Tag Archives: World

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s official IRNA news agency is reporting that a son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has begun a 10-year prison sentence after his conviction on corruption and security charges. Before entering Tehran’s Evin prison on Sunday, Mahdi Hashemi Rafsanjani reportedly called his conviction “unjust” and …

JERUSALEM – A group of Israeli rabbis has established an independent Jewish conversion court, defying the Orthodox establishment’s monopoly on religious affairs. Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate controls conversion, marriage and burials. The new court is meant to ease conversion for tens of thousands of people, mainly immigrants from the former Soviet …

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – More than 60 gay couples are preparing to exchange vows at a mass wedding in Puerto Rico, celebrating a U.S. Supreme Court ruling affecting the socially conservative U.S. territory, organizers said Wednesday. Most of the couples are Puerto Ricans, but others from Haiti, the Dominican …

BUJUMBURA, Burundi – Witnesses say four people were killed overnight in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura as violence persists following the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. Witnesses in the the volatile neighborhood of Musaga said the four friends were shot and killed in a bar, an apparent revenge attack …

VIENNA – Following is a transcript of the original draft agreement between the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran covering inspections at the Parchin military site, where Iran has been accused of pursuing nuclear weapons development a decade ago. This agreement is separate from the much-broader Iran nuclear deal …

BEIJING – An explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China killed one person and injured nine others, a state news agency reported Sunday, ten days after a similar disaster at a chemical warehouse killed 121 people. The explosion happened just before 9 p.m. on Saturday in the city of …

CAIRO – The Professional Squash Association has ranked Egyptian Raneem El Welily as the world’s No.1 female player, making her the first Egyptian woman to hold the sport’s top spot. The sport’s organizing international body also says Tuesday that Egyptian Mohamed Elshorbagy maintains the men’s No.1 ranking. The organization says …

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia’s prime minister has angered some Jewish leaders by suggesting that the Islamic State movement was worse than Nazis during World War II. It is the third time this year that gaffe-prone Prime Minister Tony Abbott has riled Jewish Australians with Nazi analogies. Abbott used an interview …

PRAGUE – The Czech Republic’s counter-intelligence agency says the number of Russian spies remains high and they are particularly interested in the country’s nuclear program. The agency, also known as BIS, says in its annual report published Friday: “Russia does not consider a fight over the Czech nuclear energy sector …

BAMAKO, Mali – Pro-government militia fighters in Mali say they’ve begun withdrawing from a town where the group’s fighters have clashed with separatist rebels. Fihroun Maiga, a spokesman for the militia coalition, said Sunday that its fighters have begun pulling out from Anefis in what he described as a “progressive” …