ROME – The Italian Senate has voted to expel former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi from parliament with immediate effect over his conviction for tax fraud. Berlusconi, who has dominated politics for 20 years, could now face arrest over other criminal cases as he has lost his immunity from prosecution.
HARARE – US President Barack Obama has defended a deal between Iran and world powers on Tehran’s nuclear programme. He acknowledged that obstacles remained but said “tough talk and bluster” did not guarantee US security. The six-month interim deal struck in Geneva on Sunday saw Iran agree to curb some of its nuclear activities in…
BEIJING – China is launching its first lunar probe in early December, state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, just over a decade after the country first sent an astronaut into space. The Chang’e-3 probe — which will blast off from a Long March 3B rocket in Sichuan province located in southwest China — is expected…
JAKARTA – Rising diplomatic tension between Australia and Indonesia spread into the corporate world on Friday, after a state-owned Indonesian firm suspended talks with Australian cattle ranchers, citing trust issues between the neighbors. PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI) is the first Indonesian firm to freeze business ties with Australia due to the uproar sparked by…
WASHINGTON – It seems George W. Bush can take a joke — and tell one. But before the former President sat down with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show late Tuesday, the comedian turned his successor, Barack Obama, into the brunt of his hard jabs. Leno raked him over the coals over Obamacare. “Better him…
BEIRUT – A radical Sunni group has claimed responsibility for bombings that killed nearly two dozen people outside the Iranian Embassy in southern Beirut. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades said the dual suicide blasts were “carried out by two heroes from the Sunni people of Lebanon.” The al Qaeda-linked group is based in southern Lebanon. “We…
PARIS – A gunman has opened fire inside an office building in Paris housing the left-wing newspaper, Liberation, leaving one man seriously injured. The victim was a photographer’s assistant, aged 27, Liberation said. On Friday a man armed with what appeared to be a gun broke into the Paris offices of the rolling news channel…
BEIJING – China is to relax its policy of restricting most couples to have only a single child, state media say. In future, families will be allowed two children if one parent is an only child, says the Xinhua news agency. The one-child policy already exempts rural dwellers and ethnic minorities. The move comes after…
BERLIN – Former German President Christian Wulff is going on trial accused of receiving and granting favours in office. He is alleged to have accepted the payment of hotel bills by a film producer in return for lobbying while he was premier of Lower Saxony in 2008. Mr Wulff – who stepped down in February…
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State John Kerry has told the BBC that none of the differences between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme are big enough to prevent agreement. He said they came “extremely close” to a deal at the weekend in Geneva. But he said the rest of the world had…
