Paris: The Panama Papers have given ammunition to the fight against tax evasion, but much still needs to happen before the world’s tax dodgers run out of places to hide money, experts say. The papers, published a year ago, linked some of the world’s most powerful leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and former British prime minister David Cameron, as well as sports stars and billionaires to […]
This story is a collaboration between Kaiser Health News and the Center for Public Integrity. The Justice Department has joined a California whistleblower’s lawsuit that accuses insurance giant UnitedHealth Group of fraud in its popular Medicare Advantage health plans. Justice officials filed legal papers to intervene in the suit, first brought by whistleblower James Swoben in 2009, on Friday in federal court in Los Angeles. On Monday, they sought a […]
Didi Chuxing may have defeated Uber, but China’s dominant ride-hailing platform is no match for the country’s local governments after being forced to gut its urban fleet to comply with regulations. Didi’s core business of cheap ride-hailing now faces a tough fight in the big urban markets, which it built after a bruising battle with local and foreign rivals. Uber ceded the Chinese market — its largest — […]
By Murad Sezer | DIYARBAKIR, Turkey DIYARBAKIR, Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan described himself as a “guardian of peace” on Saturday as he called on Kurds in conflict-torn southeast Turkey to vote ‘yes’ in a referendum in two weeks time on reforms that would grant him sweeping new powers. Since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July 2015, the mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by some […]
By Marc Leras and Simon Carraud | MARSEILLE/BIGUGLIA, France MARSEILLE/BIGUGLIA, France France’s centrist presidential contender Emmanuel Macron singled out the far-right National Front as his chief rival on Saturday, vowing to win the first round on April 23 as a new poll showed the election race getting tighter. “The National Front, our main opponent, is attacking us on all sides. Never boo them. Fight them,” a defiant […]
Photo Iraqis bathed in a sulfur pond not far from the southern outskirts of Mosul on Saturday. Iraqi forces are pushing to take western Mosul from the Islamic State. Credit Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — Facing mounting pressure over civilian casualties in American airstrikes, the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria said on Saturday that it was likely that […]
BAGHDAD Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be the deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in an air strike, Iraqi State TV said on Saturday, citing Iraqi military intelligence. The U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable at the moment to confirm the report. Iraqi TV said Jumaili was killed with other Islamic State commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi […]
Once upon a time Washington was simple: on one hand you had Republican interests, on the other: Democrats, and inbetween them perhaps, the occasional independent or “green.” Now… it’s less simple. At last check, DC currently boasts at least nine different parties, groups, factions or ideologies. Which is why keeping track of who wants what, and how the various groups allign, in US politics has become quite […]
WASHINGTON Four civilians were killed in February by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. military said on Saturday as it updated a tally of accidental deaths in the fight against the Islamic State militants. At least 229 civilians have been unintentionally killed by air strikes since the U.S.-led operation against the militants began almost three years ago, the Pentagon said in a statement. The […]
It’s no secret that vending machine offerings are not always the healthiest options for snacks and drinks. As one of the most convenient means to get a quick fix, vending machines are often the sources of high calorie snacks when you’re on the go. According to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health, the simple act of making people wait for your snack in […]
By Daniela Desantis | ASUNCION ASUNCION A protester was killed in Paraguay after a secret Senate vote for a constitutional amendment that would allow President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election sparked violent clashes and the country’s Congress was stormed and set alight. Rodrigo Quintana, 25, was killed by a rubber bullet fired by police in the headquarters of the liberal youth activist group, the Paraguayan opposition […]
PARIS Britain’s contribution to European security is “unconditional”, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told a French newspaper, denying the government had made a veiled threat to reduce cooperation if there was no post-Brexit trade deal. Prime Minister Theresa May said in a letter to the European Union on Wednesday that “our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened” if Britain left the bloc without […]
By Simon Lewis and Wa Lone | YANGON YANGON Myanmar goes to the polls on Saturday for the first time since Aung San Suu Kyi’s party swept to power a year ago, in an early indication of views on her leadership amid increased fighting with armed ethnic groups and slower economic growth. The by-elections will fill 19 vacant seats in the national and regional parliaments at a […]
“Trying to fight ISIS while pretending that we can ignore the Syrian civil war that was its genesis and fuels it to this day is a recipe for more war, more terror, more refugees, and more instability,” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday night. Photo Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, left, with Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign […]
By Daniela Desantis and Luc Cohen | ASUNCION ASUNCION Protesters stormed and set fire to Paraguay’s Congress on Friday after the Senate secretly voted for a constitutional amendment that would allow President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election. The country’s constitution has prohibited re-election since it was passed in 1992 after a brutal dictatorship fell in 1989. “A coup has been carried out. We will resist and […]
By Lesley Wroughton and Robert-Jan Bartunek | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reassured his nervous European counterparts over Washington’s commitment to NATO on Friday and pressed them again to spend more on defence, triggering a rebuke from Germany. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it was neither “reachable nor desirable” for Germany to spend the agreed NATO target of two percent of member states’ economic […]
California is known far and wide for it’s wacky regulations. In fact, just last fall we wrote about SB 1383, a very significant piece of legislation signed into law by Jerry Brown which requires a 40% reduction in methane gas emissions from cow flatulence by 2030 (no, really…you can take a look here: “Here Are Some Of The Ridiculous New State Laws That Will Take Effect January […]
By Antoni Slodkowski | YANGON YANGON The leader of a Rohingya Muslim insurgency against Myanmar’s security forces said on Friday his group would keep fighting “even if a million die” unless the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, took action to protect the religious minority. Attacks on Myanmar border guard posts in October last year by a previously unknown insurgent group ignited the biggest crisis of Suu […]
WASHINGTON The White House on Friday backed top aides’ comments that the United States is not now focussed on making Syrian President Bashar al-Assad leave power, saying the U.S. focus is on defeating Islamic State militants. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday drew criticism for playing down a long-standing U.S. goal of persuading Assad to leave power […]
Latin American dictators once sent in tanks and soldiers. This week, Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolás Maduro dispatched judges. The motivation, in part, is money. The result, however, is the same: a coup. Opposition leaders branded Mr Maduro “a dictator” and foreign governments decried the power grab after Venezuela’s government-controlled Supreme Court effectively annulled the National Assembly on Thursday, where the opposition won a majority in 2015 amid […]
Taken together, the moves reinforce the message that Mr. Trump plans to make security cooperation the cornerstone of the American approach to the region, without human rights becoming an obstacle, unlike President George W. Bush, who also emphasized the development of democracy, or Mr. Obama, who pressed autocratic states to ease repression. Continue reading the main story “A blank check from President Trump on human rights concerns […]
ROME The G7 group of rich nations committed on Friday to pursuing the creation of a U.N. peacekeeping force to protect world heritage sites from destruction in conflict and combating the trafficking of plundered treasures. Destroying antiquities at heritage sites like the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and the shrines of Timbuktu in Mali has increasingly become a tactic of war for groups like Islamic State, both […]
By Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will seek to rebuild the U.S. relationship with Egypt at a Monday meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi focused on security issues and military aid, a senior White House official said on Friday. “He wants to use President Sisi’s visit to reboot the bilateral relationship and build on the strong connection the two presidents […]
A U.S. judge on Friday granted final approval of a $25 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that claimed fraud against President Donald Trump and his Trump University real estate seminars. The ruling was from U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego, who Trump criticized during the presidential election campaign last year. Trump vowed to continue fighting the fraud claims during the campaign but […]
