WORLD HEADLINES
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aukkarapon Niyomyat BANGKOK (Reuters) – International terrorists were not suspected of a bomb attack in Bangkok this week that killed 20 people and China was not the target, Thai authorities said on Thursday, as police said they believed at least 10 plotters were involved. Authorities have not blamed any group for carrying out Thailand’s worst bombing. “Security agencies have cooperated with agencies from allied countries
MERS coronavirus infections have soared in Saudi Arabia ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, killing three people and forcing a Riyadh hospital to close its emergency ward, officials and newspapers said Thursday. The Saudi Gazette said authorities shut the emergency ward at one of the capital’s largest hospitals, King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC-R), “after at least 46 people, including hospital staff” contracted the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The health ministry has
NEW YORK (AP) — Another sell-off in the Chinese stock market spread across global markets on Thursday. The declines pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index into the red for 2015 in early-afternoon trading.
By Orhan Coskun and Ercan Gurses ANKARA (Reuters) – Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made a last-ditch call for Turkey’s political parties to agree a working government on Thursday, three days before a deadline that would otherwise see President Tayyip Erdogan call a snap election. Turkey’s politicians have until Aug. 23 to agree a working government or else Erdogan could call for an interim, power-sharing cabinet to lead the country to
By Letitia Stein TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) – Danny became the first hurricane of the 2015 Atlantic season on Thursday even as the storm remained relatively small and far from affecting any land, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Winds from Danny were gusting up to 75 miles per hour (120 kph), government forecasters said, just attaining hurricane status of at least 74 mph (119 kph) winds. Danny could weaken
BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) – Germany’s parliament approved a third bailout for Greece on Wednesday after Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble argued the country should get “a new start”, while in Athens the government agonized over whether to call a snap election. The Bundestag’s vote cleared one of the final obstacles to Greece getting funding so that it can make a 3.2 billion euro debt repayment to the European Central Bank on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend next month’s U.N. General Assembly in New York and would “consider constructively” any request for a meeting there with President Barack Obama, Russia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. Relations between Russia and the West hit a post-Cold War low over Ukraine, where Moscow annexed Crimea from Kiev last year and where Washington and Brussels say it is driving a separatist pro-Russian revolt in the
By Mohammed Ghobari and Noah Browning SANAA/DUBAI (Reuters) – Emirati tanks heave across southern Yemen’s stony wastes and Apache helicopters from a Saudi-led coalition, dubbed “black genies” by local media, rule its skies, helping fighters loyal to the exiled government win the initiative against an Iran-allied militia. The advanced weapons deployed by Gulf Arab states have powered the local fighters into territory controlled by the Houthi group, reversing the tide
By George Georgiopoulos ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has yet to make up his mind on calling early elections, a government minister said on Wednesday, following a rift in the ruling party over the country’s new bailout deal. The comment came as former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who leads hard left rebels in Tsipras’ Syriza party, repeated his opposition to the bailout and signaled he might refuse
By Nick Tattersall and Seyhmus Cakan ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Gunmen opened fire on Turkish police outside an Istanbul palace and eight soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in the southeast on Wednesday, heightening a sense of crisis as the country’s political leaders struggle to form a new government. The Istanbul governor’s office said two members of a “terrorist group” armed with hand grenades and an automatic rifle were
