Guatemalan businessmen to build roads and school as part of bribery sentence
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Nine Guatemalan businessmen who were sentenced on Wednesday for paying bribes to receive public contracts will have to build roads and a school in the Central American country as part of their punishment, according to a U.N.-…
Airlines cut back flights as Philippine holiday hotspot prepares for closure
MANILA (Reuters) – A decision by the Philippines to close the holiday hotspot of Boracay, which President Rodrigo Duterte has called a “cesspool”, prompted airlines Thursday to cut back flights to the island, while business groups called for the decisi…
Japan’s Abe faces fresh headache over Iraq troop dispatch logs
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government faced criticism on Thursday, after his defense minister said the army last year found activity logs from a controversial 2004 to 2006 deployment to Iraq, but had failed to report them to…
Brazil’s top court rules Lula can be jailed for graft conviction
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled early on Thursday that leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must start serving a 12-year prison sentence for taking bribes, denying his plea to remain free until he has exhausted all possi…
Central American ‘caravan’ to end in Mexico City, migrants defiant
MATIAS ROMERO, Mexico (Reuters) – Central American migrants stranded on a journey through Mexico because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure on the Mexican government say they will struggle on toward the United States, even as their “caravan” sai…
Pivotal vote puts Brazil’s top court closer to jailing ex-president Lula
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court justices were on the verge of rejecting former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s plea to avoid prison while he appeals a corruption conviction, in a vote that would likely end his political career…
Brazil’s Supreme Court close to rejecting Lula’s plea to avoid jail
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court was on the verge of rejecting on Wednesday former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s plea to remain out of prison while he appeals a corruption conviction, a case that has sharply divided the country, cast…
U.S. plans to sanction Russian oligarchs this week: sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to sanction Russian oligarchs this week under a law targeting Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in what could be the most aggressive move so…
Saudi-led coalition says missile intercepted near Yemen border
RIYADH (Reuters) – The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia’s air defense had intercepted a missile that the armed Houthi movement said it fired at storage tanks belonging to Saudi Aramco oil company.
Morocco mulls ‘all options’ over its Western Sahara truce threat claim: minister
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Morocco was considering “all options” if the United Nations does not address its accusations that the Polisario independence movement is threatening a 1991 ceasefire in the Western Sahara conflict, the foreign minister said o…
