WORLD

New York, United States | AFP | A US judge on Wednesday postponed until September the trial in New York of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The 60-year-old kingpin, accused of running one of the world’s biggest drug empires and who twice escaped prison in Mexico, was …

Santiago, Chile | AFP | Almost 80 Roman Catholic clergy have been accused of sexually abusing children in Chile since 2000, a US-based monitoring group said Wednesday ahead of a visit to the country next week by Pope Francis. Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, has spoken out against such …

Miami, United States | AFP | Global warming is expected to unleash more rain, exposing millions more people to river flooding particularly in the United States and parts of Asia, Africa and central Europe, researchers said Wednesday. The study in the journal Science Advances calculates how much more flood protection will …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take 130 businessmen with him to India next week for trade talks which will also cover defence sales, a senior Israeli official said Wednesday. Foreign ministry deputy director general for Asia, Gilad Cohen, said the six-day trip starting Sunday was …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | Chancellor Angela Merkel embarks Thursday on last-ditch talks with Germany’s second biggest party to form a government, in what is also a battle to rescue her political career. September’s inconclusive elections left the veteran leader without a majority and struggling to find partners to govern …

Brasília, Brazil | AFP | Inmates lining up to snort cocaine, booze-fueled parties, and brazen escapes: these unfiltered images from inside Brazil’s prisons are offering outsiders a graphic picture of the anarchic conditions in one of the world’s most populous penitentiary systems. Surviving Brazil’s prisons is certainly not a given. Nine …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Spanish authorities said Wednesday they had transferred migrants being controversially accommodated at a jail just two weeks after an Algerian man was found hanging in his cell in an apparent suicide contested by his brother. The lawyer for the victim’s family said some of the migrants …

Washington, United States | AFP | Several Democratic US congresswomen will wear black to President Donald Trump’s upcoming State of the Union Address in solidarity with the “MeToo” movement opposing sexual harassment, a female lawmaker said Wednesday. Democrat Jackie Speier tweeted that she and other Democratic women in the House of …

Washington, United States | AFP | For the first time in many years, the World Bank’s outlook for the global economy is better than expected rather than worse, with all regions seeing improved growth, according to its latest forecast released Tuesday. However, the bank warns that countries must make investments to …

Washington, United States | AFP | Washington welcomed North Korea’s invitation to South Korea’s Winter Games on Tuesday, suggesting the outing could show Pyongyang what awaits if it agrees to give up nuclear weapons. The long-standing Korean rivals agreed that Pyongyang’s delegation could head south for next month’s Olympics a formal …