World

PARIS,  (Reuters) – French riot police forcibly removed striking workers blocking a large fuel distribution depot yesterday as President Francois Hollande warned anti-reform protesters he would not let them strangle the economy.

DAR ES SALAAM,  (Reuters) – Tanzania’s president has sacked his home affairs minister after he turned up to parliament and answered questions while under the influence of alcohol, the presidency said late yesterday.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday ordered a review of spending on cars for his four wives following a public outcry when the government said it cost 8.6 million rand ($554,000) to buy the vehicles over a three-year period.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan authorities seized 3.7 metric tons (4.08 U.S.

(Grey Frandsen served as chief of staff of the State Department’s Office for Stabilization Operations after 9/11.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – South Africa’s parliament yesterday approved a bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership, an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid.

SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) – El Salvador’s Congress yesterday approved a bond issuance of $152 million to finance a series of measures aimed at tackling endemic gang violence in the poor Central American country.

MONROVIA, (Reuters) – A grand jury in Liberia has indicted government officials, including the speaker of parliament and the head of the ruling party, along with London AIM-listed Sable Mining on charges including bribery.

KIEV, (Reuters) – Ukraine has banned former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from entry for the next five years over his support for Russia’s seizure of Crimea, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) said yesterday.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom watchdog group, was denied consultative status at the United Nations yesterday, with South Africa, Russia and China among the countries that opposed it.

HARARE, (Reuters) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has granted amnesty to all female prisoners except those on death row or serving life sentences, as prisons struggle to feed inmates due to lack of funding from the government.

DAKAR, (Reuters) – Forests in Senegal’s lush Casamance region risk disappearing within two years because of illegal timber smuggling, one of the West African country’s foremost environmentalists said yesterday.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba will recognize small and medium-sized private firms as legal entities, a Communist Party document published yesterday showed, a move that could remove obstacles for businesses and foster the emerging private sector.

NORRISTOWN, Pa., (Reuters) – A Pennsylvania judge yesterday ordered comedian Bill Cosby to stand trial on accusations of sexual assault, the most serious setback so far for a man who epitomized the all-American dad on the 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

LONDON, (Reuters) – People with diabetes should be offered gastric surgery as a standard treatment option which could help control it for years without medication, the world’s leading diabetes groups said.

DUBAI, (Reuters) – Venezuela expects to rejoin the global watchdog established to stop trade in conflict diamonds as it seeks to resume diamond exports, its central bank director said yesterday.

CAIRO/PARIS, (Reuters) – The EgyptAir jet that disappeared last week did not show technical problems before taking off from Paris, sources within the Egyptian investigation committee said late on Tuesday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Bombs killed nearly 150 people and wounded at least 200 in Jableh and Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast yesterday in the government-controlled territory that hosts Russian military bases, monitors and state media said.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s interim government was rocked on Monday by the loss of one of its  key  figures, Planning  Minister  Romero Juca, who stepped aside amid accusations he had conspired to obstruct the country’s biggest-ever corruption investigation.

MANILA (Reuters) – More than three months have passed since $81 million was stolen in a brazen cyber-heist from Bangladesh’s central bank and sent to Manila – yet authorities in the Philippines appear no closer to nabbing those who laundered most of the money through a bank and casinos here.