WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday charged 11 people in a decade-long scheme that arranged about 1,000 sham marriages to allow mostly Chinese nationals to achieve legal immigration status in the United States, according to court documents. • Foreign nationals pai
CAIRO (AP) — A drone strike ignited a fire at a electrical substation in western Libya on Wednesday, knocking the facility out of service in the latest of a wave of attacks on energy and oil infrastructure that threaten to plunge the country into further chaos. The state-run General Electricity Comp
KYIV, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces have liberated 745 square km (288 square miles) of Russian-occupied land this year across a swathe of the southeastern front, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, hailing an operation he said went “exactly as planned”. Ukraine’s military has soug
By Jonathan Saul and Catherine Cartier LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – A vast oil spill in the Gulf is quickly becoming one of the world’s worst in years after being allowed to spread almost unchecked for weeks, according to international agencies, satellite imagery and environmental groups. The slick of
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament Wednesday passed a controversial general amnesty law, a day after a majority of legislators voted to formally abolish the death penalty. Lawmakers who backed the bill call it a beginning to correcting past overreach by the judiciary and security agencies and help r
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Survivors on Wednesday described frantic passengers pleading with the captain of an overloaded ferry to turn back from strong waves shortly before it capsized and killed at least 44 people on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe. The number of people on board Tuesday was unclear as estima
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Authorities in Hungary will begin taking steps to raise the level of the Danube River this week in order to ensure the country’s only nuclear power plant can continue operating, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said on Wednesday. Persistent drought and successive extreme heat wav
By Nelson Bocanegra PEREIRA, Colombia, Aug 12 (Reuters) – When Julio Cesar Largo’s daughter failed to show up for her son’s birthday celebration, his worst fears took hold. On the same day, a powerful earthquake had ripped through a large part of Colombia. The 7.4-magnitude quake struck on Monday, t
MADRID, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The status of the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish territories is not up for discussion, Spanish officials said on Wednesday, after Morocco’s justice minister reiterated Rabat’s sovereignty claims over the cities. Tuesday’s remarks by Abdellatif Ouahb
Aug 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States in is control of the Strait of Hormuz. “The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, “A WALL OF STEEL,” and there is nothing Iran ca
LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Russia’s human rights commissioner published on Wednesday a list of 224 Ukrainian prisoners of war that she said Moscow was ready to exchange but that Kyiv had rejected, part of a dispute over which side is hampering exchange efforts. Thousands of prisoners have been excha
PARIS, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The EU and 26 countries condemned Iran’s executions of protesters in a joint statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday. The countries called on Iran to listen to its people, take meaningful steps toward ensuring respect for human rights, immediat
MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Russian said on Wednesday that Ukrainian strikes on its grain and agricultural infrastructure were pushing up global food prices and exacerbating grain shortages, something it said served the interests of some Western countries. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Z
By Parisa Hafezi and Elwely Elwelly DUBAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s government plans to give its intelligence services broader powers for actions such as disabling sabotage and hacking attempts in response to a rising threat from powers such as Russia and extremists. The Cabinet on Wednesday approved draft legislation meant to strengthen Germ
By Sam Tobin LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom stood trial in a London court on Wednesday, charged with trespassing at a diplomatic residence that he refused to leave after being sacked for opposing Myanmar’s military coup five years ago. Kyaw Zwar Minn was
By Olivia Le Poidevin GENEVA, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Half of Afghan women now leave their homes only once or twice a month as Taliban-imposed restrictions curtail their freedom of movement and participation in public life, according to data released by U.N. Women on Wednesday. As the Taliban prepare to
QUSRA, West Bank, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Israeli troops clashed with Jewish settlers on Wednesday while trying to disperse them from a West Bank outpost they set up directly in front of Palestinian homes, and later withdrew from the area after failing to clear the settlers, witnesses said. The incident
LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Zambia holds an election Thursday to decide if President Hakainde Hichilema will get a second five-year term as reward for his economic recovery plan in the southern African nation that’s one of the world’s top copper producers but was recently mired in a debt crisis. Zambia de
MUMBAI, India (AP) — Heavy monsoon rains triggered a landslide in a densely populated neighborhood in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, early Wednesday, killing at least six people and injuring four others, authorities said. The landslide struck before dawn when a section of hillside collapsed onto
MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia will respond in kind if European countries seize ussian merchant vessels, the TASS state news agency reported. The comments come as the EU intensifies pressure on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, expanding sanc
By Olga Popova MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Two of Russia’s biggest grain terminals at the southern port of Novorossiysk have suspended operations as a result of overnight Ukrainian drone strikes, four industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter and most of
BANGKOK (AP) — The Thai government on Wednesday pledged to tighten gun controls and crack down on illegal firearms after two deadly shootings near Bangkok in less than a week renewed pressure on authorities to curb gun violence. The country has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia despi
By Johann M Cherian Aug 12 (Reuters) – Wildfires and heatwaves pose a growing medium- and long-term fiscal risk for Greece and the wider region, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, as the government boosts investment to shore up its tourism-dependent economy. Michael Arghyro
SYDNEY (AP) — The case against a man accused of murdering 15 people at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration involved more than 800 witness statements and more evidence had yet to be examined, a prosecutor told a court Wednesday. Naveed Akram, 25, appeared briefly in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on 7
MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it had intercepted and destroyed 502 Ukrainian drones over various regions overnight and had hit a fuel depot in the port of Odesa, which it said was used to supply the Ukrainian army. Reuters could not independently verify the m
SINGAPORE, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The tally of vessels tracked in the Strait of Hormuz fell to a one-week low of eight on Tuesday, shipping data showed, as owners avoided the key waterway amid continued hostilities in the Middle East. The United States and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis reported separate
BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) — After nearly two weeks on the road with her five children, Luul Mohamed finally arrived in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa with no food and little sense of what would happen next. Drought conditions had forced Mohamed and her family to leave Saakoow, a town in the Middl
KALLUDER E VOGEL, Kosovo (AP) — Erblin Ademi watched from afar as workers excavated recently discovered mass graves from the 1998-99 war in Kosovo. Nearly 30 years after his father went missing, Ademi both feared and wished that his remains will finally be found. Ademi was just 9 when he last saw hi
PEREIRA, Colombia (AP) — The search for life in the rubble of Colombia’s powerful earthquake grew more desperate on Wednesday as search teams pushed up against a key time threshold to locate survivors with signs of life. The devastation has tested Colombia’s new President Abelardo de la Espriella an
