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India's Farmers Renew Protests, Challenging Modi Govt.

Thousands of Indian farmers blocked traffic on major roads and railway tracks outside of the nation's capital on Monday, marking one year of demonstrations against government-backed laws that they say will shatter their livelihoods.

The farmers have renewed their protests with calls for a nationwide strike on the anniversary of the legislation's passage. The drawn-out demonstrations have posed one of the biggest political challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept the polls for the second time in 2019.

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Strong Quake Rattles Greek Island of Crete; 1 Dead

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 struck the southern Greek island of Crete Monday morning, killing one person and injuring several more, authorities said.

The quake sent people fleeing into the streets, while schools were evacuated. Repeated aftershocks were rattling the area, and local media reported damage in villages near the epicenter.

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'Moulin Rouge! The Musical' Sashays Home with 10 Tony Awards

"Moulin Rouge! The Musical," a jukebox adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's hyperactive 2001 movie, won the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on a Sunday night when Broadway looked back to honor shows shuttered by COVID-19, mourn its fallen and also look forward to welcoming audiences again.

The show about the goings-on in a turn-of-the-century Parisian nightclub, updated with tunes like "Single Ladies" and "Firework" alongside the big hit "Lady Marmalade," won 10 Tonys. The record is 12, won by "The Producers."

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So Close! Iceland Almost Gets Female-Majority Parliament

Iceland briefly celebrated electing a female-majority parliament Sunday, before a recount produced a result just short of that landmark for gender parity in the North Atlantic island nation.

The initial vote count had female candidates winning 33 seats in Iceland's 63-seat parliament, the Althing, in an election that saw centrist parties make the biggest gains.

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Investigators Probe Deadly Amtrak Derailment in Montana

A team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board was at the site of an Amtrak derailment in north-central Montana that killed three people and left seven hospitalized Sunday, officials said.

The westbound Empire Builder was en route from Chicago to Seattle when it left the tracks about 4 p.m. Saturday near Joplin, a town of about 200.

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In Qom, Where Iran Outbreak Began, Virus Rages on

In Iran's holy city of Qom, where Shiite scholars study and pilgrims travel to a shrine believed to be a gate to heaven, the Islamic Republic's coronavirus outbreak began and still rages to this day.

While Iran works to vaccinate its 80 million people, many in Qom have not sought out the shots, authorities say. In one recent week, the city administered only 17,000 shots daily out of its capacity of 30,000, provincial health department chief Mohammad Reza Qadir said.

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Shadow Contracts, Smoke, Mirrors Keep the Lights out in Iraq

In the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, glossy election campaign posters are plastered alongside jungles of sagging electrical wires lining the alleyway to Abu Ammar's home.

But his mind is far from Iraq's Oct. 10 federal election. The 56-year-old retired soldier's social welfare payments barely cover the cost of food and medicine, let alone electricity. Despite chronic outages from the national grid, Abu Ammar can't afford a generator.

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Germany Embarks on Tricky Search for Post-Merkel Govt.

Germany is embarking on a potentially lengthy search for its next government after the center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right bloc in an election that failed to set a clear direction for Europe's biggest economy under a new leader.

Leaders of the parties in the newly elected parliament were meeting Monday to digest a result that saw Merkel's Union bloc slump to its worst-ever result in a national election, and appeared to put the keys to power in the hands of two opposition parties.

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Man Dies of Swallowing Gasoline in Fuel-Strapped Lebanon

A Syrian man has died after swallowing gasoline he was siphoning out of his vehicle's tank with a plastic tube, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Lebanon is witnessing a paralyzing fuel shortage that has driven the public to hoard gasoline and resort to black-market vendors, while many businesses have been forced to shut down. A diesel shortage has also caused extended blackouts, in a country dependent on private generators.

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Closely Fought German Election Ushers in Post-Merkel Era

German voters are choosing a new parliament in an election that will determine who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16 years at the helm of Europe's biggest economy.

Polls point to a very close race Sunday between Merkel's center-right Union bloc, with state governor Armin Laschet running for chancellor, and the center-left Social Democrats, for whom outgoing finance minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz is seeking the top job.

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