WORLD

Washington, United States | AFP | The US Army is commissioning 22 women as infantry and armor officers under historic new rules allowing females to serve in ground combat roles, USA Today reported Friday. Defense Secretary Ash Carter in December announced a sweeping directive to open all military occupations to …

Bamako, Mali | AFP Mali and the European Union agreed Friday to combat immigration into Europe by financing projects to fight its causes and promote legal migration, according to a joint statement released on Friday. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, began a …

Basel, Switzerland | AFP Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter told AFP Friday he “is available” to appear as a witness at a United States trial into mass corruption in world football. “Yes. When they need me to defend FIFA, I will be available,” Blatter said, when asked if he would …

Moscow, Russia | AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday acknowledged the accuracy of the Panama Papers revelations, but claimed funds had been spent on musical instruments as he blamed the leak on the United States. The Papers revealed that Putin’s associates, notably cellist Sergei Roldugin, “secretly shuffled as much …

Remarks by Nelly Mukazayire, Deputy Director of the Cabinet in the Office of the President, at the 22nd Commemoration of the Genocide Against the Tutsi at the UN 12 April 2016 Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, Excellency Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, President of the United Nations General Assembly, Excellency …

Douala, Cameroon | AFP | The director of a public hospital in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala was sacked Tuesday after the death of a woman pregnant with twins sparked protests and heated political debate. Under a ministerial decree, Jean II Dissongo was removed from his post at the Laquintinie Hospital …

Brasília, Brazil | AFP Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff risks being driven from office if the lower house votes in favor of an impeachment trial following Monday’s vote in a special committee. These are the main stages in the crisis, which comes on top of a deep recession in Latin America’s …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | When she was being tortured under Brazil’s military dictatorship, Dilma Rousseff could never have imagined becoming the country’s first female president. But four decades on from those dark days in 1970, when Rousseff belonged to a violent Marxist underground group, she did indeed …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP   Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini confessed Saturday to being “the man in the hat” caught on video with suicide bombers at Brussels airport last month, images that had sparked a massive manhunt. Abrini made the admission on the day he was charged with terrorist murders …

Caracas, Venezuela | AFP Venezuelan workers will get Fridays off for the next two months as part of an emergency plan to save electricity, the president said. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves but its economy is a mess, with rampant inflation, shortages of goods as basic as …