PARIS – A French official says Egypt has agreed to buy 24 Rafale jets as part of a 5.2 billion-euro (US$5.93 billion) defense deal, marking the first foreign sale of the French-made fighters. The official said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was expected to travel to Cairo on Monday …
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ALGIERS, Algeria – The U.N. representative to Mali has expressed hope over the latest round of peace talks set to begin Monday between the warring factions in the country. The talks which began in Algiers in September are between Mali’s government, a series of separatist rebel groups based in the …
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LONDON – A teenage British convert to Islam who said he wanted to decapitate a soldier has been convicted of terrorism. A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court found 19-year-old Brusthom Ziamani guilty Thursday of preparing an act of terrorism. Prosecutors said Ziamani was inspired by the two Islamic extremists …
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealand will send a small number of troops to Iraq to help train local forces in their battle against the Islamic State group, Prime Minister John Key announced Tuesday. Key told lawmakers the country would deploy up to 143 military personnel, who would be based …
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina’s Congress has approved a law overhauling an intelligence agency under fire from the president as well as the opposition. The measure approved early Thursday comes after President Cristina Fernandez said the agency was out of control and suggested a top spy could have been involved …
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – An opposition lawmaker in the Maldives said her party will press on with street protests until the government frees a former president and current opposition leader. Mohamed Nasheed, the Indian Ocean nation’s first democratically elected president, was arrested a week ago for allegedly ordering the military …
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KUWAIT CITY – A Kuwaiti lawyer says the country’s supreme court has upheld a verdict against an online journalist sentenced to two years in prison for Twitter posts deemed insulting to the Gulf nation’s ruler. Ayyad al-Harbi was arrested in 2012 as part of a social media crackdown throughout the …
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Authorities in Puerto Rico have charged a 28-year-old man in the U.S. territory’s first federal sextortion case involving adults. Mario Lebron Caceres is accused of threatening to post sexually explicit images of a 33-year-old woman on a pornographic website and of sharing them with her …
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BERLIN – Germanwings says a plane headed for Milan was evacuated at Cologne-Bonn airport after German police received a bomb threat against the flight. The airline said the threat against flight 826 to Milan’s Malpensa airport was received by federal police Sunday evening. The tower in Cologne alerted the pilot …
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MEXICO CITY – Migrant rights activists said Tuesday that about 200 Central American migrants hope to re-start a journey to hold a “Viacrucis” protest in Mexico City, after highway immigration checkpoints stymied their trip last week. For several years, migrants have carried wooden crosses in protest marches in Mexico around …
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