Reuters

By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) - President-elect Lai Ching-te took leaders from some of Taiwan's handful of remaining diplomatic allies shrimping on Sunday, the day before he takes office and has to deal with China which believes the island has no right to the trappings of a state.

Lai, detested by Beijing as a "separatist", is expected to pledge to secure stability by maintaining the status quo in the island's relationship with China... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - Britain's minister for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, will not stand for re-election to parliament, he said in a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday.

Heaton-Harris asked Sunak to let him remain secretary of state for Northern Ireland until the general election, according to the letter he posted on X.

He said he would continue campaigning for the Conservative Party in the next election, where he will "do... (continue reading...)

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera has spectacularly erupted, spewing a grey ash cloud into the sky, and people from seven nearby villages have been evacuated, authorities said on Sunday.

Mt. Ibu erupted on Saturday evening, sending ash 4 km (2.5 miles) high, as streaks of purple lightning flashed around its crater, according to information and images shared by Indonesia's volcanology agency.

A... (continue reading...)

CAIRO (Reuters) -Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met to discuss Israel's war in Gaza and seek to complete a broad bilateral agreement, the Saudi state news agency reported on Sunday.

The meeting in the Saudi city of Dhahran including reviewing "the semi-final version of the draft strategic agreements between the two countries, which are almost being finalised," a statement read.

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Tony O'Reilly, the Irish media tycoon and former H.J. Heinz Co boss who first rose to prominence as a record breaking British and Irish Lions rugby player, died on Saturday at the age of 88.

For decades one of Ireland's most celebrated entrepreneurs, O'Reilly built a media group spanning from the Pacific through India and South Africa to Ireland but eventually went bankrupt after it crumbled during the... (continue reading...)