HANOI Vietnam will trim its state-run media and publishing sector, with the loss of about 10,000 jobs and some widely circulated newspapers, as the ruling Communist Party tightens its control over the booming industry, a report said on Saturday. The number of ... More »
PORTLAND, Ore. The U.S. federal government has killed more than 1,000 seabirds on an Oregon island since May to protect endangered salmon as part of a plan that environmentalists say is flawed and are seeking to stop with a lawsuit. So far, 1,221 adult cormora... More »
LONDON Britain is considering selling the Channel 4 public broadcaster as part of its drive to pay down debt, a government official has accidentally revealed. An official was photographed on Thursday outside No. 10 Downing St, the residence of Prime Minister D... More »
NEW ORLEANS In New Orleans, a city synonymous with music and raucous revelry, government officials are launching a public health campaign aimed at turning down the volume. The city this week announced the start of “Sound Check,” the latest attempt to address r... More »
ATHENS Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras stormed back into office with an unexpectedly decisive election victory on Sunday, claiming a clear mandate to steer Greece’s battered economy to recovery. The vote ensured Europe’s most outspoken leftist leader would remain... More »
ATHENS Greek Prime Minister-elect Alexis Tsipras has reaffirmed his dominance on the political landscape, but now faces the daunting task of building consensus in a fractious society traumatized by years of austerity, local media said on Monday. On the morning... More »
BEIJING British finance minister George Osborne said on Monday Britain would like to continue helping the gradual internationalization of the yuan and that it welcomed the potential for majority Chinese investment in future nuclear projects. Speaking at the st... More »
BEIJING China and Russia are set to sign an agreement on developing a wide-bodied airliner before the end of the year, the China Daily reported on Monday, quoting the president of Russia’s state-controlled United Aircraft Corp, Yury Slyusar. United Aircraft an... More »
BERLIN The head of the European Parliament said on Monday that he expects European Union interior ministers to agree on a voluntary scheme to relocate 160,000 migrants at their meeting on Tuesday. “There will be some discussions, but at the end there will be a... More »
YANGON Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was touring her constituency on the outskirts of Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon on Monday, kicking off the third week of campaigning for the first free national vote in 25 years. In the run-up to the No... More »
BEIJING Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to press ahead with mergers and acquisitions to improve their competitiveness and for the disposal of “zombie” enterprises, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday. St... More »
TOKYO Public support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fell after the passage of controversial national security bills, which could let troops fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War Two, polls published on Monday showed. Support for ... More »
ATHENS The leftist Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras won 35.47 percent of the vote in Sunday’s Greek national election based on 99.44 percent of votes counted, the Interior Ministry said on its website. Conservative New Democracy won 28.09 percent, the ministry s... More »
HAVANA Pope Francis met Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Sunday, hours after warning Cubans to beware the dangers of ideology and the lure of selfishness as their country enters a new era of closer ties with the United States. Latin America’s first ... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said on Sunday that Muslims were unfit to be president of the United States, arguing their faith was inconsistent with American principles. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nat... More »
FRANKFURT/HAMBURG Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) told U.S. dealers to halt sales of some 2015 diesel cars after regulators found software it designed for the affected vehicles gave false emissions data, the company said Sunday, announcing it had launched an investigat... More »
BERLIN The United States will increase the number of refugees it takes in by 15,000 over each of the next two years, bringing the total to 100,000 by 2017, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after talks with his German counterpart on Sunday. The remarks m... More »
WASHINGTON Billionaire Donald Trump remains in first place in the race to win the Republican presidential nomination for 2016, but his support has fallen to 24 percent from 32 percent previously, a CNN/ORC poll released on Sunday shows. Former Hewlett-Packard ... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said on Saturday it was not his job to stand up for U.S. President Barack Obama after a man at one of his campaign events said he was a Muslim and “not even an American.” “Am I morally obligated to de... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON A group of prominent Democratic Party fundraisers on Friday began circulating a letter to encourage a hesitant Vice President Joe Biden to enter the 2016 race for U.S. president. The letter, signed by nearly 50 people, calls the Obama-Biden... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Eric Fanning to become the next secretary of the Army, the White House said on Friday, paving the way for the first openly gay leader of a military service branch in U.S. history. Fanning is currently serving as... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON A group of prominent Democratic Party fundraisers on Friday began circulating a letter to encourage a hesitant Vice President Joe Biden to enter the 2016 race for U.S. president. The letter, signed by nearly 50 people, calls the Obama-Biden... More »
Companies and organizations are pledging to provide funds, goods and services to help thousands of migrants arriving in Europe from war-torn and impoverished countries. Companies are helping through both corporate and employee schemes. Following are some examp... More »
NEW YORK Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, said Thursday that the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off on a rate hike reflects policymakers’ reluctance to add to international financial fragility. The Fed kept interest rates unchang... More »
WASHINGTON The four leaders of the U.S. Congress asked members on Thursday to refrain from one of Washington’s favorite rituals when Pope Francis visits the Capitol next week: no trying to grab a handshake as he makes his way in. On Sept. 24, Pope Francis will... More »
MOSCOW/WARSAW Russia summoned Poland’s ambassador on Thursday to protest at the removal of a Soviet-era statue in a Polish town on the 76th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, highlighting increased tensions between the neighbors. Katarzyna Pelczynsk... More »
The Republican presidential candidates’ prime-time debate on CNN attracted an average of 22.9 million viewers, the network said on Thursday, making it the highest-rated program in the channel’s 35-year history. The figures, based on Nielsen data, fell shy of t... More »
SARAJEVO Bosnia’s National Museum, a custodian of culture for a region torn by ethnic divisions, re-opened on Tuesday after a three-year closure, displaying treasures including a medieval Jewish book of Passover rites. After Bosnia’s divided authorities finall... More »
LONDON Dissident artist Ai Weiwei has had his run-ins with the authorities in his native China, but the Royal Academy of Arts is giving him all the space he needs for a mammoth retrospective opening in London on Saturday. Among the works on display are securit... More »
CANBERRA Conservative Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott faced a challenge to his leadership when his popular communications minister launched a bid for the top office on Monday after months of speculation and poor showings in opinion polls. Malcolm Turnbul... More »
BELFAST When IRA-linked gunmen turned their fire on one other this summer they triggered a political crisis in Northern Ireland’s fragile government of pro-British unionists and republicans working for a united Ireland. They also revealed an uncomfortable trut... More »
CANBERRA Embattled Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been asked to step down by two senior ministers, Sky TV reported on Monday, following mounting speculation about his position and concerns about the performance of his conservative coalition governme... More »
WASHINGTON Days before a Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library, an immigration advocacy group invoked the former president to attack the tough immigration rhetoric of certain candidates, including front-runner Donald Trump. A television a... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Republican party presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said on Sunday high salaries paid to chief executives were a “joke” and a “disgrace” and said these were often approved by company boards stacked with the CEO’s friends. Trump, a real estat... More »
PARIS France is on the right path with reforms the Socialist government has undertaken but needs to go farther, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday. Lagarde, who was finance minister in the government of conservative former presi... More »
BEIJING China issued some details on Sunday on plans to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including the introduction of “mixed ownership” by bringing in private investment, and said it expected decisive results by 2020. Reform of mammoth state-owned firms... More »
FRANKFURT The U.S. Federal Reserve takes center stage in the coming week, eclipsing industry data from China, another grim inflation reading from the euro zone and rate decisions in Japan and Switzerland. Guessing whether the Fed hikes rates on Thursday or opt... More »
NEW ORLEANS A last-minute action by the Louisiana Supreme Court saved New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu from being placed under weekend house arrest over a decades-old dispute with local firefighters who are owed $75 million in back wages. The standoff arose fr... More »
WASHINGTON A senior Pentagon official on Friday expressed concerns about Aerojet Rocketdyne Holding Inc’s reported $2 billion bid for United Launch Alliance (ULA), a 50-50 rocket launch venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, and said the deal would req... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday started a non-binding 180-day countdown to review the proposed $56 billion merger of cable rivals Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC.N) The FCC said it will collect th... More »
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said on Friday he had bought NBC’s share of the Miss Universe Organization and that all lawsuits against the media company had been settled. “Just purchased NBC’s half of the Miss Universe Organization and settl... More »
A Manhattan prosecutor on Thursday urged a jury to convict three former executives of Dewey & LeBoeuf for allegedly cooking their law firm’s books to defraud lenders and investors, arguing they ordered the fraud even if they did not personally carry it out. “T... More »
BERLIN Twenty-four years after it was buried, the head of a giant statue of Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was dug up from woodland on the outskirts of Berlin on Thursday to be displayed at an exhibition in the German capital. The monument was unce... More »
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission chief on Wednesday said 21st Century Fox Inc Chief Executive James Murdoch has told him the company planned to participate in the 2016 spectrum auction that hinges on broadcasters selling their airwaves. “I’ve talked ... More »
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the euro zone economy was in better shape than a year ago and said reform efforts by countries like Spain and Ireland had paid off. “If we look at the euro zone as a whole, we can say that there is ... More »
ISTANBUL Turkey’s military said on Monday its warplanes bombarded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets overnight after the militants staged a deadly attack in which, one security source told Reuters, 16 Turkish soldiers were killed. The PKK said it had killed... More »
VIENNA/MUNICH Austria said on Sunday it planned to end emergency measures that have allowed thousands of refugees stranded in Hungary into Austria and Germany since Saturday and move step by step “towards normality”. Austria had suspended its random border che... More »
ATHENS Turned down for a 10,000 euro ($11,100) loan, George Sarris is one of hundreds of thousands of small business owners shunned by Greek banks. Pointing to the parliament building overlooking his small cafe in Athens’ Syntagma Square, the 35-year-old blame... More »
BEIRUT The overpowering stench of the rubbish piling up in Lebanon’s streets has become a potent symbol of the political rot protesters blame not only for the garbage crisis but a gridlocked sectarian power system unable to meet citizens’ most basic needs, fro... More »
GUATEMALA CITY Guatemala looked bound for a presidential election run-off as results showed the three leading candidates splitting the vote on Sunday, prolonging political uncertainty just days after a graft scandal toppled the president. Otto Perez resigned a... More »
TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looks set to win a rare second consecutive term but economists predict he won’t use that victory to push through bold reforms such as labor market changes that are considered vital for long-term growth. Instead, Abe, wh... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Nearly one in five high school students who said they used electronic cigarettes to vaporize nicotine also used them to vaporize pot, according to a survey of nearly 4,000 Connecticut teens. The study, published on Monday in the jou... More »
WASHINGTON Immigrants to the United States should “speak American,” former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Sunday, adding her voice to a controversy triggered by Donald Trump’s criticism of fellow Republican White House hopeful Jeb Bus... More »
KABUL Plastic surgeon Abdul Ghafar Ghayur is practicing his own brand of welfare in Afghanistan, where access to healthcare is limited and many cannot afford private treatment. The money he makes from the hundreds of nose jobs and Botox injections he performs ... More »
WASHINGTON Senator Bernie Sanders has opened a nine-point lead over fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton among party supporters in New Hampshire, according to an NBC News/Marist Poll released on Sunday. The survey showed that 41 percent of Democratic voters would b... More »
XUZHOU, China Two years after China unveiled a sweeping plan to rebuild Silk Road trade links with Europe and Asia, machinery maker XCMG Group has opened a factory in Uzbekistan, sent 300 staff abroad and set ambitious goals to grow overseas. XCMG’s foreign ve... More »
Union activist Cliff Smith once thought of Bernie Sanders as an “obscure” U.S. senator. That changed in August when Smith joined 27,000 people to hear the Democratic White House candidate speak at a Los Angeles sports arena. “The other candidates – they talk i... More »
CERNOBBIO, Italy U.S. computer company Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) is considering increasing investments and hiring new workers in Italy after years of downsizing, because, it says, it has faith, for the first time in a while, that the country is on the mend. “The... More »
BRUSSELS Deep divisions over how to cope with a flood of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia pose a threat to the European Union’s values and global standing and may diminish its ability to act jointly to reform the euro zone and ease Greece’s debt.... More »
LONDON/WASHINGTON When the once toxic Rebekah Brooks returns to run Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers on Monday she will face the toughest challenge of her career — rebuilding her reputation and the company in the harsh glare of the public spotlight. Brooks,... More »
CERNOBBIO, Italy A common euro zone budget should initially be funded through joint debt issuance and taxpayers’ money should only be used at a later stage, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday. France wants the euro zone to have its own jo... More »
SAN JUAN Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told residents of Puerto Rico on Friday the island needed new political leadership as it grapples with its fiscal crisis, but protection under bankruptcy laws would not solve the U.S. territory’s problems.... More »
WASHINGTON Saudi Arabia is satisfied with assurances from U.S. President Barack Obama about the Iran nuclear deal and believes the agreement will contribute to security and stability in the Middle East, a senior Saudi official said on Friday. Saudi King Salman... More »
WASHINGTON Republican Jeb Bush’s first TV ads of his 2016 White House campaign will target New Hampshire, his team said on Friday, in a reflection of his need to do well in an early voting state where rival John Kasich has been making inroads. The initial $500... More »
LONDON Rebekah Brooks, the Rupert Murdoch protegee cleared last year of orchestrating a criminal campaign that damaged the British establishment, will return to her old job running the tycoon’s British newspapers next week in a stunning comeback. Brooks, who w... More »
BERLIN German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that Spain’s economic development showed that the euro zone was tackling its crisis well. “Spain is the best example that we’ve done a lot of things quite right in Europe,” Schaeuble said at a b... More »
TRIPOLI A boat carrying migrants sank off Libya’s Mediterranean coast, killing at least 37 people, a local official said on Sunday, the second such fatal accident within days. “We had reports this morning that there are seven bodies of illegal migrants that sa... More »
BEIJING The removal of a stone plinth sign written by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at the entrance of a key Communist Party training center is not a sign of disrespect, a senior official said on Monday, after rumors of destabilizing party infighting. J... More »
BERLIN Returning from her summer break in mid-August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised some eyebrows by describing Europe’s refugee problem as a bigger challenge than the Greece crisis, which had overshadowed all else in the first half of 2015. No one in... More »
BEIJING People whose apartments were damaged in explosions in the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin can sell their homes to a group of property developers or choose to have the government renovate them, the official Xinhua news agency said. Hundreds of... More »
MANILA An influential Christian group in the Philippines ended a protest on Monday over the prosecution of its leaders, calling off a blockade by 20,000 members of a main road in the capital after talks with the government. The Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Chr... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Monday will officially restore Denali as the name of North America’s tallest mountain, siding with the state of Alaska in ending a 40-year battle over what to call a peak that has been known as Mount McKinley. The historic ... More »
WASHINGTON The White House is considering applying sanctions against companies and individuals in China it believes have benefited from Chinese hacking of U.S. trade secrets, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The newspaper, citing several unidentified Ob... More »
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. Central bankers from around the world are telling their American counterparts that they are ready for a U.S. interest rate hike and would prefer that the Federal Reserve make the move without further ado. In private and in public at last wee... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie pushed back on Sunday against “ridiculous” criticism of his proposal to track foreign visitors the way FedEx Corp tracks packages, saying government needs private-sector expertise to tackle illegal im... More »
ISLAMABAD U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice warned Pakistani political and military leaders on Sunday that recent attacks in Afghanistan by militants based in Pakistan threaten regional security, an official said. Rice also delivered an invitation from... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders narrowed the gap with leading Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a recent opinion poll in the political bellwether state of Iowa as support for the front-runner fell below 50 percent for the first time thi... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama has invited Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, for a meeting at the White House on Oct. 22, the U.S. National Security Council said on Sunday. The invitation came during a visit to Islamabad on Saturday and Sunday by Nat... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said on Sunday he would support the nuclear deal with Iran, moving President Barack Obama a step closer to having sufficient backing to ensure the deal stands. “I believe the agreement, titled the J... More »
ACCRA Ghana faced down the first major challenge to an IMF austerity program on Monday when doctors suspended a three-week strike but a bigger test of President John Mahama’s commitment will come next year as he fights for reelection. The International Monetar... More »
OSLO Only a third of Europe’s electronic waste is properly recycled, with vast numbers of cellphones, computers and televisions illegally traded or dumped, a study led by the United Nations and INTERPOL said on Sunday. Sweden and Norway were close to European ... More »
(This 28 August 2015 story was refiled to add the dropped word “court” in the first paragraph) Planned Parenthood filed a complaint in Alabama federal court on Friday seeking to stop the state from defunding its health clinics after the release of covertly rec... More »
, Brussels – The European Commission will launch a study in September of the ride-hailing app Uber in an effort to settle legal disputes that have pitched the U.S. start-up against conventional taxis across Europe, three people familiar with the matter said on... More »
College and professional athletes may be clients financial advisers love to get, but many also find good homes on the other side of the desk. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, for example, is discovering that its three-year, $1.5 million sponsorship, through... More »
WARSAW U.S. media group Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI.N) bought nearly all remaining shares in Polish broadcaster TVN TVN.WA, planning to delist the company from the Warsaw bourse GPW.WA, a brokerage running the deal said on Thursday. SNI, which already ow... More »
BERLIN A Greek exit from the euro zone was a possibility and remains a threat if Athens does not fulfill the conditions of its third bailout agreement, the head of the European Stability Mechanism said on Thursday. “This threat as a possibility must always be ... More »
LOS ANGELES Despite a devastating four-year drought that has forced strict water conservation measures across California, most Los Angeles County supervisors still have their cars washed two or three times a week, a local newspaper reported. The multiple weekl... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday called for an emergency meeting with Dish Network Corp and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc over the continuing blackout affecting 129 TV stations. Sinclair, the largest U.S. broad... More »
BEIRUT Two people were killed in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon in renewed overnight clashes between the mainstream Palestinian faction Fatah and hardline Islamists, security sources said. The two sides exchanged heavy gunfire in Ain al-Hilweh refugee c... More »
ANKARA The leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP opposition said on Tuesday his party was ready to take part in an interim power-sharing government but that he would not be surprised if the prime minister tried to form a cabinet without the HDP. President Tayyip ... More »
NAYPYITAW Myanmar’s powerful commander-in-chief has reiterated that the military will respect the outcome of the country’s Nov. 8 election, seen as a crucial test of Myanmar’s reform process. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said that the main concern of the arm... More »
DUBUQUE, Iowa Thousands of people are expected to stream into an events center here on the banks of the Mississippi River on Tuesday to see Donald Trump. When they do, his presidential campaign will be waiting, looking to convert casual gawkers into hardcore s... More »
SEOUL North and South Korea agreed early on Tuesday to end a military standoff that sparked an exchange of artillery fire and had ratcheted up tension on one of the world’s most heavily-fortified borders. Under an accord reached in the early hours, following m... More »
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said on Monday it was ludicrous to describe his use of the term “anchor babies” as offensive to immigrants, saying his original comments referred more to Asians coming to the United States to give birth. Bush’s rem... More »
GUATEMALA CITY Guatemalan Finance Minister Dorval Carias resigned on Monday amid a deepening corruption scandal that has also featured calls for the impeachment of President Otto Perez. A statement released by Carias’ office did not give a reason for his decis... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama, fresh from vacation and nine rounds of golf in Martha’s Vineyard, launched into a busy two weeks promoting renewable energy and his nuclear deal with Iran. With the U.S. presidential election campaign and China’s slumping sto... More »
NORRISTOWN, Pa. Pennsylvania’s attorney general, accused of illegally leaking grand jury information to embarrass a political foe and then lying about it, was ordered on Monday to stand trial on perjury, obstruction of justice and other corruption charges. Cap... More »
WASHINGTON Lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department on Monday filed a stinging rebuke to U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s bid to have political corruption charges against him dismissed. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Rel... More »
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Monday said his use of the term “anchor babies” to describe U.S.-born children of non-citizen parents was taken out of context and not derogatory, saying he was referring solely to activity he views as fraudul... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday temporarily allowed former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell to remain out of prison as he fights his corruption conviction. In a brief order, Roberts said an appeals court ruling rejecting McDonnell’s bid ... More »
