World

DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates plans to outsource most government tasks to the private sector and cut the number of ministries, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said on Monday.

SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying what it called a satellite, drawing renewed international condemnation just weeks after it carried out a nuclear bomb test.

MANCHESTER, N.H., (Reuters) – Republican White House contender Marco Rubio struggled at a debate on Saturday at the worst possible time, potentially confounding his bid to emerge as Donald Trump’s chief rival in New Hampshire and giving hope to three rivals desperate for a strong showing.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Republican White House front-runner Donald Trump said yesterday he would be open to harsh measures to deal with the threat from Islamic State, including going beyond the controversial interrogation tactic known as waterboarding.

SEOUL, (Reuters) – North Korea launched a long-range rocket today carrying what it called a satellite, but its neighbours and the United States denounced the launch as a missile test, conducted in defiance of U.N.

TAINAN, TAIWAN (Reuters) – A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early on Saturday killing at least 12 people, most in a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Europe needs Turkey to dramatically cut the number of migrants reaching Greece within weeks or the pressure for more border closures and fences will grow, the EU’s top official in charge of ties with Ankara warned yesterday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Satellite images taken this week of North Korea’s Sohae rocket launch site show apparent fuelling activity seen in the past shortly before a rocket launch, a US think-tank said, as US government officials signalled that a launch could occur as early as tomorrow.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria will resist any ground incursion into its territory and send the aggressors home “in coffins”, its foreign minister said yesterday, in comments clearly aimed at Sunni Arab countries that have said they were ready to join such an operation.

Moves by international banks to cull their relationships with banks in the Caribbean represent the “potentially most devastating threat” to the region’s development, according to former Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur who warned that it could restrict Caribbean economies from access to global finance and impact negatively on remittances.

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Authorities in Brazil said yesterday Zika has been detected in patients’ saliva and urine, adding to the concern over the spread of the virus, while U.S.

VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet in Cuba next week in what could be a landmark step towards healing the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. employment gains slowed more than expected in January as the boost to hiring from unseasonably mild weather faded, but rising wages and an unemployment rate at an eight-year low suggested the labor market recovery remains firm.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti slipped deeper into unrest on Friday as gangs of former soldiers roamed the capital and a mob of protesters beat a man to death with stones, following a botched election that has left no successor for outgoing President Michel Martelly.

VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – Pope Francis will stop in Cuba on his way to Mexico next week to hold a historic meeting with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Vatican said today.

LONDON, (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be allowed to go free from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and be awarded compensation for what amounts to a three-and-a-half-year arbitrary detention, a U.N.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – More than 3,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, President Juan Manuel Santos said yesterday, as the disease continues its rapid spread across the Americas.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A suspended deputy United Nations ambassador from the Dominican Republic cannot claim diplomatic immunity to avoid U.S.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti’s president promised yesterday to leave power in three days’ time despite having no replacement after a botched election, as opposition protests intensified and politicians squabbled over who should lead an interim government.

SYDNEY/LONDON, (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s three-and-a-half-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London amounts to ‘unlawful detention’, a United Nations panel examining his appeal will rule on Friday, the BBC reported.