World

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia’s FARC rebel group will enter politics and seek alliances with other parties after it signs a peace deal with the government, the top guerrilla leader said yesterday, despite rebel fears they may be targeted by right-wing armed groups.

GENEVA/AMMAN (Reuters) – A delegation from Syria’s main opposition group arrived in Geneva yesterday to join UN-mediated peace talks, demanding President Bashar al-Assad’s government be made to comply with a UN resolution on humanitarian aid and human rights.

COTONOU (Reuters) – Benin’s prime minister Lionel Zinsou, favoured by the president to succeed him in next month’s election, received a boost yesterday when the leading opposition party also named him as their preferred candidate.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Almost 40 people drowned and 75 were rescued after a boat carrying migrants to Greece sank off Turkey’s western coast yesterday, according to local officials and the Turkish Dogan news agency.

WASHINGTON/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A US Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of an island claimed by China and two other states in the South China Sea yesterday to counter efforts to limit freedom of navigation, the Pentagon said.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A gang of masked, black-clad men rampaged through the streets of Stockholm on Friday night after handing out leaflets threatening to attack migrant street youths, “to make a statement”, with police saying yesterday two arrests had been made.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey warned of consequences yesterday after saying a Russian SU-34 jet had violated its airspace despite warnings, once more stoking tensions between two countries involved in Syria’s war, but Russia denied that there had been any incursion.

DES MOINES, (Reuters) – As seven Republican presidential contenders squared off here for the final debate before voters begin winnowing the field, Donald Trump presided over his own, separate rally a mile away in front of a packed house of cheering supporters.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Switzerland’s chief prosecutor said yesterday he has formally asked Malaysia for help with his probe into possible violations of Swiss law by the state-owned fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), saying suspected misappropriations amounted to about $4 billion.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren released yesterday a report criticizing what she called “shockingly weak” punishments for corporate crimes and condemned the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission for their lax approach.

PARIS, (Reuters) – France is to sign a deal with Cuba next week to ease the Caribbean island nation’s bilateral debt to Paris during a visit by the Cuban president to the French capital, a diplomatic source said yesterday.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, (Reuters) – A vaccine for the Zika virus, which has been linked to severe birth defects in thousands of infants, could be ready for emergency use before year-end, one of its lead developers said yesterday, a timetable well ahead of estimates by U.S.

SEATTLE, (Reuters) – A massive luxury yacht owned by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen destroyed most of a protected coral reef during a visit to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean earlier this month, media reported.

DES MOINES, Iowa, (Reuters) – Donald Trump shunned last night’s debate of the Republican presidential candidates hosted by Fox News and instead filled an auditorium a few miles down the road, trying to prove his widespread support only days before Iowa kicks off the nominating voting process.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A U.S. Treasury official’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin is corrupt “best reflects the administration’s view,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily briefing yesterday.

(Reuters) – Dozens of Boston-area residents linked to the Central American-based MS-13 street gang were being rounded up by law enforcement authorities yesterday after their indictments on racketeering conspiracy charges related to murders and other crimes, federal prosecutors said.

BURNS, Ore., (Reuters) – The FBI yesterday released a video investigators say shows one of the occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge reach for his jacket pocket before he was shot dead by law enforcement after speeding away from a traffic stop where the group’s leader was arrested.

KAMPALA, (Reuters) – Ugandan opposition groups expressed outrage yesterday after the country’s police chief was quoted in a local newspaper telling a civilian anti-crime force to prepare for “war” after next month’s presidential vote.

KUALA LUMPUR, (Reuters) – Malaysia’s anti-graft agency said yesterday it will seek a review of a decision by the attorney-general to clear Prime Minister Najib Razak in a graft investigation.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump yesterday escalated a fight with Fox News, using the word “bimbo” in a derogatory tweet about anchorwoman Megyn Kelly after pulling out of a debate only days before the first nominating contest of the 2016 campaign.