MADRID – A former Spanish prime minister hopes to travel to Venezuela this weekend to help lawyers defending imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Felipe Gonzalez will travel to Colombia on Thursday and will decide after arriving in Bogota whether to visit Venezuela, according to Gonzalez’s spokesman, Joaquin Tagar. Gonzalez was …
Read More »Afghan prosecutor killed by sticky bomb attached to his car in volatile northern province
KABUL, Afghanistan – A district attorney in an increasingly volatile northern province in Afghanistan was killed on Thursday by a sticky bomb that was attached to his car, an Afghan official said. The bomb went off while Hamidullah Khan, a prosecutor in Shirin Tagab, a district near the border with …
Read More »Official: Taliban kill 20 police officers as they overrun checkpoints in southern Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – An Afghan official says at least 20 police officers have been killed after militants ambushed checkpoints in the country’s volatile southern Helmand province. Mohammad Ismail Hotak, the head of the province’s joint coordination of police and military operations, said Saturday the ambushes late Friday night hit checkpoints …
Read More »Gunbattle in tense Tunisian region kills 3 troops, militant
TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia’s government says a gunbattle between security forces and extremists preparing an imminent attack has left three troops and one of the attackers dead. Mohamed Ali Aroui, a spokesman for Tunisia’s Interior Ministry, says the firefight in the tense region of Sidi Bouzid began around dawn on …
Read More »Online forum of Mideast peace activists gets high-powered boost as membership grows
JERUSALEM – An online group promoting Mideast peace is receiving a high-powered boost of support as it prepares to pass a key milestone. The YaLa-Young Leaders program says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and five European foreign ministers will address its online peace conference on July 2. Former President Bill Clinton …
Read More »U.S. Consular Worker May Face Murder Charges for Killing Pakistan Gunmen
ISLAMABAD– A U.S. consular worker has been remanded in police custody for six days after shooting dead two armed assailants in Pakistan. Raymond Davis may face murder charges after the pair approached him on a motorcycle shortly after withdrawing money from an A.T.M. in the eastern city of Lahore on …
Read More »United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees blasted for poor financial handling
EXCLUSIVE: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, two years ago was sitting on a stockpile of $437 million in unspent cash, even as a U.N. auditing agency warned that its sloppy handling of funds imperiled future contributions from U.N. member nations. The report, issued …
Read More »Hijacked Malaysian oil tanker rescued, pirates flee on lifeboat
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Pirates who hijacked a Malaysian oil tanker last week have fled on the ship’s lifeboat after being pursued by a Malaysian navy ship, an official said Friday. Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said the eight pirates, believed to be Indonesians, abandoned the MT Orkim Harmony late …
Read More »Cambodian prime minister orders probe of long-unsolved murders of labor leaders
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia’s prime minister has established a special commission to investigate the long-unsolved killings of three labor leaders. It was unclear why Prime Minister Hun Sen would revive the murder cases, which sparked international accusations of impunity for human rights abuses under his government — a concern …
Read More »Mali: Suspected Islamic extremists attack village near Ivory Coast border
BAMAKO, Mali – A local official says gunmen identifying as Islamic extremists have attacked and occupied a village in southern Mali near the border with Ivory Coast. Mamadou Tangara, the mayor of Sikasso, said the gunmen arrived in Fakola village on motorcycles early Sunday morning. A military police official, who …
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