Three years ago, at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency, Nigerian soldiers stopped all fishing activities in the country’s section of Lake Chad. Militants had infiltrated the ranks of the fishermen, the army said, and were using the guise to fund arms purchases and launch surprise attacks on innocent people. The local fishermen’s union…
read moreOpposition to a planned $3 billion coal-fired power plant in eastern Myanmar is highlighting the challenges facing Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in crafting a coherent energy policy in one of Asia’s poorest and most electricity-starved countries. With only a third of the country’s 60 million people connected to the grid and major cities experiencing…
read moreA U.S. judge in Detroit has halted the deportation of nearly 1,500 Iraqis, many of them Christians, pending full consideration of their claims for asylum. Judge Mark Goldsmith wrote late Tuesday that the Iraqis would face the “substantiated risk of death, torture, or other grave persecution” if sent back to Iraq before their asylum requests…
read moreDonor countries at a London summit pledged Tuesday to increase funding for family planning, but proposed cuts to family planning programs by the U.S. government overshadowed the conference. The largest boost in donations announced at the Family Planning Summit came from the U.S.-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which sought to improve women’s access to…
read moreThe Trump administration on Tuesday removed Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab from two lists of approved vendors used by government agencies to purchase technology equipment, amid concerns the cybersecurity firm’s products could be used by the Kremlin to gain entry into U.S. networks. The delisting represents the most concrete action taken against Kaspersky following months of mounting…
read moreChina’s ambassador to the United States has said reports of trade growth between his country and North Korea, in spite of international efforts to press Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programs, give “a distorted picture.” Last week U.S. President Donald Trump denounced China’s trade with North Korea, saying it had grown almost…
read moreA House panel Tuesday unveiled legislation to begin building President Donald Trump’s long-promised wall along the U.S-Mexico border. Mexico, however, will not be footing the bill. The move by the House Appropriations Committee again puts the Trump administration and its allies on Capitol Hill on a collision course with Democrats who oppose the wall and…
read moreThe top U.S. Senate Republican said on Tuesday he would unveil a revised version of major health care legislation sought by President Donald Trump on Thursday and planned for a vote next week, but divisions within the party left its prospects unclear. With his reputation as a master strategist on the line, Majority Leader Mitch…
read moreFirst Amendment advocates sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying it is unconstitutional to block his critics from following him on Twitter. The Manhattan federal court lawsuit from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University cited seven individuals rejected by Trump or his aides after criticizing the president. Besides Trump, the lawsuit also…
read moreOn the day they were freed from slavery, the fishermen hugged, high-fived and sprinted through a stinging rain to line up so they wouldn’t be left behind. But even as they learned they were going home, some wept at the thought of returning empty-handed and becoming one more mouth to feed. Two years have passed…
read moreRussia has indicated a potential new legal salvo in its trade war with Ukraine and the European Union, telling the World Trade Organization that a trade deal between Kiev and Brussels breaks the rules by penalizing Russia. Minutes of a June 29 meeting of the WTO’s committee on regional trade agreements, published on Tuesday, record…
read moreThe former chief executive officer of the failed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox pleaded not guilty to charges that he stole hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the virtual currency. French-born Mark Karpeles appeared Tuesday in Tokyo District Court at the start of his trial on embezzlement and data manipulation charges. Prosecutors have accused the…
read moreA new package of economic sanctions on Russia and Iran unacceptably constrains the president’s authority, the White House said Monday as Democrats complained that the Trump administration was trying to weaken the penalties. The legislation sailed through the Senate nearly a month ago in response to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate former Treasury official Randal Quarles to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, the White House said on Monday. If confirmed by the Senate, Quarles would be the first vice chair of supervision at the Fed, a role created after the 2008 financial crisis but never filled during…
read moreThe New York Times reported late Monday that the man who set up a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney last year indicated in an email to Trump that the Russian government was the source of information that might hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president. The Times said its story was based…
read moreOne unintended consequence of President Donald Trump’s appearance at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg was a renewed focus on the blurring of lines between his official duty and family. This was caused by Ivanka Trump representing the president during at least one working session of the summit in Germany. But for the White…
read moreQuestions are surfacing over whether the Trump administration will continue to support South Sudan when the proposed White House budget seeks to cut nearly a third of the U.S. State Department budget and diminish funding for development projects and humanitarian aid in Africa. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s plan to merge all or parts…
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Kuwait, in an effort to help resolve the impasse over the blockade of Qatar by its Persian Gulf neighbors Tillerson is also due to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week. Tillerson met Monday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a visit Sunday to Ukraine. Before…
read moreA giant Chinese red flag flutters on a pole where an American flag used to fly at a steel mill in this dusty industrial Serbian town. The company logos of U.S. Steel are faded on the huge chimneys stacks, replaced by those of a Chinese company. When U.S. Steel sold its loss-making smelter in Serbia…
read moreThe Kremlin said Monday it was unaware of a 2016 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior staff and a Russian attorney who promised to give them damaging information about Trump’s challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it does not know the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and “cannot keep track” of every Russian…
read moreChina’s biggest shipping company, state-owned COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., is creating the world’s No. 3 container shipping giant by acquiring rival Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. Shares in both companies surged Monday following the announcement of the $6.3 billion deal. A wave of consolidation has created huge competitors in a global shipping industry that is struggling…
read moreFor a farmer in Brazil’s Amazon, Manoel Freire Camurca was doing pretty well for himself until a local power broker burned down his house and took the surrounding fields he had poured his life into. Camurca’s eviction eight months ago happened as officials were finalizing his claim to 500 hectares of land in southwestern Amazonas…
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