Icelanders vote in a legislative election Saturday after the collapse of a fraught coalition prompted a snap poll where the economy is a top concern. Battling inflation and high interest rates, the economy, housing and healthcare have dominated the campaign for the 268,000 people eligible to vote. Most voting stations will be open between 9:00...
Tehran, Iran Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it adopted by the UN’s atomic watchdog. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom would...
Panama City, Panama The number of US-bound migrants passing through the Darien jungle has fallen by 39 percent so far this year, with a total of 294,000 attempting the dangerous journey since January, Panama’s president said Thursday. In the same period last year, the number was 482,000 people crossing the jungle that separates Colombia and Panama, according...
Geneva, Switzerland Kizza Besigye, a major Ugandan opposition figure, was “kidnapped” in Kenya and is being held in a Kampala military jail, his wife, a top UN official, said Tuesday. Winnie Byanyima, head of UNAIDS, demanded on X that the government of Uganda “release my husband Dr. Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately”....
Dhaka, Bangladesh Thirteen Bangladeshi former top government officials arrested after the revolution in August appeared in court Monday accused of “enabling massacres”, with prosecutors repeating extradition demands for exiled ex-leader Sheikh Hasina. Dozens of Hasina’s allies have been taken into custody since her regime collapsed, accused of involvement in a police crackdown that killed more than 700...
Washington, United States A federal jury on Tuesday ordered a US defense contractor to pay $42 million in damages to three Iraqi men who were tortured at Abu Ghraib prison, their lawyers said. CACI Premier Technology Inc was found liable at the conclusion of a long-running trial for its role in the torture of the three...
Berlin, Germany Germany is headed for snap elections on February 23, the main parties agreed Tuesday, aiming to form a stable government after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed last week. The country’s two biggest parties agreed on the early timetable, which will see centre-left leader Scholz seek a vote of confidence on December 16. This...
Cali, Colombia European officials pointed Thursday to devastating flooding in Spain as a reminder of the self-harming effects of humans’ destruction of nature, urging delegates at a deadlocked UN biodiversity conference in Colombia to “act.” European Commission envoy Florika Fink-Hooijer said the “catastrophe” in Spain’s Valencia region earlier this week highlighted the link between biodiversity loss...
Washington, United States The US and South Korean defense chiefs called Wednesday for North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia, where Washington says some 10,000 of them have been deployed for possible action against Ukrainian forces. Russia and North Korea have deepened their political and military alliance as the Ukraine war has dragged on, but sending...
Beirut, Lebanon For weeks, Fatima Zayyoun has tended to her daughter Ivana, whose bandaged fragile body is in a Beirut hospital after an Israeli strike near their home engulfed her in flames. At the Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui, home to the country’s only burns unit, 35-year-old Zayyoun is still in shock, five weeks after a third of her daughter’s body...