Author: Edgepage

BEIJING (Reuters) – China wants to deepen “strategic trust” with Iran, the Chinese government’s top diplomat told Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday, days before Saudi Arabia’s crown prince visits Beijing, underscoring China’s difficult Middle East balancing act. China has traditionally played little role in Middle East conflicts or diplomacy, despite its reliance on the region…

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to “take stock of the latest state of play on Brexit” with the head of the EU’s executive European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, spokespeople of the latter said. “The EU 27 will not reopen the withdrawal agreement. We cannot accept a time…

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian security forces killed 16 suspected militants in two separate raids in the city of Arish in North Sinai, state media said on Tuesday. The report came the day after an explosion in central Cairo killed three policemen. Ten suspected militants were killed in the Obeidat district of Arish and another six…

ROME (Reuters) – Rome’s Ciampino airport, used by budget airline Ryanair, partially reopened on Tuesday following a fire alert in the terminal, the company managing the site said. The airport was closed as a precaution after smoke was seen coming from a basement area, a spokeswoman for Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) said. A firecrew put…

GENEVA (Reuters) – Some 200 families are trapped in a shrinking area of Syria still controlled by Islamic State, whose forces are stopping some from fleeing, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday. “Many of them (also) …continue to be subjected to intensified air and ground-based strikes by the U.S.-led Coalition forces and…

MONTSERRAT, Spain (Reuters) – Tourists and worshippers visiting Catalonia’s imposing mountain-side Montserrat Monastery on a sunny Sunday this month appeared to pay little heed to two men with placards demanding that the local abbot be defrocked for covering up sexual abuse. But the pair, who say they were sexually abused in their youth, are making…

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State has stepped up guerrilla attacks against U.S.-backed fighters in eastern Syria, pointing to the threat the jihadists will pose even after they lose their last enclave there, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday. The U.S.-backed SDF is on the brink of defeating Islamic State (IS) in its last…

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Pacific island nation of Nauru will not allow doctors to remotely recommend the medical transfer of asylum seekers to Australia, under a new rule that could thwart an easing of Australia’s hardline immigration policy. Australia’s government suffered an embarrassing defeat in parliament last week when opposition and independent lawmakers voted to…

ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish appeals court upheld a ruling to jail journalists and executives from the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, the paper said on Tuesday, adding that its employees will be sent back to prison to serve the remainder of their sentences. A court last year sentenced 14 staff of Cumhuriyet – one of the…