WORLD

Kabul, Afghanistan | AFP | An ambulance packed with explosives blew up in a crowded area of Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 40 people and wounding 140 others, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban. The explosion — one of the biggest since a truck bomb ripped …

Honolulu, United States | AFP | The United States and South Korea are going to keep tightening the screws on Pyongyang so that the hermit state gives up its nuclear program, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday. “As two peace-loving nations, the Republic of Korea and America welcome the Olympic …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | The German government said Friday it had asked a US court to throw out a lawsuit brought by indigenous groups from Namibia seeking reparations for the genocide of their peoples under German colonial rule. It was the first time Berlin has formally responded to the …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP |  Israeli Holocaust survivors are pleading with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel his plan to forcefully expel tens of thousands of African migrants, citing their own experiences as outcasts. “We, who know precisely what it’s like to be refugees, to be homeless and bereft of …

Chicago, United States | AFP | The director of the athletics program at Michigan State University, where convicted child molester Larry Nassar practiced medicine, resigned Friday as pressure intensifies for answers over how abuse persisted for decades. The university’s president stepped down Wednesday evening, hours after Nassar was sentenced to …

Davos, Switzerland | AFP | President Donald Trump on Friday reached out to the global business and political elite in Davos with a sales pitch for the US economy, but provoked boos for attacking the media after waking up to another round of adverse headlines. In a 15-minute speech at …

Miami, United States | AFP | Flu is sweeping the United States, killing at least 37 children as influenza sends the most people nationwide in search of medical care since the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic, US officials said Friday. This year, the most common strain is H3N2, and nearly every …

Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | Mexico’s tourism minister Thursday proposed legalizing recreational marijuana use in Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo, two of the country’s most popular states for tourists. Enrique de la Madrid told journalists in Mexico City it is “absurd” that Mexico, which approved the scientific and medical …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump waded into the uproar over the US currency Thursday, saying he wants to see “a strong dollar,” after comments by his Treasury secretary appeared to signal the opposite and sent the dollar plunging to three-year lows. In comments to CNBC, Trump said …

Miami, United States | AFP | When coral reefs come in contact with plastic trash in the ocean, their risk of becoming diseased skyrockets, said an international study out Thursday. Researchers examined more than 120,000 corals on 159 reefs — some polluted with plastic, others not — from Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar …