World

LUENEBURG, Germany, (Reuters) – A 93-year-old former bookkeeper at Auschwitz who is accused of assisting in the mass murder of Jews told a German court that he felt morally guilty for his work at the Nazi death camp, describing in detail the grisly killings he had witnessed there.

(Reuters) – Three Orthodox Jewish rabbis were convicted in New Jersey yesterday of conspiracy to commit kidnapping in a scheme to force men to grant divorces to their unhappy wives under Jewish law.

DUBAI, (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia announced yesterday it was ending a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Houthi rebels who seized large areas of Yemen and said it would back a political solution to bring peace to its war-ravaged neighbour.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia has authorized a Chinese ship to set sail after it was caught carrying 100 tonnes of explosives to Cuba illegally, the prosecutor’s office said yesterday, though it continues to hold the vessel’s captain pending a criminal investigation.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s chief will step down within weeks, the Obama administration said yesterday, as a congressional panel planned to examine whether DEA agents divulged secrets at sex parties that Colombian drug lords may have staged.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mursi was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges arising from the killing of protesters today, nearly three years after he became Egypt’s first freely elected president.

CATANIA, Italy/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations yesterday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of as many as 900 people feared killed in the deadliest known shipwreck of migrants trying to reach Europe.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis condemned the “continuing martyrdom” of Christians yesterday after 30 Ethiopians were shown being shot and beheaded in Libya on a video purportedly made by Islamic State militants.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s government said yesterday it would investigate reports that federal police killed 16 unarmed people in two attacks in January, the latest allegations to raise the specter of abuses by Mexican security forces.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chiquita Brands International Inc will not have to face US lawsuits by more than 4,000 Colombians accusing the fruit company of human rights violations after the US Supreme Court yesterday declined to take up the case.

(Jamaica Observer) It was not a scheduled item on the agenda for discussion when United States President Barack Obama met with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and seven of her Cabinet ministers on Thursday, April 9 at Jamaica House, but the matter was destined to come up.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The World Health Organization has admitted serious failings in its handling of the Ebola crisis and pledged reforms to enable it to do better next time, its leadership said in a statement seen by Reuters yesterday.

ISLAMABAD, (Reuters) – Chinese president Xi Jinping is due in Pakistan today where he will launch $46 billion in projects linking the old allies, a figure that far exceeds U.S.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – A video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites yesterday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Three media outlets said yesterday that Mexican federal police killed 16 unarmed people in two separate attacks in January, appearing to contradict an account by the federal government that the deaths could have been caused by friendly fire.

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) – As many as 700 people were feared dead after a fishing boat packed with migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight, in what may be one of the worst disasters of the Mediterranean migrant crisis, officials said on Sunday.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad killed 33 people and injured more than 100 yesterday, setting off a blast outside a bank where government workers collect salaries, the city’s police chief said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has key interests in common with the United States and needs to work with it on a common agenda, Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday in a television interview.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma yesterday cancelled a state visit to Indonesia to deal with a wave of anti-immigrant violence at home and promised peace to those who wished to remain in Africa’s most advanced economy.

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean police clashed yesterday with thousands of protesters, blocking their way to the presidential palace where they hoped to press for more government action in response to a ferry disaster that claimed more than 300 lives a year ago.