World News

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors said Thursday that people linked to the Venezuelan government and Mexican companies conspired to overcharge Venezuela for basic food aid packages. Known as “CLAP” packages, the food is supposedly subsidized by Venezuela’s socialist administration to provide a bare level of subsistence to many families facing hunger amid the country’s hyperinflation […]

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says Islamic State militants in Syria have recently seized some 700 people as hostages and are carrying out executions. At an international policy forum in Sochi on Thursday, Putin said “they have been recently expanding their area and took about 130 families hostage, which accounts for about 700 […]

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill Thursday that dramatically reduces prison sentences for electoral financing crimes, acting as President Jimmy Morales is under suspicion of receiving illicit campaign funds. The measure sailed through on a 93-18 vote on a day when many Guatemalans were focused on thousands of Honduran migrants passing through […]

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian presidential candidate on Thursday accused his far-right adversary of illegal campaign practices for allegedly allowing friendly businessmen to secretly pay to spread slanderous messages. The accusations by left-leaning contender Fernando Haddad follow a report published by the daily Folha de S.Paulo newspaper saying that businessmen linked to Congressman Jair […]

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United Nations says it is hosting a meeting between the rival leaders of Cyprus in the U.N.-controlled buffer zone on the ethnically divided island nation. President Nicos Anastasiades, who leads the country’s internationally recognized government, and the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, Mustafa Akinci, are being hosted by Elizabeth […]

PANAMA CITY (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting with Panama’s president to discuss the situations in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Political unrest and economic problems have sparked an exodus from both countries. Pompeo also discussed drug trafficking, migration and anti-terrorism efforts in his meeting Thursday with President Juan Carlos Varela. Both countries […]

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A man suspected of going on a stabbing rampage at a children’s party, killing a little girl celebrating her third birthday and wounding eight others, will face the death penalty, prosecutors in Idaho said Thursday. Timmy Kinner, a homeless man who had been asked to leave a Boise apartment complex the […]

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union handed Italy a stinging letter Thursday warning that the nation’s significantly higher deficit targets represented a deviation “unprecedented in the history” of EU budget rules — but still offered reassurances that the bloc was “not an adversary of Italy.” The dual message underlines the EU’s balancing act as it […]

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Officials in Ecuador say they’re expelling Venezuela’s ambassador because an official from the neighboring country called its president a “liar.” The Foreign Ministry office announced its decision Thursday, saying Venezuela’s Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez called Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno a “liar” for alleging that 140 buses leave Venezuela every day carrying […]

HELSINKI (AP) — Swedish media say Lisbeth Palme, the widow of the slain former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme and a key witness to his unsolved murder over 32 years ago, has died. Swedish news agency TT cited her relatives Thursday to report that she had died after a brief illness on an undisclosed date. […]