World
25th April
Jennifer Garner leads People magazine’s beautiful list
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress, businesswoman and children’s advocate Jennifer Garner is featured on the cover of People magazine’s annual beautiful issue, the magazine said on Tuesday. People said it chose the 47-year-old “Alias” actress...
Jussie Smollett lawyers sued by alleged hoax accomplices
(Reuters) – Two brothers involved in Jussie Smollett’s Chicago alleged hate-crime hoax sued the “Empire” actor’s lawyers on Tuesday, accusing them of defamation for insisting they had “criminally attacked” the actor even after police concluded otherwise. Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo were briefly taken into custody as Chicago police investigated the January incident in which Smollett,...
Hollywood celebrates the finale of the ‘Avengers’ movies
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth and other members of the Avengers superhero team on Monday celebrated the final chapter in a 22-movie saga that ranks as the movie industry’s highest-grossing franchise of all time. At a lavish premiere in Los Angeles, hundreds of industry VIPs, cast members, fans and media watched...
New Zealand PM says no intelligence linking Sri Lanka attacks to Christchurch
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday that her government was not aware of any intelligence suggesting that a devastating attack on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for deadly shootings on a mosques in Christchurch. Sri Lanka’s junior minister for defence, Ruwan Wijewardene, told parliament on Tuesday...
New Zealand, France plan bid to tackle extremism on social media
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – In the wake of the Christchurch attack, New Zealand said on Wednesday that it would work with France in an effort to stop social media from being used to promote terrorism and violent extremism. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement that she will co-chair a meeting with French President Emmanuel...
NASA probe detects likely ‘marsquake’ – an interplanetary first
(Reuters) – NASA’s robotic probe InSight has detected and measured what scientists believe to be a “marsquake,” marking the first time a likely seismological tremor has been recorded on another planet, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reported on Tuesday. The breakthrough came nearly five months after InSight, the first spacecraft designed specifically to study...
Fear consumes Sri Lankan blast survivor after scenes from hell
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Ab Nirmala had just recounted how a day earlier she had found her daughter alive amid the body parts and bloody corpses strewn across the nave of St Anthony’s Church, when a car exploded outside her home, plunging the 54-year-old woman deeper into the trauma consuming all of Sri Lanka. Scared and...
In Rohingya camps, a political awakening faces a backlash
KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (Reuters) – It was after Mohib Ullah scored his first political victories that the death threats began in earnest. On a recent morning, the Rohingya refugee leaned back on a plastic chair in the Bangladesh camp where he lives, and translated the latest warning, sent over the WhatsApp messaging app. “Mohib...
24th April
Putin-Kim summit sends message to U.S. but sanctions relief elusive for North Korea
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time this week at a symbolic summit hoping to project himself as a serious world player but likely to come away without a relief from crushing sanctions he seeks. After his second summit with U.S....
China to recalibrate Belt and Road, defend scheme against criticism
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is expected to promote a recalibrated version of its Belt and Road initiative at a summit of heads of state this week in Beijing, seeking to allay criticism that its flagship infrastructure policy fuels indebtedness and lacks transparency. The policy championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping has become mired in controversy,...
Mexico sends home more migrants as Trump ramps up pressure
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico has returned 15,000 migrants in the past 30 days, a senior government official said on Tuesday, pointing to an uptick in deportations in the face of pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to stem the flow of people north. Speaking at a news conference, Tonatiuh Guillen, head of the National...
Libyan forces push back Haftar’s troops south of Tripoli: witnesses
HIRA, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Forces supporting Libya’s internationally recognized government pushed back troops loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar to more than 60 km (37 miles) southwest of the capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday, Reuters reporters said. The town of Aziziya was fully under the control of the Tripoli forces, with shops reopening after days of...
Hong Kong pro-democracy ‘Occupy’ activists jailed for role in mass protests
HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Hong Kong court on Wednesday jailed key leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy “Occupy” movement in a move that highlights political divisions nearly five years after protests rocked the China-ruled city. The sentences came after nine leaders of the Occupy movement were found guilty of public nuisance during the protest in...
Death toll from Sri Lanka bombing attacks rises to 359: police
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The death toll from the Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka rose to 359, police said on Wednesday without providing any further details. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera released the toll but did not give a breakdown of casualties from the three churches and four hotels hit...
UK’s May assures Ukraine’s new president of continued support
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May told Ukraine’s President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a congratulatory call on Tuesday that Britain would continue to support his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, her office said. “The Prime Minister stressed the importance of our two countries working together alongside the international community to deter Russian aggression,” a spokeswoman...
Christchurch attack survivors offered New Zealand residency
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand will grant permanent residency to all survivors of the mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques in which 50 Muslim worshippers were killed, it said on Tuesday. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, has been charged with 50 counts of murder for New Zealand’s worst peacetime mass shooting in...
Kremlin says North Korean leader Kim to meet Putin in Russia on Thursday
MOSCOW/VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Thursday in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok to discuss the international standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, a Kremlin official said. The visit is part of Kim’s effort to build foreign support after the breakdown of a...
Myanmar’s top court rejects final appeal by jailed Reuters journalists
NAYPYITAW (Reuters) – Myanmar’s top court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act, in a landmark case that has raised questions about the country’s transition to democracy. “They were sentenced for seven years and this decision stands, and the appeal is...
Islamic State claims Sri Lanka blasts, as government says probe making progress
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed 321 people in what officials believe was retaliation for assaults on mosques in New Zealand. The claim, issued through the group’s AMAQ news agency, was made after Sri Lanka said two domestic Islamist groups with suspected links...
Polarised politics: how two teenagers will vote after surviving 2002 Gujarat riots
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) – On the night of February 28, 2002, two toddlers living in adjacent alleys were dragged out of a slum district in Ahmedabad in Gujarat that had been set ablaze by a mob in one of India’s worst ever Hindu-Muslim riots. The attack in the Naroda Patiya area of the state’s biggest...
Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg dies at 98
BRUSSELS – Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Jean, who oversaw the transformation of the Grand Duchy into an international financial center before abdicating and handing over to his son, has died at the age of 98. He was born on Jan. 5, 1921 to Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma. His early life was overshadowed...
Rescuers race to find survivors after Philippine quake kills 15
PORAC, Philippines (Reuters) – Rescue teams in the Philippines searched for signs of life beneath the rubble of a collapsed four-storey commercial building on Tuesday after a strong earthquake shook the country’s biggest island, killing at least 15 people. Heavy lifting equipment and search dogs were used as dozens of firefighters, military and civilian rescue...
Japan’s 10-day break to fete new emperor may breathe life into economy
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s unprecedented 10-day holiday to celebrate Crown Prince Naruhito’s enthronement is expected to give the sluggish economy at least a short-term boost. Breweries, hotels, retailers, restaurants and train operators are all expected to benefit from the holiday, which runs from April 27 to May 6. Banks, schools, government offices and many businesses...
Sri Lanka wakes to emergency law after Easter bombing attacks
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lankans woke to emergency law on Tuesday as authorities searched for those behind suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 290 people over the weekend, with the focus turning to militants with links to foreign groups. No group has yet to claim responsibility for Easter Sunday’s attacks on...
Indian PM Modi votes in third phase of mammoth general election
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Voting began in the third and largest phase of India’s staggered general election on Tuesday, including in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat and in opposition Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi’s seat in southern Kerala. In all, 188 million voters are eligible to cast ballots in 117 constituencies during...
Chinese people love peace, Xi says as kicks off major naval parade
QINGDAO, China (Reuters) – The Chinese people love peace and countries should not threaten each other with the use of force, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday as he kicked off a large-scale naval parade marking 70 years since the founding of China’s navy. Xi is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the People’s Liberation...
Spanish general election candidates clash over Catalonia
MADRID (Reuters) – The main candidates in Spain’s general election on Monday clashed over how to handle Catalonia’s independence drive, accusing each other of lying in a tense television debate that left questions open on what coalition deals could be struck. Spain’s parliamentary election on April 28, one of the country’s most divisive since its...
Kazakhstan’s Tokayev gets veteran leader’s backing for presidency
NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday secured veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev’s backing to run in the June 9 snap presidential election, virtually guaranteeing Tokayev’s victory. Nazarbayev, who leads the oil-rich Central Asian nation’s biggest political party, Nur Otan, asked party members at a pre-election congress on Tuesday to officially nominate Tokayev, a...
India to get extra oil from major producers to make up for Iran oil loss: minister
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India will get additional supplies from other major oil producing countries to compensate for the loss of Iranian oil, India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday. The United States on Monday demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, ending six...
Goldman says removal of Iran oil sanctions waivers to have limited impact
(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs expects the United States’ decision to end waivers from sanctions on imports of Iranian oil to have a limited impact on prices, even though the timing of the halt is much more sudden than expected. “While we acknowledge the near-term upside price risks, we reiterate our fundamentally derived Brent price trading...
