Geneva / AFP Talks to end Syria’s brutal five-year conflict were rattled on Thursday by uncertainty surrounding the arrival of a second opposition group and the declaration by Syria’s Kurds of an autonomous region. UN mediator Staffan de Mistura met for the first time late Wednesday with an umbrella delegation including the so-called Moscow Group, which is demanding an equal ...

Jerusalem / AFP Israel on Thursday ended an eight-month standoff with Brazil over its bid to appoint a controversial former settlement leader as its ambassador to the country. In a dispute that soured relations, Brazil refused to accept the nomination of Danny Dayan, made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last August. Israel’s government initially dug in its heels, refusing to ...

United Nations / AP The United Nations has retracted a statement saying Canada will resume contributing funds to the UN relief agency that aids and protects Palestinian refugees. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the UN statement on the meeting of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau welcoming the restart of funding for UNRWA was an early draft ...

Khartoum / AFP Sudan warned on Thursday it could shut its border with South Sudan just weeks after reopening crossings, accusing Juba of backing insurgents battling Khartoum. South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 under a peace deal that ended a 22-year civil war, but Juba and Khartoum have traded allegations the other is supporting rebels on their territory, ...

Bloomberg Large anti-government protests broke out in Brazil as President Dilma Rousseff’s bid to salvage her government by naming Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as chief of staff appeared to backfire. Only hours after Rousseff on Wednesday afternoon said she was bringing Lula to the government for his merit and not to shield him from a corruption probe, Federal Judge ...

Bloomberg The last time President Obama had a high court seat to fill, in 2010, Republicans singled out Federal Appeals Court judge Merrick Garland as their preferred choice. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, an influential GOP voice on judicial nominations, said publicly at the time that he’d gone so far as to recommend Garland to the president as “a consensus nominee” ...

Bloomberg ­Bank of England officials kept their key interest rate at a record low and said uncertainty stemming from Britain’s referendum on its European Union membership may hold back investment and economic growth. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mark Carney, unanimously agreed to maintain the benchmark at 0.5 percent — where it’s been for seven years. The ...

Bloomberg U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s statement that his new budget “puts the next generation first” isn’t enough to protect subsequent generations from the consequences of climate change, critics said. Just three months after the U.K. joined 195 other countries in a climate deal in a bid to restrain rising global temperatures by curbing emissions, Osborne’s budget cut ...

Bloomberg Hungary expanded its arsenal of state subsidies for home purchases to help revive the construction sector, triggering criticism that the plan offers inadequate protection and arbitrary criteria for savers. Members of the new building societies, known as NOK, will be eligible for subsidies of up to 300,000 forint ($1,090) a year if they pledge contributions for 10 to 15 ...

Bloomberg Norway’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low and signaled it’s prepared to ease policy further to ward off a recession in western Europe’s biggest crude oil producer. The overnight deposit rate was lowered by 25 basis points to 0.50 percent, the Oslo-based central bank said on Thursday. The decision was predicted by 18 of ...