By Michel Rose LYON, France (Reuters) – French authorities are questioning a 35-year-old delivery man of North African origin over a suspected Islamist attack involving the beheading of his boss and an attempt to blow up a U.S.-owned chemicals plant in southeastern France. President Francois Hollande, dealing with new security fears less than six months after 17 people were killed by Islamist gunmen at satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a
By Sylvia Westall BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian Kurdish fighters said they had fully secured the town of Kobani near the Turkish border on Saturday and killed more than 60 Islamic State militants, two days after the hardline group launched an incursion with suicide bombers. Further east, Islamic State pressed another assault on government-held areas of Hasaka city, clashing with the Syrian army after blowing up a security building late on
By John Irish and Arshad Mohammed VIENNA (Reuters) – An accord to curb Iran’s nuclear program remains elusive due to disagreements on fundamental issues, France’s foreign minister said on Saturday in Vienna, just days before the June 30 deadline for a deal. Laurent Fabius spoke to reporters upon arrival in the Austrian capital after top U.S. and Iranian diplomats said hard work was still needed for what could be their
By Tarek Amara SOUSSE, Tunisia (Reuters) – Tour companies were evacuating thousands of foreign holidaymakers from Tunisia on Saturday, a day after a gunman killed 39 people as they lounged at the beach in an attack claimed by Islamic State. Tunisia’s Prime Minister Habib Essid said most of the dead were British, and its health ministry said eight Britons, a German, a Belgian and an Irish citizen were among the
By Ahmed Hagagy and Angus McDowall KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait detained the owner of a car that took a bomber to a Shi’ite mosque to carry out the country’s worst ever militant attack, officials said on Saturday, as thousands calling for national unity turned out to bury some of the 27 killed. Militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing against 2,000 worshippers praying at the Imam al-Sadeq
By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) – Changing position on China’s claims over the South China Sea would shame its ancestors, while not facing up to infringements of Chinese sovereignty there would shame its children, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday. China has become increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, building artificial islands in areas over which the Philippines and other countries have rival claims, sparking alarm regionally and
By Tarek Amara SOUSSE, Tunisia (Reuters) – Casually dressed in dark shorts, a necklace and T-shirt, he would have looked like any other young Tunisian among the German, British and Irish sunbathers soaking up the Mediterranean heat on one of Tunisia’s long, yellow beaches. In just five minutes, armed with the black Kalashnikov he had hidden in his beach umbrella, Saif Rezgui unleashed horror across the Imperial Marhaba resort, leaving
By Catherine Lagrange SAINT-QUENTIN FALLAVIER, France (Reuters) – A decapitated body daubed with Arabic writing was found at a U.S.-owned factory in southeast France on Friday after an assailant rammed a delivery van into gas containers at the site, triggering an explosion. Speaking from a European Union summit in Brussels, French President Francois Hollande described it as a terrorist attack and said all measures would be taken to stop any
By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) – At least 27 people, including foreign tourists, were killed when at least one gunman opened fire on a Tunisian beachside hotel in the popular resort of Sousse on Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said. Police were still clearing the area around the Imperial Marhaba hotel and the body of one gunman lay at the scene with a Kalashnikov assault rifle after he was shot
By Sylvia Westall BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters killed at least 145 civilians in an attack on the Syrian town of Kobani and a nearby village, in what a monitoring group described on Friday as the second worst massacre carried out by the hardline group in Syria. Fighting between the Kurdish YPG militia and Islamic State fighters who infiltrated the town at the Turkish border on Thursday continued into