WORLD HEADLINES

Iran arrests U.S.-Lebanese man in espionage probe: state TV, citing sources

Iranian authorities have arrested an American-Lebanese man who they said was linked to the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, state broadcaster IRIB said on Tuesday. It named the man as Nizar Zakka, an IT expert who Lebanese media reported last week had disappeared on Sept. 18 after attending a conference in Tehran. “Nizar Zakka has deep ties to the U.S. intelligence and military establishment,” IRIB quoted an unnamed source as

Flight recorders show crashed Russian jet not struck from outside – investigator

By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Polina Devitt CAIRO/MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian plane that crashed in Egypt was not struck from the outside and the pilot did not make a distress call before it disappeared from radar, a source in the committee analyzing the flight recorders said on Monday. The source declined to give more details but based his comments on the preliminary examination of the black boxes recovered from

Erdogan, eyeing greater powers, says Turks voted for stability

By Nick Tattersall and Ercan Gurses ANKARA (Reuters) – A jubilant President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday cast the return of Turkey’s Islamist-rooted AK Party to single-party rule as a vote for stability that the world must respect, but opponents fear it heralds growing authoritarianism and deeper polarization. The AKP defied pollsters and even the expectations of its own strategists in a general election on Sunday, consolidating support from the right

Iran says may quit Syria talks, in worsening spat with Saudi rival

By Yara Bayoumy and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said on Monday it would quit Syria peace talks if it found them unconstructive, citing the “negative role” of Saudi Arabia, in the latest twist in a spat between the regional rivals that bodes ill for efforts to ease turmoil across the Middle East. Increasingly bad-tempered exchanges between the conservative Sunni-ruled kingdom and the revolutionary Shi’ite theocracy have dampened hopes

Romanian club owners face manslaughter probe over fire, death toll at 31

Romanian prosecutors opened a criminal manslaughter investigation on Monday against the three owners of the Bucharest nightclub where a fire killed 31 people and injured nearly 200 during a weekend rock concert. On Monday, an unidentified man died of his injuries in hospital, bringing the death toll to 31, deputy prime minister Gabriel Oprea was quoted saying by local news agency Mediafax. The fire that ravaged the Colectiv nightclub is

Palestinians attack Israeli soldiers, civilians, with knives, one killed: Israel

Three Palestinians attacked Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and civilians in the Tel Aviv suburbs with knives on Monday and one of them was shot dead, Israeli authorities said. Now in its second month, the worst spate of violence since the 2014 Gaza war has been caused by tensions over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews, and by deadlocked talks with Israel

October's migrant, refugee flow to Europe roughly matched whole of 2014

By Tom Miles and Marina Depetris GENEVA (Reuters) – The number of migrants and refugees entering Europe by sea last month was roughly the same as that for the whole of 2014, United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Monday. The monthly record of 218,394 also outstripped September’s 172,843, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said. The UNHCR puts 2014 arrivals by sea at about 219,000.