WORLD HEADLINES

Yemeni president returns to Aden after six-month exile

By Mohammed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) – Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi landed in Yemen’s Aden on Tuesday, airport sources said, returning to the southern port city for the first time since he escaped to Saudi Arabia as Houthi fighters closed in six months ago. A government source said Hadi would spend the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in the city then fly to New York to deliver a speech at

Gulf Arabs oppose Russia role in Syria, still bent on Assad's ouster

By William Maclean DUBAI (Reuters) – Russia’s military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad has dismayed Gulf Arab enemies of the Syrian leader who say it will prolong the war and keep Syria firmly in the orbit of their arch regional rival Iran. Russia says it is providing arms to the Syrian leader, a longtime ally, and has sent servicemen to advise on their use in the fight against

Tsipras to back Greek bailout with Tsakalotos as finance minister

By Renee Maltezou and Michele Kambas ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will reappoint Euclid Tsakalotos as finance minister, a senior source in his leftist Syriza party said on Tuesday, to offer continuity in bailout talks with international lenders. Tsakalotos, a low-key Oxford-trained Marxist economist, helped steer bailout discussions with Greece’s creditors that produced an 86 billion euro loan accord with Athens in August. George Chouliarakis, who was

Pope's trip ties Cuba to U.S. with message of reconciliation

By Philip Pullella and Jaime Hamre SANTIAGO, Cuba (Reuters) – Pope Francis ended his Cuba trip on Tuesday and headed to the United States with a message of reconciliation for the former Cold War foes while avoiding controversy on the U.S. trade embargo or human rights on the Communist-run island. Cuba would have welcomed a papal condemnation of the embargo and Washington would have appreciated any reference to rights on

Slovak PM Fico: migrant quotas will not happen on my watch

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Slovakia will refuse to implement a European Union plan to redistribute asylum seekers to all EU countries under a quota system approved by the bloc’s interior ministers on Tuesday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said. “As long as I am prime minister, mandatory quotas will not be implemented on Slovak territory,” Fico told the parliament’s EU affairs committee. (Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Writing by Jan Lopatka)

Rajapaksa criticizes U.N. findings on Sri Lanka war crimes

By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa criticized on Tuesday the findings of a UN probe into war crimes and called on the government to reject the report, which called for suspects to be prosecuted by a hybrid court with international judges. Rajapaksa won the 26-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009, but his military was accused of killing thousands of

Triumphant Tsipras returns to fight for Greek economy, debt relief

By Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS (Reuters) – Alexis Tsipras said on Monday he would revive Greece’s banks and its crippled economy, while demanding debt relief from creditors in his “first big battle” following an unexpectedly clear election victory that returned him to office as prime minister. Preparing to be sworn in for a second term, he set those priorities at the top of a dauntingly long “to do”

Hungary beefs up border with army, warns migrants to stay away

By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s parliament authorized the government on Monday to deploy the army to help handle a wave of migrants, granting the military the right to use non-lethal force. Hungary, a landlocked nation of 10 million, lies in the path of the largest migration wave Europe has seen since World War Two and has registered more than 220,000 asylum-seekers this year. Prime Minister Viktor Orban told