World

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Barack Obama and France and Britain’s leaders yesterday, and called for a climate change agenda from upcoming global talks in Paris that helps developing countries with access to finance and technology.

LONDON (Reuters) – The first patient has been treated in Britain in a pioneering trial of a new treatment co-developed by Pfizer and derived from embryonic stem cells designed for patients with a condition that can cause blindness.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Pope Francis waited until his historic US visit was over to make his most direct comments on the nation’s debate over gay marriage, saying government officials should have the right to refrain from actions that violate their religious beliefs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Organization of American States (OAS) said yesterday it will create a mission to tackle graft in Honduras, where protestors have been pushing for an anti-corruption body like one that helped bring down the president of neighbouring Guatemala.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Alcoa Inc, which has been hurt by falling prices for aluminum, its core product, said today it would split into two publicly traded entities as its traditional operations and higher-value and automotive businesses were diverging and no longer compatible.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – With Canada’s three main political parties all getting around 30 per cent support in polls, the odds of a period of political instability after the October 19 election are rising.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia ap-peared to seize the initiative in international efforts to end the conflict in Syria yesterday as Washington scrambled to devise a new strategy for the war-ravaged country and France sent warplanes to bomb Islamic State targets.

BARCELONA (Reuters) – Separatists have won a clear majority of seats in Catalonia’s parliament, preliminary official results showed yesterday, in an election that set the region on a collision course with Spain’s central government over independence “Catalans have voted yes to independence,” acting Catalan regional government head Artur Mas told supporters, with secessionist parties on track to secure 72 out of 135 seats in the powerful region of 7.5 million people that includes Barcelona.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Blasting hard-line conservatives as “false prophets,” US House Speaker John Boehner yesterday said Congress will avoid a government shutdown this week and he will push through as much unfinished legislation as possible before leaving at the end of October.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia intends to refuse a visa for US singer and hip-hop star Chris Brown, a government spokesman said yesterday, following through on a threat made last week over the singer’s history of domestic violence.

DUBAI, (Reuters) – Iran demanded an apology from Saudi Arabia on Sunday over the deaths of 769 people at the haj pilgrimage and accused it of trying to evade blame, while Riyadh in turn accused Tehran of playing politics with the disaster.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – It is high time the United Nations Security Council is reformed to reflect the real distribution of power across the world in the 21st century, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Pope Francis, speaking in America’s birthplace yesterday, offered stout words of support to Hispanic and other immigrants in the United States, telling them not to be discouraged at a time when some prominent politicians are directing hostility toward them.

DUBAI (Reuters) – The death toll in a crush at the annual haj pilgrimage outside Mecca rose to 769, Saudi Arabia said yesterday, as arch-rival Iran said Saudi officials should be tried in an international court for what it called a crime.

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland said yesterday it would summon Russia’s envoy after he said Warsaw was partly to blame for the outbreak of World War Two, continuing a spat which has seen the Polish ambassador in Moscow summoned twice in just over a week.

(Reuters Health) – Men who perceive themselves to be less masculine according to the traditional gender norms of society, and are feeling stressed about it, may be more prone to violent behaviour, according to a US study.

(Reuters) A rare crested macaque monkey who snapped a well-known, grinning “selfie” should be declared the photo’s owner and receive damages for copyright infringement after it was used in a wildlife book, animal rights activists argued in a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pope Francis yesterday condemned the craving for material gains and power, warning an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations that greed is destroying the Earth’s resources and aggravating poverty.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) US President Barack Obama expressed concerns about Chinese militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea to China’s President Xi Jinping yesterday, but Xi denied any plan to establish military strongholds there.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Syrian rebels trained by the United States gave some of their equipment to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage, a US military spokesman said yesterday, the latest blow to a troubled US effort to train local partners to fight Islamic State militants.