VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has signed a treaty with the “State of Palestine” and said it hopes the official recognition will help stimulate peace with Israel. Vatican Foreign Minister Paul Gallagher and his Palestinian counterpart, Riad al-Malki, signed the treaty at a ceremony Friday in the Vatican. Israel had …
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PARIS – The spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor says two Uber managers have been taken into custody for questioning over “illicit activity” linked to the ride-hailing company’s low-cost service. Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre didn’t name the Uber two managers detained on Monday. The American company has sparred with the government over its …
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PARIS – Two French soldiers have been arrested over allegations of child sex abuse in Burkina Faso. It is the second case of alleged sexual abuse of minors by French soldiers in Africa to surface in recent months. French officials have said the Burkina Faso case is unrelated to the …
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YEREVAN, Armenia – Police in the Armenian capital have cleared away barricades to unblock a central avenue that demonstrators had occupied for two weeks to protest hikes in electricity prices in the impoverished former Soviet nation. Police on Monday also peacefully detained about 20 demonstrators who refused to disperse, but …
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YANGON, Myanmar – An international human rights group has accused Myanmar’s parliament of playing with fire by passing a bill regulating the right of women from the country’s Buddhist majority to marry men from outside their religion. Phil Robertson of New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the bill was …
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UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations has announced an “unconditional humanitarian pause” in the Yemen conflict starting at midnight local time Friday and is seeking commitments from all parties to stop all violence. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has received assurances from Yemen’s President Abed …
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JERUSALEM – Israel’s leader says Western powers are “caving” into Iran even as the Islamic Republic keeps railing against them. Responding to the Iranian supreme leader’s call to continue the struggle against the United States regardless of the outcome of nuclear talks, Benjamin Netanyahu says Sunday his country will not …
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BERLIN – Swiss media reports say a large fire has broken out in the northern city of Olten, with witnesses describing several explosions. The Oltener Tagblatt newspaper reported that the fire started on a construction site on Tuesday afternoon. Solothurn cantonal (state) police were unable to immediately provide information about …
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LONDON – Bank of England of Gov. Mark Carney is suggesting that interest rates could rise from their record low of 0.5 percent as soon as the end of the year as Britain’s economic recovery continues to gather strength. In a speech Thursday to mark the 800th anniversary of the …
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BERLIN – A court in Germany has sentenced a man to four years and three months in prison for posing as a plastic surgeon and performing procedures on dozens of patients. The regional court in Regensburg, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Munich, found the defendant guilty Monday of …
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