World News

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaragua’s finance minister warned banks Wednesday that the government will sanction those that participate in a general strike scheduled for Thursday to pressure for the freeing of political prisoners. Iván Acosta said the banking system has a responsibility to the public sector to be open because it is regulated by the […]

MOSCOW (AP) — A top associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to 20 days in jail in connection with an unsanctioned protest rally last year. Leonid Volkov was sentenced late Wednesday on charges of violating the rules for holding a rally. Navalny is an anti-corruption campaigner and the most prominent foe […]

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The Latest on the indictment of officials in what prosecutors say was a fraudulent Vermont investment plan (all times local): ____ 4:05 p.m. Vermont’s top federal prosecutor says four men indicted on federal criminal charges lied about their plan to build a biotech facility using foreign investors’ money. U.S. Attorney Christina […]

PARIS (AP) — France is taking in a new group of Yazidis including women victimized by the Islamic State group and their children. The families, a total of 130, were arriving Wednesday night in Toulouse, from Irbil, Iraq for resettlement around France. A group of 16 Yazidi women and their children arrived in December, helped […]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A morgue in western Mexico was so overcrowded and poorly run that some unidentified bodies were left to rot for two years before being autopsied, a report said Wednesday. The Jalisco state human rights commission said that by the time the bodies were autopsied, many no longer had readable fingerprints due […]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vigilante attacks in which mobs injure or kill people suspected of wrongdoing are increasing in Mexico, the National Human Rights Commission said Wednesday. The government body said there have been 241 such attacks since the start of last year, compared to 162 in the previous three years combined. There have already […]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to demand that Britain end its “colonial administration” of the Chagos Islands, which include the U.S. air base on Diego Garcia, and return them to Mauritius within six months. The 193-member world body approved a resolution supporting an advisory opinion in February by the […]

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) — This story was first published on Dec. 2, 2001, when AP journalist Burt Herman reported on the discovery of American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan. We are reprinting the story now to mark Lindh’s release after nearly two decades in prison. ___ An American who fought with the Taliban […]

MOSCOW (AP) — The governor of Russia’s Urals region said Wednesday that a plan to build a Russian Orthodox cathedral in a popular park will be cancelled after protests that drew nationwide attention. A new site will be chosen. Unsanctioned demonstrations in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg were held for several consecutive days — […]

BERLIN (AP) — Photos of Holocaust survivors exhibited on a central Vienna street have been defaced with swastikas, drawing condemnation from political and Jewish leaders. Broadcaster ORF reported Wednesday that ESRA, a group that brought the work by German-Italian photographer Luigi Toscano to the Austrian capital, said several photos were daubed with swastikas and other […]