Washington will allow some children in El Salvador,Guatemala and Honduras to apply for refugee status from their home countries, Vice President Joe Biden announced on Friday (November 14), in a bid to stem an exodus of undocumented migrants to the U.S. border through Mexico. Biden presented the plan while speaking at a conference in downtown Washington, D.C., at the InterAmerican Development Bank. Biden was joined at the event by three Central American presidents, including Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez […]
Other News
Scotland may seek new independence vote if UK delays devolution – Salmond
(Reuters) – Scotland may seek another independence vote if Britain’s rulers fail to honour their pledge to grant it further autonomy, outgoing Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond warned on Friday, less than two months after Scots spurned independence. Salmond, in his final speech as party leader, told members that Scotland would eventually secure his dream of independence from London. He also delivered a warning to British Prime Minister David Cameron: “Let the message be […]
Eighteen people arrested in Petrobras alleged graft scandal
Brazilian federal police arrested 18 people suspected of involvement in a far-reaching corruption and money-laundering scandal connected to the state-run oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro SA on Friday (November 14). A former executive of the state-run company, Renato Duque, was among those arrested as part of the investigation which sent the oil company’s shares and bonds tumbling after the widening scandal forced it to delay the release of its financial results. Duque, the former engineering director, was the second […]
Mali tries to trace 343 contacts in second Ebola wave
(Reuters) – Mali is trying to trace as many as 343 people linked to confirmed and probable Ebola victims in an effort to control its second Ebola outbreak, health officials said on Friday. An initial batch of contacts linked to a 2-year-old from Guinea who died of Ebola last month were close to the end of their 21-day quarantine period when Mali confirmed a second, separate batch of cases this week. There have been at […]
Ebola toll rises, but Liberia’s is revised lower – WHO
(Reuters) – At least 5,177 people are known to have died in the world’s worst recorded Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Friday, an increase of 17 since its last update on Wednesday. The total of 14,413 cases in eight countries includes 1,187 deaths in Sierra Leone, 1,166 in Guinea and 2,812 in Liberia. The Liberian toll has been revised downwards from 2,836 because of reclassification, the WHO said.
Scuffles break out in Italian anti-government protests
Scuffles broke out in Milan on Friday (November 14) as students took to the streets to demonstrate against Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s job reforms. There were anti-government protests in cities from Milan and Rome to Naplesand Palermo in the south, with isolated clashes in which several people suffered minor injuries. In a deliberate attack on one of the central credos of the Italian left, Renzi has pledged to scrap rules which offer workers in companies with more than 15 employees the right to go […]
Germany just escapes recession, France beats low expectations
BERLIN/PARIS, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Germany narrowly avoided recession in the third quarter of the year and France exceeded low expectations, putting the euro zone on course for anaemic growth but no contraction. Europe’s largest economy eked out 0.1 percent growth from the previous three months following a revised 0.1 percent fall in the second quarter, the German statistics office said on Friday. A strong rise in consumer spending and small boost from foreign trade prevented a worse result. France expanded by 0.3 […]
New York mansion featured in ‘The Godfather’ put up for sale
(Reuters) – A New York City mansion that featured in the 1972 American movie classic “The Godfather” is up for grabs for fans of the blockbuster or just anyone willing to pay the $2.89 million price tag. In the Oscar-winning film, the grand Staten Island home belongs to Mafia boss Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando. A Staten Island real estate agency handling the sale has not refrained from using its role in American pop […]
Nigeria insurgents retake village of abducted schoolgirls
(Reuters) – Boko Haram insurgents have retaken the village of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria where the group abducted some 200 schoolgirls seven months ago, a lawmaker and a villager who fled the attack said on Friday. Boko Haram, which is trying to carve out a caliphate in religiously mixed northern Nigeria, has stepped up attacks since it rejected a ceasefire announced last month by the government. In a separate incident on Friday, a suicide bomber […]
Google Glass future clouded as some early believers lose faith
(Reuters) – After two years of popping up at high-profile events sporting Google Glass, the gadget that transforms eyeglasses into spy-movie worthy technology, Google co-founder Sergey Brin sauntered bare-faced into a Silicon Valley red-carpet event on Sunday. He’d left his pair in the car, Brin told a reporter. The Googler, who heads up the top-secret lab which developed Glass, has hardly given up on the product — he recently wore his pair to the beach. […]
Dwindling battery makes comet probe drill results uncertain
(Reuters) – European Space Agency scientists faced an anxious wait on Friday to see if a probe landed on a comet has enough power left to send results of a drill down into its surface back to Earth 500 million km (300 million miles) away. Time was getting tight after the probe, released by the Rosetta spacecraft on Wednesday after a 10-year odyssey from Earth, floated away from its planned landing site. The washing machine-sized […]
Russia plans alternative version of ‘Wikipedia’
(Reuters) – Russia plans to create its own “Wikipedia” to ensure its citizens have access to more “detailed and reliable” information about their country, the presidential library said on Friday. Citing Western threats, the Kremlin has asserted more control over the Internet this year in what critics call moves to censor the web, and has introduced more pro-Kremlin content similar to closely controlled state media such as television. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia assembled and written by Internet […]