WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) –
TOP STORIES
———–
ATHENS/BERLIN – Attempts to form a government in Greece
collapsed on Tuesday, jolting financial markets at the prospect
that leftists opposed to the terms of an EU bailout could sweep
to victory in a June election and tip the euro zone deeper into
crisis.
– – – –
LONDON – Rebekah Brooks, a close confidante of Rupert
Murdoch, was charged on Tuesday with interfering with a police
investigation into a phone hacking scandal that has rocked the
tycoon’s empire and sent shockwaves through the British
political establishment.
– – – –
PARIS/BERLIN – New French President Francois Hollande called
for a European pact for growth to balance out German-driven
austerity measures in his inaugural address on Tuesday, hours
before taking his challenge to Chancellor Angela Merkel in
Berlin.
– – – –
BEIRUT – At least 21 people were killed on Tuesday in an
attack in northern Syria, activists said, and members of a team
of U.N. monitors caught in the incident said they were in rebel
hands â??for their own protection.”
– – – –
TAMPA – The FBI has opened an inquiry into the
multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, stepping
up pressure on the bank after key U.S. agencies said they were
looking into high-risk trades that first drew regulators’
attention last month.
– – – –
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s announcement of
support for gay marriage has inflamed political passions but has
not given him a bump in popularity, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed
on Tuesday.
– – – –
WASHINGTON – Jean Coyle, 67, has a new kind of ministry.
– – – –
MEXICO CITY – Carlos Fuentes, one of Latin America’s
best-known authors and a critic of governments in Mexico and the
United States, died on Tuesday after a literary career spanning
more than five decades. He was 83.
– – – –
VIENNA – Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog ended two days
of talks on Tuesday by agreeing to meet again next week, just
two days before Tehran resumes negotiations with world powers
concerned it may be seeking to develop atomic bomb capability.
– – – –
NAIROBI – European helicopter gunships attacked a pirate
base on the Somali coast on Tuesday, destroying five speedboats,
in the first such airborne strike on land by the anti-piracy
force.
– – – –
RAINANS/DALIAN – An elusive French architect is emerging as
a key figure in China’s biggest political scandal in two
decades, with evidence suggesting he shared both an affectionate
and close business relationship with the Chinese woman at the
heart of the scandal.
– – – –
OSLO – A man set himself on fire and tried to force his way
into the Norwegian courthouse where far-right mass killer Anders
Behring Breivik is on trial for massacring 77 people last July,
police said on Tuesday.
– – – –
ADEN, Yemen – At least 44 people including 30 Islamist
militants were killed overnight in Yemen, officials and
residents said on Tuesday, as the government pressed ahead with
a new U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south.
(Editing by Paul Simao)
