WORLD

Santiago, Chile | AFP | Billionaire Sebastian Pinera will return to power as Chile’s president next year, according to virtually complete results from a runoff election held Sunday. Electoral authorities said the 68-year-old conservative, who previously led the South American nation from 2010-2014, had 55 percent of the vote, with 98 …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | From Donald Trump’s election to Brexit and the Catalan crisis, accusations that the Kremlin is meddling in Western domestic affairs have heightened fears over Russian hackers, trolls and state-controlled media. While the first accusations against Moscow came following a 2016 hack attack on the US Democratic …

Beijing, China | AFP | China opened a major economic planning conference on Monday as the country tries to pivot away from its no-holds-barred growth model. The annual Central Economic Work Conference gives leaders the opportunity to review past economic policy and plan for 2018. The pursuit of high growth propelled …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Spanish police said Sunday they had dismantled an international hashish trafficking ring which allegedly used industrial warehouses that had been repossessed by banks to grow huge amounts of marijuana. The authorities detained two Spaniards and a British national they believe headed the ring as part …

Lyon, France | AFP | The nearly intact skeleton of a woolly mammoth that lived at least 10,000 years ago was sold at auction for more than a half million euros Saturday in the southeastern French city of Lyon. The giant skeleton — mounted in a forward walking position with …

Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday celebrated his birthday at the iconic chateau of King Francois I, a choice denounced by critics as an example of how he is “cut off from the people”. Macron, who turns 40 on Thursday, is spending the weekend with his …

Tel Aviv, Israel | AFP | Thousands of Israelis marched on Saturday night for the third week running in central Tel Aviv to demand legal action against “corrupt” people in the government and their resignation. The demonstration comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was questioned for the seventh time …

Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Evacuation orders were issued Saturday for areas in California’s Santa Barbara County as the state battles its third-largest wildfire since 1932, with winds and dry conditions threatening to help the blaze grow. Santa Barbara’s Office of Emergency Management announced a series of mandatory …

United Nations, United States | AFP | Russia has been authorized to provide the Central African Republic’s armed forces with light arms, under an exemption to an arms embargo on the country granted by the UN, diplomatic sources said Friday. “It’s clear,” an official said on condition of anonymity. London, Paris …

New York, United States | AFP | A US federal judge on Friday sentenced a two-times former presidential candidate from Honduras to three years in an American prison for laundering drug proceeds from his country’s Cachiros cartel. Yani Rosenthal, 52, surrendered to US justice in October 2015, and in July pleaded …