WorldNews

[attach=full]20904[/attach] Polls got underway Sunday in energy-rich Kazakhstan for a ballot almost certain to re-elect 74-year-old strongman incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Voting at over 9,000 polling stations across the country began at 0100 GMT and will continue until 1400 GMT, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC). Few doubt the victory of autocrat Nazarbayev, who has ruled over the Central Asian country since before independence in 1991. His marginalised opponents have not offered any candidates for the election but Nazarbayev will face two other rivals, both of whom are widely seen as pro-government figures. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20903[/attach] Nine men have been charged with drug trafficking after the British coastguard seized more than two tonnes of cocaine off the east coast of Scotland, French and British officials said on Sunday. French customs shared "specific information allowing two ships from the Royal Navy and the British coastguards to board a tug 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Scotland carrying a very large quantity of cocaine, more than two tons" on Thursday, it said in a statement. The drugs were found when the HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter Valiant intercepted the Hamal, a 35-metre tugboat registered in the Marshall Islands and owned by a Ukrainian company. Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said nine men aged between 26 and 63 would appear before an Aberdeen court on Monday charged with drug trafficking offences. Continue reading...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - The death toll from Nepal's earthquake has jumped to 1,805, a home ministry official said on Sunday. Nepal has urged countries to send aid to help it cope with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck on Saturday. The official said 4,718 people have been injured in the country's worst quake in 81 years. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma. Editing by Andrew MacAskill) Continue reading...

By Henning Gloystein and Aaron Sheldrick SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - One by one, Japan is turning off the lights at the giant oil-fired power plants that propelled it to the ranks of the world's top industrialized nations. With nuclear power in the doldrums after the Fukushima disaster, it's solar energy that is becoming the alternative. Solar power is set to become profitable in Japan as early as this quarter, according to the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), freeing it from the need for government subsidies and making it the last of the G7 economies where the technology has become economically viable. Japan is now one of the world's four largest markets for solar panels and a large number of power plants are coming onstream, including two giant arrays over water in Kato City and a $1.1 billion solar farm being built on a salt field in Okayama, both west of Osaka. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20898[/attach] BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi's ruling party on Saturday nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza to be its candidate for a third term in elections on June 26, a move expected to stoke political tensions. Continue reading...

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas delegation is arriving in Cuba with hopes of building a front-of-the-line position for renewed trade with the Caribbean nation long isolated by a U.S. embargo. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20897[/attach] Ash from Chile's spewing Calbuco volcano threatened Saturday to spell travel misery in the region and beyond after it triggered the cancellation of domestic and international flights in several cities. A sleeping giant for more than 50 years, the volcano sprang to life in spectacular bursts of ash and lava Wednesday and Thursday, forcing 6,500 people living nearby to evacuate and blanketed southern Chile in suffocating volcanic debris. In the Chilean capital Santiago, domestic flights operated normally but some international flights were scrubbed. A handful of flights were scrapped at Montevideo's Carrasco International Airport, and authorities urged people to use face masks to avoid inhaling ash particles. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20896[/attach] The ruling coalition in Ivory Coast on Saturday nominated incumbent President Alassane Ouattara for re-election in October's presidential poll as the country seeks to move on from years of political turmoil. Ouattara's official nomination was announced by former Ivorian head of state Henri Konan Bedie, with Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba also attending a grand ceremony held in the country's biggest stadium in Abidjan. The 73-year-old Ouattara, decked out in a white hat and shirt, made a grand entrance into the 35,000-seat stadium riding in a convertible. He was greeted by the crowd shouting "ADO president!" -- a reference to his initials as Alassane Dramane Ouattara. Continue reading...

Two Swedes who were abducted in 2013 by Al Qaeda's Nusra Front in Syria were released on Friday, news agency TT reported on Saturday, quoting Sweden's Foreign Ministry and Palestine's ambassador to Sweden. The identities of the men were not disclosed but TT said one of them belonged to a Pentecostal church. Negotiations for their release had taken more than two months and were conducted by the Palestine security service, in cooperation with Jordanian and Swedish security services, Hala Husni Fariz, Palestinian ambassador to Sweden, told TT. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20889[/attach] SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Authorities downgraded the likelihood of a major eruption at the Calbuco volcano, although the mountain remained active Saturday and the ash clouds it already ejected caused cancelations of more airline flights. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20888[/attach] Nepal's devastating earthquake was the disaster experts knew was coming. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20887[/attach] Ukrainian businessman Len Blavatnik has been named the wealthiest man in Britain in a rich list being released Sunday studded with members of the international jet set living in London. Blavatnik, an investor in a range of industries including oil, petrochemicals and media, is worth £13.17 billion (18 billion euros, $20 billion), according to the respected Sunday Times Rich List. The index found that the combined wealth of Britain's 1,000 richest people had more than doubled in the last ten years to over £547 billion. Blavatnik knocked Indian-born brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who run the multinational conglomerate of the same name, off the top spot. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20886[/attach] By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli security forces killed two knife-wielding Palestinian attackers in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Saturday, police said. In the West Bank city of Hebron, a Palestinian was shot dead by a paramilitary Israeli border police patrol after stabbing one of its men in the head and chest, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. Earlier, 17-year-old Palestinian Ali Abu Ghannam attacked Israeli border police with a cleaver at a checkpoint in East Jerusalem and then fled, with troops giving chase and firing warning shots in the air, Samri said. Reaching a second checkpoint, Abu Ghannam drew another knife and ran toward security guards there. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20885[/attach] Countries and international aid groups rushed to respond Saturday to a massive earthquake in Nepal that claimed more than 1,000 lives as aftershocks and severed communications hampered rescue efforts. "We do not yet know the scope of the damage, but this could be one of the deadliest and most devastating earthquakes since the 1934 tremor which devastated Nepal and Bihar," said Jagan Chapagain, Asia/Pacific director of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The United States and the European Union were among those to pledge assistance to the government of Nepal, as messages of support poured in from world leaders including China's Xi Jinping, France's Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and Russia's Vladimir Putin. Continue reading...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The death toll in Nepal from a severe earthquake on Saturday has risen to 1,341, a police spokesman said. Of the total, more than 630 were reported dead in the Kathmandu Valley and at least 300 more in the capital. (Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Mike Collett-White) Continue reading...

[attach=full]20878[/attach] Kathmandu (AFP) - At least 1,170 people are known to have died in Nepal, officials say, after a powerful 7.8 magnitude quake rocked the country on Saturday. Below is a list of some of the world's deadliest earthquakes in the past 30 years. Continue reading...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police officers on Saturday shot dead two knife-wielding Palestinians in response to separate stabbing attacks against Israeli officers, police said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20877[/attach] KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A strong magnitude-7.9 earthquake shook Nepal's capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley before noon Saturday, causing extensive damage with toppled walls and collapsed buildings, officials said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20876[/attach] SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched dozens of airstrikes on Yemen's southern port city of Aden Saturday, as Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies mobilized hundreds of reinforcements in an effort to wrest control of the city from militias supporting embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, security officials and eyewitnesses said. Continue reading...

British Prime Minister David Cameron appeared to forget which football team he supported on Saturday, drawing ridicule on social media just days ahead of an election in a country known for its love of sport. Cameron, a descendant of King William IV and an alumnus of the elite Eton College, was left looking embarrassed after referring to his support for the east London Premier League club West Ham in a speech about identity. Cameron quickly tried to backtrack, pointing out that he is in fact a fan of Aston Villa, another Premier League club from the center of England who wear a similarly colored kit. Continue reading...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's president has lashed out at country leaders who have recognized the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide on the centenary of the massacres. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20872[/attach] BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Defending champion Kei Nishikori is back in the final of the Barcelona Open after beating Martin Klizan of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2 Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20871[/attach] Fierce fighting raged Saturday in south Yemen between Iran-backed rebels and loyalists of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, as pressure mounted for the warring factions to hold political talks. The Huthi rebels, who have overrun large parts of the country and forced Hadi to flee overseas, have demanded a complete end to a month of Saudi-led air strikes against them as a condition for UN-sponsored talks. Clashes left at least 38 people dead on Saturday in towns in the south of the impoverished country, strategically located next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and key shipping routes. Former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, who still holds sway over army units allied with the Shiite rebels, late on Friday urged the Huthis to heed UN demands to withdraw from territory they have seized. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20870[/attach] The Islamic State group claimed an attack Saturday by French, Belgian and Senegalese suicide bombers on the Iraq-Jordan border that officials said killed at least four Iraqi security personnel. The bombers detonated explosives-rigged vehicles, one of them a lorry, at checkpoints on the Iraqi side of the Turaibil crossing, said Sabah Karhout, the head of the Anbar province council. The deputy head of the crossing, Khaled Alwan, and army Colonel Jabr Khailan, both confirmed the attack but gave higher tolls. The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group claimed the assault in a statement posted online, saying the bombers were from France, Belgium and Senegal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20864[/attach] LONDON (AP) — Once, election campaigning meant knocking on doors, organizing meetings and licking stamps. Now it also includes honing hashtags, rallying retweets and clicking "like." Continue reading...