Japan PM to meet Khamenei to mediate with US
AFP, Tokyo
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later this month with Tokyo hoping to mediate between Washington and Tehran, a report said Sunday.
As tensions intensify between Iran and Japan’s key ally the United States, Abe has reportedly proposed serving as a go-between and is said to be weighing up a state visit to Iran.
Mexican President confident US will negotiate on tariffs
AFP, Mexico City
Mexico’s president said Saturday he thinks US officials are prepared to negotiate on President Donald Trump’s threat to use tariffs as a tool to fight illegal migration across the border.
“There is willingness on the part of US government officials to establish dialogue and reach agreements and compromises,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference.
Conservatives riding high into Greek local polls
AFP, Athens
Greeks return to the polling booths Sunday, a week after a European ballot that saw the conservatives gain against the ruling left just over a month before they face off in general elections.
The New Democracy party will be hoping to repeat its European election performance, when it took 33 percent of the vote – nine points more than the ruling Syriza party.
Three blasts hit Kabul, killing one
AFP, Kabul
One person was killed and 17 others wounded Sunday in three successive blasts in Kabul, Afghan officials said, capping a murderous week of mayhem across the city.
Among the wounded was an Afghan journalist who appeared to have been live-streaming the aftermath of the first explosion when a second bomb went off.
Iraqi court sentences 2 French IS member to death
AP, Baghdad
An Iraqi judicial official says a court in Baghdad has sentenced two French citizens to death for being members of the Islamic State group.
The official said Sunday that the court sentenced Fadil Hamad Abdallah, 33, of Moroccan origin and Vianney Jamal Abdelqader, 29. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
14 injured after Japan driverless train goes wrong way
AFP, Tokyo
Fourteen passengers were injured after an automated train in suburban Tokyo went in the wrong direction and crashed into a buffer stop, Japanese police said on Sunday.
The driverless five-car train crashed on Saturday evening, injuring 14 passengers a police spokesman in Kanagawa prefecture south of Tokyo told AFP.
