Worldwide news. The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a “plurality of worlds”
CBS said on Monday it has fired Leslie Moonves for cause and has denied a $120 million severance package as it girds for a likely legal battle with its former chief executive who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault that allegedly took place before and after he joined the company. The decision to …
Read more “CBS Fires CEO Leslie Moonves and Denies $120M Severance”
France has called on the Iranian authorities to “shed all light” on the circumstances of the death of an activist jailed for his messages on social media. …
A meeting between senior Kosovar and EU officials has ended in acrimony over tariffs imposed by Pristina on imports from Serbia and the bloc’s delays to enact visa-free travel for Kosovars. …
Russia says it has built new barracks to house its troops on a disputed island chain near Japan and will build more military facilities there next year. …
The Taliban say it will be holding “another” meeting on December 17 with U.S. officials, this time in the United Arab Emirates in the latest attempt to negotiate an end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war. …
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to launch the first of a new generation of GPS satellites, with the goal of providing more accuracy and security in the face of jamming threats from adversaries, including Russia. …
Vietnam is gradually offering the eager Chinese new places to invest, from real estate to factory production, despite its history of resisting China over political issues. Chinese investors are buying property in the financial center, Ho Chi Minh City, and may get a chance from next year to lease land for up to 99 years …
Read more “Chinese Get Chances to Invest in Vietnam Despite Political Rifts”
Saudi Arabia has rejected U.S. Senate resolutions to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen and to put direct blame on the country’s crown prince for the murder of journalist critic Jamal Khashoggi. …
The Philippines’ Catriona Gray was named Miss Universe 2018 in a competition concluding Monday in Bangkok, besting contestants from 93 other countries and delighting her home country. The 24-year-old Gray wore a sparkling red dress she said is inspired by a volcano in the Philippines as she was handed the crown to the delight of …
Read more “Philippines Contestant Catriona Gray Named Miss Universe”
Mexico’s new president is asking businesses to invest in the Maya Train, a railway line that would link passengers to archaeological sites and popular tourist destinations. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador engaged in a traditional religious ceremony in the Mayan language Sunday, calling on the ancestors to give their blessings to the project. The governors of …
The German government anticipates a drop in asylum applications in 2018, even including the thousands of babies born to recent migrants. The Bild newspaper reported Sunday on a preliminary report it obtained showing about 166,000 asylum applications will have been filed by year’s end, including 30,000 babies born to migrants in Germany. That’s down from …
Read more “Germany Sees Notable Drop in Asylum Applications in 2018”
People headed to the ballot boxes in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorye region in a repeat election for the governor on December 16. This footage comes from the region’s administrative center, Vladivostok. The new vote was held after Russia’s election commission identified violations in a September 16 gubernatorial runoff. …
Homeowners appear to have learned the lesson of the Great Recession about not taking on too much debt. There is some concern that Corporate America didn’t get the message. For much of the past decade, companies have borrowed at super-low interest rates and used the money to buy back stock, acquire other businesses and …
Read more “Debt Threat: Business Debt, Worries About it, Are up”
Authorities in the Maldives have frozen bank accounts linked to former president Abdulla Yameen. Officials say the accounts hold a total of $6.5 million. Suspicions that Yameen had received over $1 million in illegal payments have dogged him since his failed bid for re-election earlier this year. Yameen’s path to a second five-year term …
A Bulgarian minister has threatened to try to block Macedonia’s bids to join the EU and NATO over Skopje’s insistence that Macedonian is its own language. …
Police in Almaty have detained several human rights activists who attempted to stage a demonstration as the country marked the 27th anniversary of its independence from the former Soviet Union. …
A Tajik bride at the center of a virginity dispute says she is enrolling at a police academy to help other women in similar situations. Facebook social tease: Tajik bride is “done crying” over virginity dispute. Twitter social tease: “What happened to me has happened to many other girls.” By Farangis Najibullah and Sarvinoz Ruhulloh …
President Donald Trump’s relationship with the truth tends to be borderline, at best, when it comes to the border. So it was this past week when he made a flurry of false or unsupported statements about immigration. He said, with no evidence, that migrants are plagued with disease. He asserted that Mexico has in effect …
Read more “AP FACT CHECK: Trump Floats Fictions About the Border”
China, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a trilateral understanding Saturday to enhance counterterrorism security cooperation, and collectively reiterated their call for the Taliban insurgency to join Afghan peace talks. The foreign ministers of the three countries met in Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul, for a second round of talks, where they put the understanding into effect and …
Read more “Afghanistan, China and Pakistan Ink Deal to Enhance Counterterror Cooperation”
A Ukrainian air force pilot was killed when his fighter jet crashed during a landing attempt on December 15, the country’s military announced. …
The World Food Program says reopening the Yemeni Port of Hodeida is crucial in efforts to stave off famine in that country, which has been at war for more than three years. The United Nations warns some 14 million people are on the verge of starvation in Yemen. Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, …
Read more “Reopening of Port of Hodeida is Good News for Starving Yemenis”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed concern over the rising popularity of rap music among Russian youth. …
Facebook says a software flaw may have exposed private photos of nearly 7 million users, the latest in a series of privacy issues facing the social media company. Facebook said Friday that the photo glitch gave about 1,500 software apps unauthorized access to private photos for 12 days in September. “We’re sorry this happened,” Facebook …
The U.S. diplomat who once steered Washington’s relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan says Islamabad’s growing closeness with Beijing could pose new challenges to already frail U.S.-Pakistan relations. Richard Olson was the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and was previously U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. In a Voice of America interview, he warned that growing …