TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has scrapped the country’s wealthiest citizens off a list of people receiving monthly cash handouts in a small step toward easing the burden on the budget and freeing up more government funds, an official said Wednesday. The move, which will free up about $3 million a …
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PARIS – French authorities are investigating claims that a southern town tracks how many Muslim children attend its schools, which would be illegal and run counter to France’s secular view of itself. The claims by the extreme right mayor of Beziers drew attention at the highest levels, reflecting heightened tensions …
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BERLIN – Germany’s defense minister says a senior official supported an arms manufacturer’s bid to get the country’s military intelligence service to probe leaks concerning the alleged shortcomings of its assault rifle — a weapon that she has since ordered replaced. Ursula von der Leyen’s statement Thursday comes amid opposition …
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UNITED NATIONS – Diplomats say experts have found traces of deadly nerve agents used to make chemical weapons at a site in Syria where they were not supposed to be. The discovery of traces of sarin and VX have renewed fears that Syria did not disclose all aspects of its …
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BERLIN – A German train driver’s union says it’s ending its strike early after it agreed with the country’s largest rail operator to take a labor dispute to arbitration. The GDL union and rail operator Deutsche Bahn said jointly Thursday they’d agreed to a three week period starting next week …
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MEXICO CITY – The body of a baby carried away by a tornado was found Tuesday in the northern Mexico border city of Ciudad Acuna as the death toll from the sudden, devastating storm hit 14. City spokesman Edgar Gonzalez said searchers found the body amid the rubble of shattered …
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LONDON – The U.K. Independence Party’s only member of the British Parliament has criticized party leader Nigel Farage for harsh comments about immigrants during the recent campaign. Douglas Carswell says Farage was wrong and mean-spirited when he said in a televised debate that Britons are upset by immigrants coming to …
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CAIRO – An Egyptian security official says authorities arrested two top leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood — once the country’s most influential political group — after two years on the run. The official says Abdel-Rahman el-Bar, the group’s top religious cleric, and Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Brotherhood’s former spokesman and …
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A speech delivered in June by an Irish lawmaker who said the work of legislatures is about “restricting freedoms” in the name of the “common good” has gone viral, with criticism on both sides of the Atlantic. Senator Pauline O’Reilly of the Green Party, in defense of Ireland’s proposed Incitement …
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China is seeking to boost economic links with two Democrat-led cities in the United States, according to Chinese state media reports. Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), said there was “vast room” for collaboration between the southern Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area …
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