SYDNEY – A powerful earthquake struck near the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea on Monday, prompting officials to warn that hazardous tsunami waves could affect some coastlines in the Pacific. The magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck Monday at a depth of 65 kilometers (40 miles), about 50 kilometers (30 miles) …
Read More »
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia’s new prime minister named his 26 member-Cabinet, reinstating a large number of ministers who served in his predecessor’s government. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke announced the Cabinet early Monday in the heavily fortified presidential palace. Shamarke — who was prime minister in a previous administration — and …
Read More »
MADRID – Spanish police say they have arrested two Cameroonian migrants on suspicion of killing up to 10 other migrants by pushing them from a boat into stormy waters in a fight over a prayer session. Police said Thursday the two were arrested after several of the 29 survivors of …
Read More »
CARACAS, Venezuela – The International Monetary Fund is predicting Venezuela’s troubled economy will shrink by 7 percent in 2015, suffering the worst contraction in Latin America. It’s a dramatic downgrade from October, when the IMF said Venezuela’s economy would shrink by 1 percent. In a post published Wednesday, IMF Western …
Read More »
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s official IRNA news agency says that Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has been summoned before parliament to explain his recent public stroll with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The IRNA report on Sunday says that 21 parliamentarians have demanded that Zarif explain his 15-minute walk through …
Read More »
CAIRO – An Egyptian court has sentenced 183 people to death over the killing of 15 policemen in violence that engulfed the country after the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Monday’s verdict came at the end of one of several mass trials in Egypt that have sparked an …
Read More »
BAGHDAD – Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered the end of a decade-old midnight curfew in Baghdad. A government statement issued Thursday says the midnight to 5 a.m. curfew, first implemented in 2004, will be lifted starting Saturday. The move appeared to be aimed at restoring a sense of …
Read More »
JERUSALEM – The Israeli military says a boat carrying materials for making weapons was intercepted by the navy last month en route to the Gaza Strip from the Sinai Peninsula. It says charges against three suspected smugglers, who were detained on board, were filed this week. The statement late Wednesday …
Read More »
CAIRO – Egypt’s state news agency says gunmen opened fire on a traffic police patrol in the Nile Delta town of Benha, killing one policeman and wounding three others. MENA said the gunmen fired on police from a flyover early Sunday before fleeing, adding that a police car was damaged. …
Read More »
JUBA, South Sudan – A South Sudan government spokesman says that a British aid worker for the Carter Center was killed in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said the man was entering his compound Tuesday night when gunmen shot him to death. The British …
Read More »