By Chen Aizhu, Siyi Liu and Trixie Yap
SINGAPORE, Aug 6 (Reuters) - China's state-owned Sinopec Corp, the world's biggest refiner, has ramped up purchases of Far East Russian oil to compensate for Middle East supplies diminished by the Iran war, according to multiple trade sources and ship tracking data.
By Asif Shahzad, Ariba Shahid, Mubasher Bukhari and Rick Noack
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - When blasphemy allegations against a Christian family prompted a mob of hundreds to assemble in Pakistan's teeming metropolis Karachi last month, officers knew they might only have minutes to save the four women and one child who were targeted.
Islamic Pakistan has witnessed around 90 blasphemy-linked lynchings since 1990 and many started exactly like this.
By Jason Lange and Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Five months into the U.S. war with Iran, Americans who expect the Middle East to slide toward chaos outnumber those who see the war bringing more stability by three to one, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The six-day poll concluded on Monday, as Republican President Donald Trump again backed away from threatened "massive attacks" on Iran, underscoring uncertainty surrounding a conflict he initially predicted would bring a swift victory.
Aug 6 (Reuters) - Israel said two of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Wednesday while Lebanese authorities said Israeli retaliatory attacks killed at least one person, a flare-up in violence that coincided with the latest round of talks between the two countries.
The Rome talks, which began on Tuesday and are expected to continue through Thursday, come after the two countries agreed in June to a U.S.-brokered security arrangement intended to ease hostilities along the border.
NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the key maritime chokepoints in the Gulf, reduced significantly on Wednesday from the previous day, shipping data showed.
Just two vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz, including a Panama-flagged coal-laden carrier entering the waterway and another commodity Marshall Islands-flagged vessel exiting, shipping data from Kpler showed, down from eight vessels a day earlier.
Iran and Oman have agreed a route for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and were finalising arrangements for jointly managing the strategic waterway, Tehran said Wednesday, even as fresh security incidents highlighted continued risks for regional shipping.
The agreement would be a step towards reopening the key energy route, but official sources briefing Iranian media stressed that any easing still hinged on Washington ending its own naval blockade of Iran's ports.
By Nolan D. McCaskill and Joseph Ax
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan's Democratic U.S. Senate primary sets up a high-profile test this fall of whether an unabashedly progressive candidate can prevail in a politically divided swing state — with control of the Senate potentially at stake.
LAS VEGAS/WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said talks with Tehran seemed "to be working out quite well," reiterating his positive portrayal of the negotiations on the Iran war without elaborating on the specifics of the discussions.
DETAILS:
• "I hear they are doing very well," Trump said in an interview on the "FOX5 1-ON-1" show with FOX5 Las Vegas journalist Tom Durian. The interview was published on Wednesday evening.
Oman is facing an impending environmental catastrophe as an alleged Russian shadow fleet tanker leaks oil across hundreds of square kilometres near a nature reserve, NGOs warn.
The ship was rocked by explosions, a maritime security firm told AFP, but the cause of the blasts is unclear.
Russia has built up a ghost fleet of old ships with opaque ownership to get around Western sanctions since its 2022 Ukraine invasion, and experts have said the vessels' poor condition increases the risk of oil spills.
By Rohith Nair
Aug 5 (Reuters) - FIFA said on Wednesday it had apologised to its member associations for mistakes made over its abandoned proposal to sell commercial rights linked to the World Cup, as the governing body's leadership reaffirmed its support for president Gianni Infantino after a crisis meeting in Morocco.
