HAVANA (AP) – The United States and Cuba are on the verge of a deal to restore regular airline flights, jumpstarting economic relations that have languished despite a year of rapid progress on the diplomatic front, Cuba’s top negotiator said on the eve of the anniversary of detente between the …
Read More »UN set to adopt resolution to disrupt Islamic State funds
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Finance ministers from the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council will meet Thursday to adopt a resolution aimed at disrupting the outside revenue that the Islamic State extremist group gets from selling oil and antiquities, from ransom payments and other criminal activities. The Islamic State …
Read More »Pope enters 80th year popular as ever _ but with criticism
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis entered his 80th year on Thursday amid hopes among his critics that it will be his last – at least as pope. While Francis remains enormously popular among most rank-and-file Catholics, a small but vocal group of conservatives who have never much cared for …
Read More »Sovereignty fears cloud EU debate over new border guard plan
BRUSSELS (AP) – European Union leaders were gathering Thursday for a potentially divisive debate amid a migration crisis on whether to create a new border guard with powers to unilaterally deploy to countries unable to manage their borders. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have entered Greece this year, hopping into …
Read More »Carter in Iraq to seek new ways to battle Islamic State
BAGHDAD (AP) – Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with Iraqi leaders and his commanders Wednesday on an unannounced war zone visit aimed at broadening U.S. assistance to Iraq to defeat the Islamic State group. The Obama administration has been talking for days about “accelerating” the fight against IS, but that …
Read More »Calls for investigation after “massacre” in Nigeria
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Human rights advocates have called for an investigation following the Nigerian army’s raid on a Shiite sect in which hundreds of people were reportedly killed. Details of the weekend violence in Zaria have been slow to emerge, with the three attacked areas of the northern town …
Read More »Sunnis fear revenge attacks in Iraqi town brutalized by IS
HARSHAM CAMP, Iraq (AP) – The Islamic State militants who stormed into the Iraqi town of Sinjar last year, massacring members of the Yazidi minority and forcing women into sexual slavery, are gone. But Sunni Muslims who lived alongside the Yazidis there for generations say their own nightmare is far …
Read More »Pakistan schools close on anniversary of deadly school siege
The closure was part a day of national mourning and a precaution against militant attacks tied to the anniversary, said government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani. Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership attended a ceremony in the northwestern city of Peshawar to award medals to the victims’ families. In his address, Prime …
Read More »UK Supreme Court rules against Trump over wind farm
LONDON (AP) – Britain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously against tycoon and U.S. presidential contender Donald Trump in his pitched battle to stop an offshore wind farm near his upscale Scottish golf resort. Trump claims the 11-turbine project, approved by the Scottish government in 2013, will spoil the view …
Read More »Saudi Arabia forms Islamic counterterrorism coalition
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 34 nations have agreed to form a new “Islamic military alliance” to fight terrorism with a joint operations center based in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh. The announcement published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency said the alliance will be Saudi-led …
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