Uncategorized

The governor of Indiana has said that he wants state lawmakers to “fix” a religious freedom law that has created a national outcry. Critics of the law say it could be used to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Governor Mike Pence said he wanted state lawmakers to add language to the law that clarifies its intentions, by the end of ...

Russia’s foreign minister has said prospects of a preliminary agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme are “very good” on the final day of negotiations. Sergei Lavrov said he was rejoining the talks in Switzerland on Tuesday, suggesting they were close to a deal. Marathon negotiations between Iran and foreign ministers from six world powers are nearing a self-imposed deadline. Ministers want ...

France’s Senate has rejected a planned 2013 law penalising people who pay for sex, and has chosen to maintain the offence of soliciting. Although prostitution is legal in France, soliciting in public and pimping are not. The National Assembly voted 16 months ago to impose a €1,500 (£1,090; $1,600) fine on clients, shifting the criminal burden from prostitutes. The upper ...

The US has pledged to tackle climate change by cutting its carbon emissions 26-28% by 2025. It made the formal offer to the UN as a step towards a global deal in Paris in December. The EU has already promised to cut its emissions by a roughly similar proportion. Tuesday was the deadline for wealthy nations to make their offers ...

Michelle Obama mixed her message of education for girls with one of empowerment for black women, declaring ‘Black girls rock!’ at the annual awards show of the same name. The first lady wasn’t one of the honorees Saturday night but was the most heralded participant at the 5th annual event. It honored Jada Pinkett Smith, Erykah Badu, Cicely Tyson, Ava ...

Alps crash co-pilot Andreas Lubitz hid the details of an existing illness from his employers, German prosecutors say. They said they had found torn-up sick notes in his homes, including one covering the day of the crash. In their report, prosecutors in the city of Duesseldorf did not disclose the nature of Mr Lubitz’s illness. German media have said internal ...

French air investigators are urgently examining a black box cockpit voice recorder (CVR)from a Germanwings Airbus A-320 to try to solve the mystery of why the aircraft crashed into a mountain in the southern Alps, killing all 150 people on board.Investigators are puzzled as to why the crew did not send out a mayday or distress signal as flight U49525 ...

Senior Indian and Chinese envoys will his week hold talks aimed at resolving a bitter border dispute, the first such discussions since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. China’s special representative Yang Jiechi will visit New Delhi from Sunday until Tuesday for talks with national security adviser Ajit Doval, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. ...

Yemen is nearing “the edge of civil war”, the UN envoy to the country warned Sunday as the Security Council voiced unanimous support for its embattled leader and Shiite militia seized the airport in a key city. The impoverished country has descended into chaos in recent months, with the militia, known as Huthis seizing control of capital Sanaa and forcing ...

Lee Kuan Yew, a towering figure in post-colonial Asia, oversaw tiny Singapore’s transformation from British tropical outpost to an affluent, global city in just over a generation, setting the example for developing economies from China to Dubai. He retained English as Singapore’s working language as a means of keeping the peace between the island’s Chinese majority and Malay and Indian ...