Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Monday that First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is in charge of the executive branch and has a maximum period of 50 days to hold elections following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.

Five days of national mourning have been declared by Khamenei.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom)

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's three branches of government held an extraordinary meeting on Monday, with First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber representing the executive branch following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, state TV said.

"We will follow the path of President Raisi in fulfilling assigned duties without any interruption," Mokhber said.

The three branches to which state TV referred are the executive, the... (continue reading...)

CAIRO (Reuters) - Iran-backed Houthi militants on Saturday hit a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast with an anti-ship missile but the crew was able to restore power and maintain course, the U.S. military said.

There were no casualties reported by the ship, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement posted on the X social media platform.

The strike was the latest in months of attacks on ships in the Red Sea and... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - European shares inched up early on Monday but remained rangebound as gains in commodity-linked stocks were offset by uncertainty around the outlook for interest rates.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.1% by 0716 GMT, hovering below record highs hit last week.

Miners and oil & gas climbed 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively, leading gains among European sectors as copper prices surged to record highs helped by China's property... (continue reading...)

By Kentaro Sugiyama

TOKYO (Reuters) -Top Japanese companies agreed to wage increases of an average 5.58% at annual labour talks that wrapped up in March, the Keidanren business lobby's preliminary data showed on Monday, representing the heftiest pay hike in 33 years.

The average wage increase at the "shunto" spring wage talks this year exceeded last year's finalised 3.99% increase and came close to the 5.6% recorded in 1991.

The... (continue reading...)