the country’s international creditors as “blackmail” on Thursday as crisis talks to avert a debt default and a euro zone exit entered a critical phase. A parliamentary spokesman for Greek Prime Minister

BUCHAREST, June 24 (Reuters) – Romania’s anti-graft prosecutors (DNA) launched a criminal inquiry on Wednesday into a close ally of leftist Prime Minister Victor Ponta on suspicion of trying to bribe voters with frying pans. Sebastian Ghita, a lawmaker from

Islamic State militants have blown up two ancient shrines they consider sacrilegious in Palmyra, a 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in central Syria, the ultra hardline Sunni Muslim group said on Tuesday.

(Reuters) – Hollywood composer James Horner, who scored the Oscar-winning film “Titanic” and its mega-hit theme song “My Heart Will Go On”, died in a plane crash in southern California on Monday, U.S. media reported. The aircraft came down in

Denmark’s centre-right Liberals will try to form a minority government this week despite suffering their worst election result in 25 years, while the right-wing eurosceptic Danish People’s Party (DF) said it was still in the coalition talks. The centre-right bloc

A Taliban suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the Afghan parliament on Monday, shattering windows, wounding at least 19 people and sending a plume of black smoke across Kabul, as a second district in two days fell to the Islamist group

North Korea has been hit by what it describes as its worst drought in a century, which could worsen chronic food shortages in a country where the United Nations says almost a third of children under five are stunted because of poor nutrition.

(Reuters) Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office has proposed that a special investigator be appointed to inspect a list of targets that German intelligence tracked on behalf of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

Car bombs killed or injured at least 50 people near mosques and the headquarters of Yemen’s dominant Houthi group in Sanaa on Wednesday, in coordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State. The four blasts rocked the capital as Saudi-led forces conducted

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Almost 60 million people worldwide were forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution at the end of last year, the highest ever recorded number, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday.

Hundreds of people displaced from the Iraqi city of Tikrit started to return home on Monday, three months after pro-government forces recaptured former president Saddam Hussein’s hometown from Islamic State militants.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has performed a U-turn and ruled out holding a European Union membership referendum on May 5, 2016, a shift to placate some of his own lawmakers who were opposed to it being held on the

Michelle Obama kicked off a two-day visit to London on Tuesday with a tour of an inner city school as part of the U.S. First Lady’s drive to support education for girls around the world. Obama arrived in London on

Shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources received a boost in its plan to start fracking in north west England on Monday when local government recommended that its application to construct up to four exploration wells should be granted. The company’s project

Britain has pulled out agents from live operations in “hostile countries” after Russia and China cracked top-secret information contained in files leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the Sunday Times reported. Security service MI6, which operates overseas

Queen Elizabeth will return on Monday to the setting where 800 years ago one of her predecessors accepted the Magna Carta, the English document that put limits on the power of the crown for the first time and laid the

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter met a top Chinese general on Thursday and repeated a U.S. call for a halt to land reclamation in the South China Sea while stressing that the Pentagon remained committed to expanding military contacts with China.

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabweans will start exchanging ‘quadrillions’ of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe’s government discards its virtually worthless national currency, the central bank said on Thursday.

BUENOS AIRES/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Tensions over the Falkland Islands flared again on Wednesday, with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez referring to Britain’s leader as “almost ill-mannered” in his comments to an official of her government over the contested archipelago. At a

The Pentagon on Tuesday added Britain to the list of countries that received live anthrax samples from the U.S. military. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Defense Department spokesman, said one lab in Britain and another in Massachusetts had been added

HSBC  will shed almost 50,000 jobs and take an axe to its investment bank, cutting the assets of Europe’s biggest lender by a quarter in a bid to simplify and improve its sluggish performance. The bank said on Tuesday about

An international rescue fleet plucked almost 5,900 migrants from rickety boats making the perilous sea crossing for North Africa to Europe on Saturday and Sunday, Italy’s coastguard said. The British warship Bulwark assisted in picking up more than 1,000 refugees,

British Prime Minister David Cameron sought to quell fresh signs of rebellion in his Conservative Party over Europe, warning ministers they will have to back his European Union strategy or leave his government. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting

Prime Minister David Cameron will not achieve anything of significance in his planned renegotiation of Britain’s ties with the European Union, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson said. Cameron, whose Conservatives won a surprise majority at an election last

(Reuters) A radical Islamist Salafist group posted a statement on Twitter on Thursday claiming responsibility for firing three rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip.

(Reuters) Saudi-led air strikes killed a group of around 20 Houthi fighters outside the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Wednesday and also shook the capital Sanaa in the north, militiamen opposed to the Houthis said.

If Britain’s European Union membership referendum sees Scotland taken out of the bloc against its will, the voter backlash could result in a “clamour” for another independence vote, Scottish nationalist leader Nicola Sturgeon will say on Tuesday. Prime Minister David

The British government will be “selling hard” the advantages of staying in the European Union in a national referendum if it can secure a good enough package of reforms, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday. Prime Minister David Cameron,

Northern Ireland‘s First Minister Peter Robinson was released from hospital on Friday, four days after reportedly suffering a heart attack on the eve of a crucial debate in the regional assembly. Robinson, 66, underwent an emergency operation on Monday, the