world news

Trump administrations words, deeds on Africa are colliding

NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK, Kenya –  On the outskirts of a sprawling reserve of Kenyan grasslands where endangered animals roam wild, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson lavished praise on an American-funded forensics lab that tracks down elephant-poachers for prosecution, and…

Pope visits Rome charity that works for peace, aids refugees

ROME –  Pope Francis is visiting a Catholic organization that has mediated peace accords in Africa and helps Syrian refugees to reach Italy safely. Francis arrived Sunday afternoon at the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome, a short drive from the Vatican,…

Reports: Turkish private plane crashes south of Tehran, Iran

TEHRAN, Iran –  Iranian news agencies are reporting that a Turkish plane traveling in Iran's air space has crashed. News website asriran.com is quoting the country's Civil Aviation Organization spokesman, Reza Jafarizadeh, as saying it was a private jet that…

Cuba's likely next president pledges more responsive gov't

SANTA CLARA, Cuba –  The 57-year-old Communist Party official expected to assume Raul Castro's seat as president of Cuba on April 19 says the country's next government will be more responsive to its people. Miguel Diaz-Canel told reporters in the…

The Latest: French party may be renamed 'National Rally'

PARIS –  The Latest on the party congress of France's far right National Front (all times local): 4:40 p.m. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has proposed changing the name of the National Front party co-founded by her father to…

Pakistan's ex-PM Sharif dodges shoe thrown in seminary

LAHORE, Pakistan –  Pakistani police say they have arrested a man and his accomplice for throwing a shoe at former premier Nawaz Sharif in the eastern city of Lahore. Police officer Nishat Cheema said the two men were former students…

Ethiopia command post says 9 civilians killed by mistake

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia –  A command post overseeing Ethiopia's state of emergency said security forces mistakenly killed nine civilians in Moyale, near the country's southern border with Kenya. The command post said in a statement Sunday that five members of…

Lightning strike kills 16, injures 140 at church in Rwanda

KIGALI, Rwanda –  A Rwandan provincial governor says at least 16 people were killed and 140 others injured when lightning struck a Seventh Day Adventist church in the country's south. Rose Mureshyankwano said 140 churchgoers were injured and rushed to…

Chile again veers right as Pinera returns to presidency

SANTIAGO, CHILE –  Conservative Sebastian Pinera returns to Chile's presidency on Sunday, vowing to revive an economy that has slumped under outgoing center-left leader Michelle Bachelet. Pinera, a billionaire entrepreneur, oversaw growth that averaged 5.3 percent a year during his…

Arson attack on Berlin mosque causes damage, no injuries

BERLIN –  German police say a mosque in Berlin has been set on fire causing severe damage. There have been no injuries. They said the mosque in the Reinickendorf district was set ablaze early Sunday, likely by three teenagers. The…

Russia: 52 civilians escape Syria's eastern Ghouta

MOSCOW –  The Russian military says more than 50 civilians have evacuated from besieged eastern Ghouta suburbs of Syria's capital Damascus. "Today, 52 civilians, including 26 children, were brought from eastern Ghouta," said Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin of the Russian…

Next German interior minister vows to be tough on migrants

BERLIN –  Germany's designated interior minister vows to speed up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers once he takes office next week. Horst Seehofer, who is currrently still the governor of Bavaria, said Sunday he wants to implement a "plan for accelerated…

East Timorese give hero's welcome to border talks negotiator

DILI, East Timor –  Thousands of East Timorese have lined the road to the capital's international airport to cheer returning independence hero Xanana Gusmao for leading negotiations that settled the sea border between the impoverished country and Australia. Gusmao, whose…

German ex-Catholic head Cardinal Karl Lehmann dies at 81

BERLIN –  Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the former head of Germany's Catholic Bishops Conference, has died. He was 81. The Catholic group said in a statement that Lehmann died Sunday at his home in Mainz. Lehmann had a stroke last year…

China's Xi joins Russia, Zimbabwe in global autocrat club

BEIJING –  Recent history offers sobering lessons to China's Communist Party as the country's rubber-stamp parliament votes to allow President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely. For millennia, one-man rule for life was standard under kings and emperors. But…

French president pokes at Trump for leaving Paris accord

NEW DELHI –  French President Emmanuel Macron has taken a jibe at President Donald Trump for withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. Macron did not name Trump while speaking Sunday at the first meeting of the International Solar Alliance in…

Sumatran tiger fatally attacks man in western Indonesia

PEKANBARU, Indonesia –  A rare Sumatran tiger has fatally attacked a man in the latest human-tiger conflict in a western Indonesian region plagued by widespread deforestation. The victim, Yusri Effendi, a 34-year-old construction worker, was mauled Saturday evening in the…