SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Puerto Rico’s governor has confirmed that his administration recently pursued a proposal to request that the U.S. Congress allow the island’s heavily indebted government to declare bankruptcy amid an economic crisis. Wednesday’s acknowledgement by Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla comes as the U.S. territory struggles with …
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BERLIN – Germany’s Environment Ministry says 62 former military bases and training areas are being turned into nature reserves, providing some 77,000 new acres of protected land for wildlife. The ministry said Friday that the land will be considered protected immediately, even though details are still being worked out on …
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A Dutch court has ordered the government to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by 2020 in a groundbreaking climate case that activists hope will set a worldwide precedent. The Hague District Court made the ruling Wednesday in a case brought …
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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan “strongly rejects” accusations by Afghanistan’s spy agency that a Pakistani intelligence officer helped orchestrate an attack on the Afghan parliament earlier this week. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the allegations aim to “disrupt the improving relations between the two brotherly nations.” It condemned …
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – An appeals court in the Slovak capital has upheld a lower court ruling that Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis did not collaborate with the communist-era secret police. Babis, a Slovak-born billionaire businessman, was trying to clear his name and sued Slovakia’s Institute of the Nation’s Memory, which …
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LONDON – A former British diplomat says a bizarre plan to relocate the entire population of Hong Kong to Northern Ireland was a joke between government officials. David Snoxell says he’s shocked that anyone took his exchange of letters with fellow diplomat George Fergusson seriously. Snoxell says the exchange — …
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JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister says each day that passes brings greater Western concessions toward Iran in talks over its nuclear program. Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the progressing talks in Vienna do not represent a “breakthrough but rather a breakdown.” Western diplomats are trying to reach a deal before an …
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JOHANNESBURG – Uber, the international ride-hailing service, say some of their drivers are being harassed by taxi drivers in South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg. Meter taxi driver Daniel Sejamoholo said drivers meeting on Tuesday decided Uber should not be allowed to work without an affiliation to a local taxi association. …
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BERLIN – German prosecutors say they have charged four men with supporting the Islamic State group, one of them by helping smuggle would-be members to Syria. Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they filed charges of supporting a foreign terrorist organization against a Tunisian citizen identified only as Kemal Ben Yahia …
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CAIRO – Egypt’s Cabinet has decided to rename a square where security forces broke up a pro-Islamist sit-in two years ago in honor of the country’s chief prosecutor, who was assassinated last month. The decision Wednesday names the square after Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat, who was killed on June 29 …
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