Category: World

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has died at the age of 80 of an unspecified illness. …

The fugitive Taliban leader renewed his call Saturday for direct talks with the United States, dismissing as impractical and unacceptable “propositions” he asserted Washington has offered to promote a negotiated end to the war in Afghanistan. Malawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, in a message to his followers ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid, has for the first time offered some details of a recent “preliminary” …

Read more “Taliban Chief: US Offers to End Afghan War ‘Neither Rational Nor Practical’”

As the death toll from the worst floods in a century climbed relentlessly in India’s southern Kerala state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took an aerial tour, inspecting the massive damage that engulfed villages and cities, and announced emergency aid of over $70 million. The situation is grim in the picturesque, coastal state famed as a …

Read more “Indian PM Tours Flood Ravaged State as Death Toll Climbs”

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has appointed a new prime minister and carried out a significant reshuffling of the government. …

Kofi Annan, one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations who rose through its ranks to become the first black African secretary-general, has died. He was 80. His foundation announced his death in Switzerland Saturday in a tweet, saying that he died after a short unspecified illness. “Wherever …

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The leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban has said there can be no peace in the country as long as foreign “occupation” goes on. …

The Trump administration is ending funding for Syria stabilization projects as it moves to extricate the U.S. from the conflict, citing increased contributions from anti-Islamic State coalition partners. The State Department said it had notified Congress on Friday that it would not spend some $230 million that had been planned for Syria programs and would …

Read more “US Ends Syria Stabilization Funding, Cites More Allied Cash”

The Vatican has called the sex abuse described in a U.S. grand jury report in Pennsylvania “criminal and morally reprehensible” and said “the church must learn hard lessons from its past.” The report about clergy who raped and molested children in six dioceses was made public Tuesday.  The Vatican broke its silence with a long …

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Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and another 60 injured at a protest along the Gaza border amid ongoing Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday. The protesters threw rocks and firebombs from behind clouds of black smoke of burning tires at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and …

Read more “Palestinians Say 2 Killed by Israeli Fire at Gaza Border”

The United States says it will suspend $230 million set aside for stabilization projects in Syria, citing the aid pledged by other coalition partners for recovery efforts in areas liberated from the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in northeast Syria. …

Pakistani media are reporting that two suspects have been detained in Peshawar after a transgender woman was shot dead and her body mutilated. …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to visit the Caucasus states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan following her meetings outside of Berlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. …

Riot police on Thursday blocked hundreds of doctors and nurses from marching to Venezuela’s presidential palace to protest low pay and shortages of medical supplies amid the nation’s deepening economic crisis. The demonstration in Caracas was the first attempt by protesters to reach the presidential palace since massive anti-government protests last year. The medical professionals …

Read more “Doctors, Nurses Blocked During Protest in Venezuela”

If Europe wants to halt migrant boat arrivals on its shores from Africa it must end the state of chaos in Libya, Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou told Reuters Thursday, warning that the stability of neighboring countries was at stake. Niger is a country of transit for migrants seeking to reach Europe by boat from Libya, …

Read more “Niger: Solution to Migration Crisis is a Stable Libya”

Members of a commission established by Myanmar’s government to investigate human rights violations in western Rakhine state, where 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority fled brutal army operations, addressed critics Thursday with a pledge to be impartial. The Independent Commission of Enquiry held its first formal meeting Thursday in the capital, Naypyitaw, a day …

Read more “Myanmar Panel Probing Rohingya Crisis Pledges Independence”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced the appointment of a special representative for Iran to coordinate U.S. policy as the administration looks to ramp up pressure on Tehran after pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal. …

Russian authorities have moved from jail to house arrest one of two teenagers detained on charges of “involvement in a terrorist community” in a case set up by an undercover law enforcement officer, Russian news agencies report. …

Italy has for the first-time arrested nationals who fought with pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine. …

Officials in the Chinese capital, Beijing, and in Hong Kong have issued a string of warnings after a journalists’ association broadcast a speech by an advocate for the city’s independence. The immediate censure by Chinese and Hong Kong officials hinted that city lawmakers may soon be pressed to pass a law against sedition and treason, …

Read more “Hong Kong Independence Speech Draws Warnings”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted the leader of Turkmenistan for talks following the long-awaited signing of a new convention on the legal status of the resource-rich Caspian Sea. …

A Chinese delegation will travel to the United States later this month to resume negotiations as a trade war intensifies between the world’s two biggest economies. China’s Commerce Ministry says Vice Minister Wang Shouwen will meet with David Malpass, an assistant U.S. Treasury secretary for international affairs. The ministry issued a statement saying Beijing welcomes …

Read more “China, US to Resume Trade Talks This Month”

What can a country do when its capital city becomes so crowded it is almost unlivable? One possibility: Build a new city. That is what Senegal is doing, with Diamniadio, an urban project a short drive east of Dakar. Launched in 2014, it will have housing, green spaces, administrative districts, industrial zones, universities, research centers …

Read more “New City Rising in Senegal Aims to Ease Capital’s Congestion”

U.S. President Donald Trump has revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan and threatened to do the same to other former top national security officials in what opponents said was an unprecedented act of retribution against vocal critics of his presidency. …

The United States has criticized a move by lawmakers in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s predominantly Serbian entity to annul a report acknowledging that Bosnian Serb forces violated humanitarian law by killing thousands of Muslim Bosniaks. …