World

PARIS/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Total SA agreed to pay $398.2 million to settle U.S.

NAIROBI, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A Kenyan High Court has ordered police to reinvestigate complaints of rape by 11 girls in a landmark case brought by a children’s charity on behalf of more than 240 victims of child rape, some of them as young as three years old.

CARACAS/BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Venezuela reacted with fury to yesterday’s talks between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, saying it was a “bomb” in ties and recalling an envoy to Colombia’s peace process.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed the number two of the Pakistani Taliban in the North Waziristan region yesterday, three security officials said, in what would be a major blow in the fight against militancy.

(Reuters) – Former Beatle Ringo Starr is lifting the lid on a collection of previously unseen photographs of the Fab Four in their heyday from his personal collection, in a new photography book due out next month.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed the number two of the Pakistani Taliban in the North Waziristan region today, three security officials said, in what would be a major blow in the fight against militancy.

TEGUCIGALPA,  (Reuters) – Two of the most violent gangs in Honduras announced a truce yesterday under a church-brokered drive to stem a tide of violence that has turned Honduras into the world’s most murderous country.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors have filed an indictment against the operators of digital currency exchange Liberty Reserve, accusing the Costa Rica-based company of helping criminals around the world launder more than $6 billion in illicit funds linked to everything from child pornography to software for hacking into banks.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved a decision to subpoena Fox News telephone records as the Justice Department investigated an unauthorized leak regarding North Korea, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – Kenyan members of parliament, already among the world’s best-paid lawmakers, voted yesterday to increase their salaries to more than 130 times the minimum wage in defiance of government plans to cut them as part of spending reforms.

(Ian Bremmer is a Reuters columnist but his opinions are his own.)

NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – Kenyan members of parliament, already among the world’s best-paid lawmakers, voted on Tuesday to increase their salaries to more than 130 times the minimum wage in defiance of government plans to cut them as part of spending reforms.

PARIS (Reuters) – France is testing samples of suspected chemical weapon elements used against Syrian rebel fighters and smuggled out by reporters from Le Monde newspaper and will divulge the results in the next few days, a senior French official said yesterday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Around a thousand far-right protesters shouting “Muslim killers, off our streets” marched through central London yesterday against a backdrop of swelling anti-Muslim feeling following the killing of a British soldier last week.

LONDON (Reuters) – A hundred years ago this week, the premiere of Russian emigre composer Igor Stravinsky’s pounding, pagan, pulsating “The Rite of Spring” caused a near riot in Paris and changed the face of modern music.

LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s Alejandro Toledo was grilled in Congress yesterday over his family’s purchase of a luxury home in Lima, making him the second former president to face inquiries that could narrow the 2016 presidential field.

(Reuters) – Fire aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship forced it to dock at Freeport, Bahamas, yesterday, with all passengers and crew safe but the rest of the trip cancelled, the cruise company reported.

SANTIAGO/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Chilean and Argentine authorities yesterday declared a red alert and ordered the mandatory evacuation of a 25-km (15.5-mile) radius around the active Copahue volcano, which straddles the border between the two Andean nations.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Two top aides quit Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s office yesterday as the embattled leader of Canada’s biggest city faces lingering allegations he was caught smoking crack cocaine on video, accusations he has firmly denied.

(Reuters) – The Brooklyn Bridge reopened yesterday evening after being closed for almost two hours at the end of a holiday weekend while New York City police investigated an unattended vehicle.