WORLD HEADLINES

June 13, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

Iraq oil revenues fall short of budget projections: PM

Iraq’s oil revenues are even lower than projected in the country’s already austere 2015 budget, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Saturday, spelling more financial trouble for cash-strapped Baghdad. “So far, our oil revenues are below what was passed in the budget,” Abadi said in televised remarks, without providing exact figures on the shortfall. Iraq’s parliament approved a budget of 119.5 trillion Iraqi dinars in January (about $99.6 billion at the

June 13, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

Iraq oil revenues fall short of budget projections: PM

Iraq’s oil revenues are even lower than projected in the country’s already austere 2015 budget, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Saturday, spelling more financial trouble for cash-strapped Baghdad. “So far, our oil revenues are below what was passed in the budget,” Abadi said in televised remarks, without providing exact figures on the shortfall. Iraq’s parliament approved a budget of 119.5 trillion Iraqi dinars in January (about $99.6 billion at the

June 12, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

U.S. troops at Taqaddum to help Iraqis plan fight for Ramadi

By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has said American forces being sent to a new operations center in the heart of the war against Islamic State will not engage in combat, but they will do almost everything but fight to support the beleaguered Iraqi forces. U.S. defense officials say the tasks of the troops going to Taqaddum air base will range from advising Iraqi commanders how to

June 12, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

Armed group storms Tunisian consulate in Libyan capital, kidnap 10 staff

An armed group stormed the Tunisian consulate in the Libyan capital Tripoli and kidnapped 10 staff on Friday, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said. The ministry did not identify the armed group, but called the assault a “blatant attack on Tunisian national sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international laws”. Tunisia is one of only a few countries which still has a mission in Tripoli, a city which is controlled by

June 12, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

Strauss-Kahn acquitted in French vice trial

By Pierre Savary and Brian Love LILLE, France (Reuters) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn was acquitted of sex crime accusations by a French court on Friday, the final chapter in a transatlantic scandal that destroyed the political ambitions of a man once tipped to become his country’s president. A court in the northern city of Lille dismissed charges that the former International Monetary Fund chief’s sexual escapades with prostitutes amounted to “aggravated

June 12, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

North Korea, in letter to U.N., claims U.S. targeted it with anthrax

North Korea has accused the United States of targeting it with anthrax and asked the United Nations Security Council to investigate Washington’s “biological warfare schemes” after a live anthrax sample was sent to a U.S. base in South Korea. Live anthrax samples, which can be used as a biological weapon, were inadvertently sent to Australia, Canada, Britain, South Korea and laboratories in 19 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., the Pentagon

June 12, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

Pentagon again asks China to end island building, seeks more military contact

By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter met a top Chinese general on Thursday and repeated a U.S. call for a halt to land reclamation in the South China Sea, while stressing that the Pentagon remained committed to expanding military contacts with China. In the meeting with General Fan Changlong, a deputy head of China’s powerful Central Military Commission, Carter stressed his commitment to developing “a

June 12, 2015 WORLD HEADLINES

U.S. and Russian navies hold talks on avoiding accidental clash

By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The U.S. and Russian navies met this week for the first time since the Ukraine crisis began to discuss how to avoid an accidental clash at sea or in the air, a U.S. naval commander said on Friday. Russia has stepped up its probing of NATO’s defenses since Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region last year caused the worst crisis in East-West relations since