MALE The president of the Maldives was unhurt but his wife and two aides were injured in an explosion on board their launch as it approached Male, capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago, a senior aide told Reuters. The cause of Monday’s blast, witnessed by jo... More »
NEW DELHI A stately New Delhi mansion, once home to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and now a museum to his life, has emerged as a flashpoint in the growing ideological war between his heirs and the Hindu nationalist government.Since trouncing th... 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 »
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 »
PARIS British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has decided to leave the anti-Semitic graffiti on his “Dirty Corner” installation at the Palace of Versailles near Paris, but will cover it up, palace authorities said on Friday. The 60-meter (197 feet) abstract steel... 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 »
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 »
CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa Humanity’s claim to uniqueness just suffered another setback: scientists reported on Thursday that a newly discovered ancient species related to humans also appeared to bury its dead. Fossils of the creature were unearthed in ... More »
VENICE Johnny Depp says he did not have to dig deep to tap into his evil side for his portrayal of the Irish-American gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in the film “Black Mass”, screened out of competition on Friday at the Venice Film Festival. “I found the evil ... More »
ROME Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican on Thursday evening to make a surprise visit to a Rome optician’s shop to get a new pair of eyeglasses, insisting that his old frames be re-used and that he would pay for them. Francis was driven to Ottica Spiezia o... 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 »
MEXICO CITY Archeologists have discovered a massive ceremonial skull rack from the heyday of the Aztec empire in the heart of Mexico City, a find that could shed new light on how its rulers projected power by human sacrifice, the team said on Thursday. The sku... More »
(This August 2 story was corrected to change number of Palestinians held in detention without trial in paragraph 10 to 391 as of May not 5,442 as of June) By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s security cabinet approved on Sunday the detention of citiz... More »
LOS ANGELES (This story corrects paragraph 2: nuns no longer live at the property in July 30 story) Katy Perry, who grew up the daughter of Protestant pastors and rose to fame with the hit song “I Kissed a Girl,” may get her chance to live in a former Roman Ca... More »
BAYREUTH, Germany A renovated Richard Wagner Museum opening in Bayreuth this weekend to coincide with the Bavarian city’s annual Wagner opera festival puts the composer’s anti-Semitism and his family’s later ties to Adolf Hitler center stage for the first time... More »
ADEN, Yemen Yemeni fighters backed by Saudi-led air strikes battled to take back northern suburbs of Aden from Houthi opponents on Tuesday, residents said, a day after completing their capture of the center of the strategic port city. The country’s dominant Ho... More »
CAPE TOWN Veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu was discharged from hospital on Tuesday after a week fighting a persistent infection that is not related to his prostate cancer, his daughter said. Tutu, 83, who has been living with prosta... More »
LONDON Buckingham Palace scolded Rupert Murdoch’s top-selling Sun tabloid on Saturday for publishing a previously unknown film from 1933 that appears to show Britain’s Queen Elizabeth performing a Nazi salute as a young girl. The black-and-white film from the ... More »
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Religious groups are an under-used health resource that could help achieve universal healthcare and accelerate the medical response to disease outbreaks, health experts said on Tuesday. Faith-based organizations such as th... More »
CHARLESTON, S.C. South Carolina lawmakers took a step on Monday toward removing the Confederate battle flag that flies at the state house in Columbia, long denounced as a symbol of slavery by critics. A bill to banish the flag from a Civil War memorial on the ... More »
LA PAZ A Bolivian avant-garde restaurant hopes this week to serve a well-known non-paying customer and receive a holy seal of approval for its new creation: a quinoa-based communion wafer. Chefs at the restaurant, Gustu, in La Paz expect Pope Francis to receiv... More »
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis will decide for himself if he chews coca leaves in order to ward off altitude sickness when he lands next week at La Paz, Bolivia, the highest international airport in the world, the Vatican said on Tuesday. A Bolivian minister said o... More »
SACRAMENTO, Calif. California lawmakers on Monday sent Governor Jerry Brown a bill to substantially limit vaccine exemptions for school children in the most populous U.S. state, following last year’s measles outbreak at Disneyland that sickened more than 100 p... More »
SYDNEY Justin Bieber arrived in Sydney on Monday to attend a week-long gathering at a Hillsong pentecostal church, after the pop star this year vowed to discard his hard-partying image. “Justin is here, like tens of thousands of others, as a delegate who is se... More »
PARIS The suspected Islamist who attempted to blow up a French chemical plant on Friday has admitted killing his manager beforehand, a source close to the investigation said on Sunday, as police linked the suspect to a militant now in Syria. Yassin Salhi, 35, ... More »
