South Korean officials said Monday that a North Korean soldier defected by crossing the heavily fortified border between the two countries. An official from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense told the Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity that the soldier crossed the border near the town of Hwacheon …
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RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the national unity government he formed with Hamas last year will dissolve. Abbas did not make any mention of a timetable for resignation in his announcement Tuesday night. But it is expected within days. Abbas said the move was “because Hamas …
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Qaddafi on Monday to “express deep concern at the escalating scale of violence.” But he and the United Nations as a whole has been criticized for being slow to condemn the brutal crackdown that began last week. “Where is the …
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HONG KONG – Chinese state media have blasted Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition lawmakers for being “destroyers” of democratic development a day after they shot down Beijing’s election blueprint for the British former colony. The Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper published an editorial Friday deploring the vote and accusing the pro-democracy …
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An asylum seeker from Mexico suffered a miscarriage after she tripped and fell while shackled in immigration detention, even though pregnant detainees are not supposed to be restrained, her lawyers said. Monserrat Ruiz was given a pregnancy test after arriving at an immigration detention facility in Bakersfield, California, in May, …
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ACAPULCO, Mexico – Authorities in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero say they have found 10 bodies in clandestine graves on the outskirts of the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco. State prosecutors spokesman Randy Suastegui said Monday that three women were among the dead. He said authorities have been examining …
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UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. envoy for Yemen says the conflict-torn Middle East nation is “one step” from famine, with 31 million people needing humanitarian assistance compared to just 7 million two years ago. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told reporters after briefing the Security Council behind closed doors Wednesday that …
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BELLINZONA, Switzerland – Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court has rejected a request for release on bail by one of the seven men arrested on corruption charges last month in a raid on FIFA’s luxury hotel in Zurich. The Swiss court said “there was a risk that the appellant would abscond if …
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UNITED NATIONS – France’s foreign minister is warning that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can explode “at any moment” and the Islamic State extremist group can interfere at any time. Laurent Fabius told a group of reporters Monday that “if and when it explodes, it’s very, very, very problematic for the whole …
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UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the world should be ashamed that three years after major powers approved a blueprint in Geneva to bring peace to Syria the suffering of its people is reaching new depths. The U.N. chief said more than 220,000 Syrians have died in the conflict, …
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