World

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) yesterday said that crisis-wrought Venezuela should be suspended from the regional diplomatic body if it does not hold general elections “as quickly as possible.”

HOUSTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, while chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, used an alias for emails with employees and board members because his primary account was jammed with too many messages, the oil company said yesterday.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Donald Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income in 2005, the White House said yesterday, responding to an MSNBC report that the network had obtained two pages of the returns.

BENGHAZI, Libya, (Reuters) – East Libyan forces said they had regained control yesterday of the major oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider from a rival faction that seized them earlier this month and were pursuing their opponents into the desert.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazil’s top public prosecutor asked the Supreme Court to open 83 new investigations into senior politicians yesterday, reportedly including five ministers and leading lawmakers, in a dramatic escalation of a graft probe threatening the government.

  SEOUL,  (Reuters) – South Korean prosecutors summoned ousted leader Park Geun-hye yesterday for questioning next week about a corruption scandal that led to her dismissal as president, the prosecutors’ office said.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva yesterday called charges “false” that he tried to block an ongoing investigation of the biggest graft scandal in Brazil’s history, which helped end the 13-year rule of his leftist Workers Party.

VINA DEL MAR, Chile,  (Reuters) – The Latin American free trade area known as the Pacific Alliance has agreed a new category of “associate member,” it said yesterday, as it seeks to increase its reach and show it is serious about its message of fighting protectionist trends.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said yesterday it would suspend high-level diplomatic relations with the Netherlands after Dutch authorities prevented its ministers from speaking at rallies of expatriate Turks, deepening the row between the two NATO allies.

WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) – Russia appears to have deployed special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya in recent days, US, Egyptian and diplomatic sources say, a move that would add to US concerns about Moscow’s deepening role in Libya.

OSLO (Reuters) – Cities from Oslo to Sydney are setting goals to curb climate change that exceed national targets, causing tensions with central governments about who controls policy over green energy and transport and construction.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump plans to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a two-day summit next month, according to media reports, as his administration seeks to smooth relations with the world’s second-largest economy.

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May cleared the final hurdle standing between her and the start of Brexit negotiations yesterday after parliament passed legislation giving her the power to start the EU exit process.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Aides to U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday attacked the credibility of the nonpartisan agency that will analyze the costs of a replacement for Obamacare, as the White House sought to quell opposition from many conservative Republicans.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Two days before U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was fired, President Donald Trump tried to call the high-profile New York prosecutor in what a White House official said was an effort to “thank him for his service and to wish him good luck.”

ANKARA/ROTTERDAM (Reuters) – The Netherlands barred Tur-key’s foreign minister from landing in Rotterdam on Saturday in a row over Ankara’s political campaigning among Turkish emigres, leading President Tayyip Erdogan to brand the fellow NATO member a “Nazi remnant”.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said US forces in Syria were “invaders” and he had yet to see “anything concrete” emerge from US President Donald Trump’s vow to prioritise the fight against Islamic State.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Opponents of South Korea’s ousted leader,  Park Geun-hye rallied in the capital, Seoul, on Saturday to demand that she be arrested, a day after she was thrown out of office over a corruption scandal involving the country’s conglomerates.

BEIRUT/DAMASCUS (Reuters) – A double bomb attack targeting Shi’ite pilgrims in Damascus killed at least 40 Iraqis and wounded 120 more who were going to pray at a nearby shrine, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.

By Byron Kaye and Jeremy Wagstaff   SYDNEY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The man who last year made global headlines by claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, is working with a fugitive online gambling entrepreneur to file scores of patents relating to the digital currency and its underlying technology, blockchain.