World News

As the 950-ton concrete bridge section was swung into place over a highway last weekend, Florida International University officials were beaming with pride. The pedestrian bridge on the edge of the Miami-area campus was a signature achievement of the school’s Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center, a research group set up with federal funding a few years ago to show...

COROZAL, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Maria shredded the electric poles in this plantain farming town high in the mountains of central Puerto Rico, leaving tens of thousands of people without power or running water. Desperate, residents of the town’s Barrio Mana neighborhood asked federal officials for a generator to pump water from the well that supplies the neighborhood’s 130...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a few days before the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration and a Lebanese-American businessman was on his way to Mar-a-Lago. George Nader, an international fixer whose long history included intrepid back-channel mediation between Israel and Arab countries — and a 15-year-old pedophilia conviction in Europe that has not been previously reported — was...

PARIS (AP) — In his final years, the only thing connecting the brilliant physicist to the outside world was a couple of inches of frayed nerve in his cheek. As slowly as a word per minute, Stephen Hawking used the twitching of the muscle under his right eye to grind out his thoughts on a custom-built computer, painstakingly outlining his...

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Afrin, the Turkish military said Tuesday, marking a significant advance in Ankara’s seven-week operation that also encircled hundreds of thousands of civilians. The military said in a brief statement that the siege of Afrin, the main town in the enclave...

LONDON (AP) — Russia is “highly likely” to blame for poisoning a former spy and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday, demanding that Moscow give a compelling explanation or face “extensive” retaliation. May told lawmakers in a strongly worded statement that without a credible response from Russia by the end of Tuesday,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House unveiled a new plan to prevent school shootings that backs off President Donald Trump’s support for increasing the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21. Instead, a new federal commission on school safety will examine the age issue as part of a package the White House announced Sunday in response to the school...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump plan to meet in May for nuclear disarmament talks, a whiplash development that would put two leaders who’ve repeatedly insulted, threatened and dismissed each other in the same room, possibly in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. It would have been an unthinkable suggestion just...

WASHINGTON, USA — Antigua and Barbuda on Wednesday withdrew from participation in the second preparatory meeting for the Summit of the Americas scheduled to be held in Lima, Peru, in April, following the exclusion of Venezuela from participation. Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), which is responsible for the preparation of the...

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (WINN) — Corruption is on the rise in Latin America and the Caribbean, says Transparency International, an organization dedicated to fighting corruption on a global scale. The agency described corruption as a scourge that hurts ordinary people every day across the region, which when they speak out about it, far too often they face retaliation. Almost two...

BRUSSELS, Belgium — During Thursday’s European Parliament debate, Members of Parliament for Europe (MEPs) questioned EU finance ministers over their removal of several countries from the tax haven blacklist in January. Out of a list of 17 countries that was published last year December, the EU removed eight countries – Barbados, Grenada, Macao, Mongolia, Panama, South Korea, Tunisia and the...

Venezuela , Mar 2 (ANI): The Venezuela presidential elections on Thursday have been pushed back to May 2018 as per an agreement with the opposition, citing media reports. Initially, the Venezuela assembly had announced to conduct elections on April 22. Though, several opposition parties claimed to boycott the elections as according to them, they did not have enough time to...

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (BGIS): The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba have committed to providing greater market access for goods under the existing trading arrangement between the two sides. CARICOM secretary-general, Irwin LaRocque, and Cuban ambassador to CARICOM, Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante, recently signed the second protocol to the trade and economic cooperation agreement between the Caribbean Community and Cuba in Georgetown,...

KINGSTON, Jamaica: The head of the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB) believes Jamaica will become the region’s first digital society. Luis Alberto Moreno expressed that view as the Jamaica Government took strategic steps to strengthen the foundation for the creation of a digital society, with the signing of a package of loan operations from the IDB. Speaking at the signing ceremony,...

PANAMA CITY, Panama — The government of Panama said on Monday it was formally investigating a complaint that executives for US President Donald Trump’s family hotel business were illegally occupying a 70-story luxury Trump hotel amid a management dispute. The Public Ministry said it was investigating whether there was any “punishable conduct” in the matter at the Trump International Hotel...

ROSEAU, Dominica — Following the devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017, the UK government said it remains committed to helping Caribbean islands to build back better. To date, the British government has provided £185 million (US$258 million) in aid to Caribbean, Commonwealth partner countries and UK Overseas Territories. This includes £35 million in aid to hard-hit...

LONDON (AP) — All flights in and out of London City Airport were canceled Monday after a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) unexploded World War II-era bomb was found nearby in the River Thames. The Metropolitan Police service cleared an area within 214 meters (700 feet) of the bomb, including several residential streets, as officers worked with specialists from the Royal Navy to...

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — It was a historic moment, and it happened even before the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics had officially begun. As South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife greeted VIPs in their dignitary box to watch the opening ceremony, they turned to shake hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister, who arrived earlier in...