(Reuters) – China and Japan agreed on Friday to work on improving ties and signaled willingness to put a bitter row over disputed islands on the back burner, paving the way for their leaders to meet at an Asian-Pacific summit next week. The agreement, ahead of an expected ice-breaking chat between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the gathering in Beijing, signals a thaw in ties between the world’s second- and third-biggest economies. Relations […]
International
Hollande popularity plumbs new low in mid-term French poll
(Reuters) – Half-way into his five-year mandate the popularity of French President Francois Hollande hit a new low on Thursday, hours before the Socialist leader addresses the nation to defend his shaky record on the economy. In the worst score for a president in modern-day polling, Hollande received a 12 percent approval rating in the monthly survey by pollster YouGov, down 15 percent from the prior month. Other recent polls have put his popularity at 13 […]
Tank column crosses from Russia into Ukraine: Kiev military
(Reuters) – A column of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer artillery systems and trucks carrying ammunition and fighters has crossed into eastern Ukraine from Russia, the Kiev military said on Friday. “The deployment continues of military equipment and Russian mercenaries to the front lines,” spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing referring to Thursday’s cross-border incursion. The report of a new Russian movement of armor across the border follows a charge on Thursday by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine that […]
Texas nurse, now free of Ebola, defends her work and travels
BY SUSAN HEAVEY (Reuters) – One of the Texas nurses who helped treat a Liberian man with Ebola last month defended her decision to fly after that, saying she had not been barred from traveling and felt normal during her trip. In televised interviews on Thursday, Amber Vinson, 29, also said she had received little training in handling patients with the virus that has ravaged West Africa, and had no experience with the protective gear needed […]
Obama, Republicans sound conciliatory note but battles loom
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama and his powerful U.S. Senate adversary struck a conciliatory tone on Wednesday, but Obama’s plans to proceed with new immigration rules foreshadowed a bumpy start to his relationship with a Republican-controlled Congress. Obama and Mitch McConnell, who will become majority leader when Republicans take charge in the Senate in January, signaled they hoped to get past a previously frosty relationship to pass legislation on priorities on which they can both agree. Republicans […]
Pakistani police officer axes man to death over blasphemy
(Reuters) – A policeman in Pakistan hacked a man to death for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, police said, just two days after a Christian couple was lynched over blasphemy in the same province. The man, Tufail Haider, 55, was taken into custody late on Wednesday in the city of Gujrat after a group of people allegedly overheard him making the remarks, beat him up and handed over to […]
U.S. continues strikes against Islamic State in Syria, Iraq: U.S. Central Command
(Reuters) – The United States continued its assault on Islamic State militants this week, conducting 14 airstrikes in recent days in Syria and Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Wednesday. From Monday through Wednesday, U.S. military forces launched three strikes near the Syrian border town of Kobani and one strike to the north in Sinjar. The strikes hit a small unit of militant fighters as well as two fighting positions, Central Command said. In Iraq, the […]
After Republican rout, Obama tells voters: ‘I hear you’
(Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that “Republicans had a good night” with sweeping election victories in Congress and said he got a message from voters that it was his responsibility to break a Washington gridlock. Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s election and captured their biggest majority in the House of Representatives in more than 60 years. The party also won more than half of the 36 governors’ races. “As […]
Tough road ahead for Obama after Republicans seize Senate
BY STEVE HOLLAND AND JOHN WHITESIDES (Reuters) – Republicans rode a wave of voter discontent to seize control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, dealing a punishing blow to President Barack Obama that will limit his legislative agenda and may force him to make a course correction for his last two years in office. The Republican rout was wide and deep in what was bound to be seen as a sharp rebuke to Obama, who has lurched from crisis to […]
School bus crash in Egypt kills 16 – state news
(Reuters) — At least 16 people, mostly children, were killed on Wednesday (November 5) when a school bus crashed into three other vehicles on a desert road in the Nile Deltanorth of Cairo, state television said. Photos published online by privately-owned news outlets showed the bus engulfed in flames and later reduced to a charred metal frame, suggesting many of the victims were burned alive. Eighteen people were also wounded in the crash and transported to hospital, a local […]
Pilot actions examined in U.S. crash of Virgin Galactic spacecraft
(Reuters) – A human-factors expert will join the investigation of the fatal crash of Virgin Galactic’s passenger spacecraft to study why the co-pilot prematurely unlocked a pivoting tail section of the ship during a test flight, a top safety official said on Monday. The untimely engagement of the tail mechanism, designed to slow the vehicle’s descent into the atmosphere from space, and the possibility that pilot error was to blame, were disclosed by the National […]
Peshmerga, Syrian rebels battle Islamic State in besieged Kobani
(Reuters) – Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and moderate Syrian rebels bombarded Islamic State positions in Kobani on Monday, but it was unclear if their arrival would turn the tide in the battle for the besieged Syrian border town. Kobani has become a symbolic test of the U.S.-led coalition’s ability to halt the advance of Islamic State, which has poured weapons and fighters into its assault of the town that has lasted more than a month. […]
