World

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.

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine and some of its Western allies condemned yesterday a decision by pro-Russian separatists to ban most foreign aid organisations from parts of rebel-held territory, saying the move violated the Minsk peace agreement.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations, Chad, Niger and Cameroon appealed yesterday for help for millions of people in the Lake Chad Basin region forced to flee the violence of Boko Haram and hit with repeated droughts and floods that have brought malnutrition and disease.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who has repeatedly been challenged by the conservative wing of his Republican Party, told members on Friday that he will resign from the House at the end of October.

MINA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – At least 717 pilgrims from around the world were killed yesterday in a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi authorities said, in the worst disaster to strike the annual haj pilgrimage for 25 years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will push Russian President Vladimir Putin to explain how his country’s military presence in Syria will contribute to the defeat the Islamic State when the two leaders meet next week, White House officials said yesterday.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Bolivia won the first round of its battle against Chile to gain unfettered access to the Pacific Ocean, as an International Court of Justice decision went in its favour, disappointing Chileans who had hoped the case would end yesterday.