World

Italian satellite launcher Avio in place for next space race

Published on Mon, 04/10/2017 - 1:25pm

MILAN (AP) — Italian satellite launcher company Avio's successful public offering on Monday will help fuel its ambitions to be a leader in the next space race, the company's CEO said in an interview.

Avio, one of the largest satellite launchers in Europe and the first in its category to go public, saw its share price close at 13.40 euros, a gain of 6.6 percent on its initial pricing, after touching a high of 13.95 euros.

Chemical weapons attack latest in litany of Syria atrocities

Published on Mon, 04/10/2017 - 1:16pm

 

BEIRUT (AP) — With its missile strike on Shayrat air base in central Syria, Washington signaled that it had judged President Bashar Assad responsible for the horrific chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that drew international outrage last week. But it is not the first or even deadliest atrocity of the war. Rights groups and many Middle Eastern and Western nations say Assad is responsible for a litany of war crimes in the six years he and his supporters have struggled to extinguish a popular uprising and armed insurgency against his rule.

Pressure builds on Syria's Assad after chemical attack

Published on Thu, 04/06/2017 - 3:37pm

BEIRUT (AP) — President Bashar Assad's government came under mounting international pressure Thursday after a chemical attack in northern Syria, with even key ally Russia saying its support is not unconditional.

Turkey, meanwhile, said samples from victims of Tuesday's attack, which killed more than 80 people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, indicate they were exposed to sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent.

Syria rejected the accusations, and Moscow warned against apportioning blame until an investigation has been carried out.

Mexico rights group: no final count of clandestine graves

Published on Thu, 04/06/2017 - 3:32pm

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's government human rights agency says tens of thousands of people have been recorded as missing across the country over the past two decades. And thousands have been reported found in clandestine graves during the drug war of the past 10 years.

But the National Human Rights Commission says the exact numbers are a mystery.

It asked prosecutors in all 31 states how many people had gone missing since 1995, and came up with a tentative figure of 32,236. But it's unclear how many have been located.

French candidate Fillon wants united Europe, not 'Frexit'

Published on Thu, 04/06/2017 - 3:28pm

PARIS (AP) — Conservative French presidential candidate Francois Fillon is campaigning for a tougher, more united Europe that can defend itself against violent extremists and unfair trade — and warns that a "Frexit" would lead to chaos and the death of the EU.

Most of the 11 French presidential candidates are skeptical about the 28-nation European Union, amid growing nationalist sentiment around Europe and Britain's pending exit from the bloc, called Brexit.

Cuban biologist raises 2 chimpanzees in her Havana apartment

Published on Thu, 04/06/2017 - 8:33am

HAVANA (AP) — Over the last year Ada and Aduma have broken Marta Llanes' television and computer key board, chewed her telephone to pieces and ruined much of her furniture.

She has forgiven them every transgression. It's hard to stay angry at a baby chimpanzee when it clambers up your leg and into your arms and plants a kiss on your cheek in a plea for forgiveness.

Polish government to take control of major new WWII museum

Published on Wed, 04/05/2017 - 3:58pm

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A court paved the way Wednesday for Poland's government to take control of a new World War II museum that has been the focus of a major ideological standoff over how to remember the war.

The conflict has pitted the creators of the Museum of the Second World War — who place Poland's war experiences in an international context and emphasize the fate of civilian populations — against the nationalistic ruling party, which prefers to focus on Polish suffering and military heroism.

Mounting confidence nerve gas was used in Syria attack

Published on Wed, 04/05/2017 - 3:49pm

BEIRUT (AP) — Diplomats at the U.N. Security council sparred Wednesday over whether to hold President Bashar Assad's government responsible for a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people in northern Syria, while U.S. intelligence officials, Doctors Without Borders and the U.N. healthy agency said evidence pointed to nerve gas exposure.

The Trump administration and other world leaders said the Syrian government was to blame, but Moscow, a key ally of Assad, said the assault was caused by a Syrian airstrike that hit a rebel stockpile of chemical arms.

Russian police hunt possible accomplices of suicide bomber

Published on Tue, 04/04/2017 - 2:05pm

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Investigators searched for possible accomplices of a 22-year-old native of the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan identified as the suicide bomber in the St. Petersburg subway, as residents came to grips Tuesday with the first major terrorist attack in Russia's second-largest city since the Soviet collapse.

Fewer missing but more dead as rivers recede in Colombia

Published on Mon, 04/03/2017 - 4:50pm

MOCOA, Colombia (AP) — Search teams were still digging and probing into dense piles of mud and debris whenever anyone reported hearing the sound of movement below, as rescuers on Monday refused to give up the search for survivors of the deadliest floods in the recent history of this Colombian city.

Three days after floodwaters rushed through the city of Mocoa, Colombian authorities say they are not yet ready to concede that it is too late to find anyone from among the more than 200 people listed as missing, though time is clearly running out.