World

CHARAGUA, Bolivia, (Reuters) – In 12 years as president of South America’s poorest country, Evo Morales has accomplished many of the goals he set forth when he became the first indigenous person to lead Bolivia.

CANBERRA,  (Reuters) – Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison will become Australia’s new prime minister after winning a Liberal party leadership vote last night, ending an internecine battle that has scarred the conservative government ahead of an election due by May 2019.

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – A South Korean appeals court sentenced former President Park Geun-hye to 25 years in jail yesterday in a case arising from a far-reaching corruption scandal that toppled her from power in 2017.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back at President Donald Trump yesterday after Trump gave a scathing assessment of his leadership at the Justice Department.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING,  (Reuters) – U.S. and Chinese officials ended two days of talks yesterday with no major breakthrough as their trade war escalated with activation of another round of dueling tariffs on $16 billion worth of each country’s goods.

WASHINGTON/JOHANNESBURG,  (Reuters) – The United States warned South Africa yesterday that seizing land without compensation risked sending the country down the wrong path, deepening a spat over Pretoria’s efforts to fix a glaring racial disparity almost 25 years after the end of apartheid.

CANBERRA,  (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s tenure looked doomed yesterday with his government adjourning parliament to struggle with an internecine leadership battle which saw ministers desert Turnbull and call for a second leadership vote.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The White House pushed back forcefully on Wednesday against suggestions that a plea deal struck by President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen implicated Trump in a crime.

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – The popularity of imprisoned former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s has grown strongly despite his corruption conviction, an election poll yesterday showed, a result that rattled markets and raised the possibility that Lula’s running mate could ultimately become the next occupant of the country’s presidential palace.

ATHENS,  (Reuters) – Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hailed the end of a “modern-day Odyssey” on Tuesday after Greece emerged from nine years of bailouts, saying it should never forget the harsh lessons learned under tight financial supervision by its creditors.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States is “deeply disappointed” by El Salvador’s decision to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China and is reviewing its relationship with San Salvador as a result, a spokesman for the U.S.

WASHINGTON/CHARLESTON, W.Va.,  (Reuters) – President Donald Trump suffered twin setbacks on Tuesday with two ex-advisers facing prison sentences – and one of them saying Trump told him to commit a crime – possibly hurting his Republican Party’s election prospects and widening a criminal probe that has overshadowed his presidency.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified yesterday that Trump had directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.,  (Reuters) – Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on Tuesday of eight counts of financial wrongdoing, giving Special Counsel Robert Mueller a victory in the first trial arising from his investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – A major earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck Venezuela’s eastern coast, home to largely poor fishing communities, on Tuesday and shook buildings in Caracas, Colombian capital Bogota, and on islands in the Caribbean.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, reached a deal with federal prosecutors in New York today to plead guilty to campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion, news media outlets reported, citing unnamed sources.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – The government of the northern Brazilian state of Roraima yesterday asked the country’s supreme court to halt the entry of Venezuelan immigrants, increasing pressure on the federal government to resolve a growing regional crisis.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – At least five civilians and one soldier died in shootouts in northern Rio de Janeiro yesterday, the army said, as thousands of Brazilian soldiers swept into slums in pursuit of drug gangs, trapping terrified residents in their homes.

(Reuters) – Carpenter Jose Narvaez had planned to flee Venezuela and emigrate to the nearby Caribbean island of Aruba towards the end of the year, until Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro unveiled his plan to turn around the crumbling economy.

(TAIPEI,  (Reuters) – Taiwan lost another ally to Beijing on Tuesday when diplomatic ties with El Salvador were severed, as China presses the remaining nations with diplomatic links to Taipei to end them.