World

 (Reuters) – A 13-year-old girl’s escape from a rural home, where she was held captive for three months by a 21-year-old Wisconsin man charged with murdering her parents, helped break the case and she should be treated as a hero, the local sheriff said on Friday.

KINSHASA,  (Reuters) – The runner-up in Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidential election said yesterday he in fact won a landslide victory with more than 60 percent of votes and will file a formal fraud complaint.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – The leader of Venezuela’s opposition-led congress said on Friday he was prepared to assume the country’s presidency on an interim basis and call elections, just one day after leftist President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a disputed second term.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday he is planning changes to the H-1B programme that grants temporarily visas to highly educated immigrants who work in specialty occupations such as technology or medicine.

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – Despite more than a year of international engagement and promises of economic reform by North Korea’s leaders, the human rights situation in the isolated country remains dire, a top U.N.

YANGON, (Reuters) – A Myanmar court on Friday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail on charges of breaking the Official Secrets Act, saying the defence had not provided sufficient evidence to show they were innocent.

NEW DELHI, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Two Indian cricketers have sparked outrage after a run of misogynist comments on prime television, prompting calls for gender sensitisation in a sport rife with sex scandal.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro started a second term yesterday, defying critics in the United States and Latin America who called him an illegitimate usurper of a nation where economic chaos has wrought a humanitarian crisis.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Argentines marched through Buenos Aires yesterday carrying torches, in the first of a series of planned protests against President Mauricio Macri’s austerity program and the soaring cost of public services.

MCALLEN, Texas/WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Flanked by border agents who are going without paychecks during a government shutdown, U.S.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin insisted yetserday that the Trump administration would keep tight control on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, despite last month’s decision to ease restrictions on the firms.

NEW YORK, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A small Native American tribe in Louisiana whose land has nearly vanished into the sea has moved a step closer to relocating its community further inland after authorities acquired new land for the move, part of a first-of-its-kind project.

WASHINGTON,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The Cuban programme that exports doctors around the world qualifies as human trafficking according to a resolution introduced in the U.S.

KINSHASA, (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission yesterday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner of a disorganised and contentious Dec.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump stormed out of talks with Democratic congressional leaders yesterday over funding for a border wall with Mexico and reopening the government, complaining the meeting at the White House was “a total waste of time.”

(Reuters) – Phoenix police said yesterday they were gathering DNA samples and other clues in their investigation into the sexual assault of a comatose woman that apparently became evident only when she delivered a baby in a long-term care facility last month.

(Reuters) – Venezuela’s defense minister told socialist President Nicolas Maduro to step down last month, and said he would offer his own resignation if he did not, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous U.S.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has stumbled out of the gate with infighting, policy flip-flops and confusion in his one-week-old government, raising concern among investors about his ability to carry out pressing fiscal reforms.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Prosecutors in the U.S. trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman yesterday shared with jurors text messages they said the accused Mexican drug lord sent to his wife and apparent mistress in which he discussed narrowly escaping from a raid and joked about arming his 18-month-old daughter with an assault rifle.

KHARTOUM,  (Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to a rally of thousands of supporters in the capital Khartoum that he would stay in power despite weeks of demonstrations against his 30 year rule.