Rocket launch at Israel from Lebanon draws Israeli cross-border shelling

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward Israel on Thursday, prompting cross-border strikes by the Israeli military, sources on both sides said. The incident came amid heightened Israeli-Arab tensions after Israel this week conducted one of its largest military incursions in decades in the occupied West Bank, targeting the Jenin camp, a…

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Greece’s re-elected PM outlines government goals up to 2027

By Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece’s re-elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday pledged his conservative government would “fix the sins of the past” and over the next four years cut taxes, boost wages and pensions, and repay bailout debts earlier than expected. Mitsotakis, 55, won 158 sets in the 300-seat parliament…

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Lukashenko: I have veto over use of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus

By Guy Faulconbridge MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that he would have a veto over any use of the tactical nuclear weapons that Russia is stationing on his territory, and goaded the West’s spies for missing the transport of the warheads. President Vladimir Putin, who rules the world’s biggest nuclear…

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Swedish NATO membership: No deal with Turkey, leaders meet next week

By Andrew Gray and Niklas Pollard BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Sweden failed on Thursday to convince Turkey to lift its block on Stockholm’s path to NATO membership, and the issue will now go to a meeting of the Turkish and Swedish leaders next week. Speaking after talks with the Turkish and Swedish foreign ministers at the security…

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Hong Kong slashes number of directly elected council seats

By Jessie Pang and Joyce Zhou HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s legislature unanimously voted on Thursday to overhaul district-level elections by drastically reducing the number of directly elected seats, which critics said would further shrink democratic freedom in the Chinese-ruled city. Under the amendment, only 88 seats would be directly elected by the public, down…

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Unseen photos taken by Paul McCartney show Beatlemania

By Sarah Mills LONDON, (Reuters) – Personal and previously unseen photographs taken by musician Paul McCartney as ‘Beatlemania’ was soaring in the 1960s have gone on display at The National Portrait Gallery in London.         Images of McCartney and his former Beatles bandmates – John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison – as…

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