JUBA, South Sudan – A South Sudanese official says a United Nations diplomat based in the country’s northern Unity state will be expelled from the state in a retaliatory move following the publication of a human rights report last month that accused government forces of committing widespread attacks on civilians …
Read More »
BEIRUT – Activists say insurgents have captured strategic hills and a power station in northwestern Syria, bringing them closer to strongholds of President Bashar Assad. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Media Center said militants were advancing Tuesday in the Sahl al-Ghab region north of the …
Read More »
MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s government has declared a first-ever “gender alert” for a central state due to a high incidence of killings and disappearances of women. The alert for the State of Mexico, outside the capital, was decreed by the Interior Department. It cites “systematic violence against women” and “an …
Read More »
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the dramatic collapse of two cranes onto a row of houses in a central Dutch city that briefly buried one man under rubble. The probe was announced Tuesday, a day after two towering cranes parked on a floating pontoon …
Read More »
WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s president-elect, who takes office on Thursday, says he wants to see NATO bases in Poland and will talk to European Union partners about including Poland in Ukraine peace talks. Andrzej Duda, previously a member of a conservative opposition party, says the ruling Civic Platform hasn’t done …
Read More »
CANBERRA, Australia – Australian government lawmakers on Monday elected a new speaker of the House of Representatives after the previous speaker resigned over an expense scandal that has damaged Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government. The new speaker Tony Smith defeated his nearest challenger Andrew Southcott in a ballot of …
Read More »
YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Cameroon’s president says his country will contribute 2,450 troops to a five-nation army to fight the Nigeria-based Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, nearly tripling his initial pledge. President Paul Biya announced the new troop total in a statement Friday night. At a meeting in Cameroon in February, …
Read More »
ACCRA, Ghana – Ghana’s health minister says the government is going to bring in about 170 Cuban doctors to work in health facilities amid a doctors’ strike. Health Minister Alex Segbefia said Wednesday that several people have died without proper emergency attention. The doctors, who are members of the Ghana …
Read More »
GENEVA – The International Red Cross says it has withdrawn its 14 foreign staffers from its office in Aden, Yemen, following an attack by unknown gunmen who held employees at gunpoint and made off with cash, cars and equipment. The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday the …
Read More »
MOSCOW – Ukraine has reached a crucial deal with its international bondholders that will help prop up its government finances and keep the struggling country from defaulting on its debt. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced Thursday that the value of Ukraine’s $19 billion sovereign debt will be cut by 20 …
Read More »