WorldNews

It is Greece and not Europe which will be hurt by any problems stemming from the Greek financial situation, because Europe has built buffers to protect itself, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Saturday. So Europe is much stronger. Europe has sheltered itself from turbulence. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20577[/attach] PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain showed it can cope with injuries and without top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic as it won 3-1 at Nice on Saturday to pressure Lyon in the close-fought French title race. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20576[/attach] SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Former three-time boxing champion Wilfredo Gomez will not face any charges after police detained him Saturday while investigating allegations of domestic violence, authorities said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20575[/attach] LONDON (AP) — While rarely ruthless, Chelsea is easing to the English Premier League title. With a 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Saturday, Chelsea surged 10 points clear of Arsenal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20574[/attach] The UN envoy trying to broker a peace agreement in Libya on Saturday condemned another outbreak of violence and repeated calls for an immediate end to hostilities. A UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) statement said Bernardino Leon "strongly condemned the renewed outbreak of violence in different neighbourhoods of the Libyan capital that caused many casualties and endangered the lives of civilians". Continue reading...

[attach=full]20573[/attach] LONDON (AP) — Eden Hazard propelled Chelsea closer to its first English Premier League title in five years on Saturday by clinching a 1-0 victory over Manchester United that established a 10-point lead. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20569[/attach] Saudi Arabia, which is leading a bombing campaign against Shiite rebels in Yemen, pledged Saturday to cover the entire $274 million in humanitarian aid sought by the United Nations for conflict-torn Yemen. Fighting and air strikes in Yemen over the past two days have left 130 people dead, according to medics, military and tribal sources. Overnight, 52 people were killed, including at least 27 people who died in the southwestern city of Taez from air strikes and in clashes between loyalists and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels. The kingdom "stands with its Yemeni brothers" and hopes for "the restoration of security and stability", the state Saudi Press Agency said. Continue reading...

The defending champion New South Wales Waratahs ended the Hurricanes' seven-match unbeaten start to Super Rugby on Saturday, winning 29-24 to close the gap on the standings leaders. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20568[/attach] Fighting along Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen has killed a soldier from the kingdom, the Saudi-led coalition spokesman said on Saturday. The soldier is the seventh to die since coalition aircraft on March 26 began air strikes in Yemen to stop a southern advance by Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told reporters there was continuous fighting from Friday afternoon until late that night along the frontier in the southwestern Saudi region of Najran. Saudi Arabia has reinforced the border with artillery, tanks and hilltop lookout posts to block the incursion of any Huthis, whose traditional stronghold is just over the border in northern Yemen. Continue reading...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities say the arrest of the man who headed the once powerful Gulf Cartel sparked the gunfights and blockades of burning vehicles that left at least three people dead near Mexico's border with the United States. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20567[/attach] The marginalised Russian opposition parties of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov and arch Putin foe Alexei Navalny have announced they will form an alliance for legislative polls in 2016. Nemtsov's RPR-Parnas and Navalny's Party of Progress said Friday they are joining forces to put forward joint candidates at local elections this year and parliamentary polls next year. In a statement the two parties accused officials of having established an authoritarian system under President Vladimir Putin that had wiped out opposition, wrecked the economy and plunged the country into a conflict in Ukraine. They said they expected other opposition parties to join their platform. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20562[/attach] TURIN, Italy (AP) — Turin's archbishop says interest in the Shroud of Turin is so keen that many pilgrims who already saw the burial cloth some believe covered Jesus are returning to see the linen again when it goes back on display starting Sunday. Continue reading...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A former Puerto Rico police officer has been sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to making a false statement to the FBI in a fatal beating case. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20561[/attach] Unidentified assailants opened fire early Saturday on Turkey's main Kurdish party headquarters in the capital Ankara, raising tensions ahead of legislative elections in June, but with no casualties reported. "The attackers fired with rifles at the party headquarters at 4:05 am from a passing car," an official from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) told AFP on condition of anonymity. HDP lawmaker Sirri Sureyya Onder called the attack a "provocation" in the run up to the June 7 legislative polls. "I condemn the attack targeting the HDP," Davutoglu wrote on Twitter. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20560[/attach] HAVANA (AP) — At least two dissidents made it past a first round of voting and are standing as candidates in municipal elections that will be watched on and off the island Sunday as an unprecedented test of Cuba's single-party system. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20559[/attach] LEICESTER, England (AP) — Leicester boosted its chances of avoiding relegation by beating Swansea 2-0 on Saturday in the Premier League, lifting the team off the bottom of the standings. Continue reading...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that he has reached an agreement with Israel in which essential tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians will be transferred following a four-month freeze. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20553[/attach] HELSINKI (AP) — Finland's last election focused on the rights and wrongs of bailing out Greece. This time, the Finns are wondering how to pull their own land out of the economic dumps. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20552[/attach] VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is asking the European Union to do more to help Italy with the mounting numbers of desperate people needing rescue in the Mediterranean on risky boat journeys to flee war, persecution or poverty. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20551[/attach] OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) — Lucie Safarova saved five match points before beating Caroline Garcia 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1 as defending champion Czech Republic took a 1-0 lead over France in the Fed Cup's World Group semifinals on Saturday. Continue reading...

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan president says Islamic State group has claimed suicide bombing that killed at least 33. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20544[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is urging Greece to reach a deal with its creditors, warning that a default would "create immediate hardship for Greece" and damage the world economy. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20543[/attach] Spanish tax authorities carried out new searches of former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato's Madrid offices in a money-laundering probe as the country questioned whether he had been made a scapegoat in the ruling Popular Party's anti-corruption drive. Rato is already being investigated for alleged fraud during his time as chief executive at Bankia, a Spanish bank which needed to be bailed out by the government. The 66-year-old told El Pais newspaper that he was "actively cooperating with investigators" in the new investigation. Spain's state prosecutor ordered the searches as part of a probe into suspected money laundering, fraud and asset-stripping, a source close to the investigation told AFP. Continue reading...

Gunfights broke out and vehicles were set ablaze on Friday in one of Mexico's biggest cities along the U.S. border, after security forces arrested a leader of one of the main drug gangs in the area. Activity in parts of Reynosa, a city across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, ground to a halt on Friday afternoon after vehicles were torched and shooting began, authorities said. Earlier in the day, federal police and marines captured "El Gafe," a leader of the Gulf Cartel, said a spokesman for police in Reynosa, a city of more than 600,000 people in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. The official had earlier named the cartel boss as Jose Tiburcio Hernandez Fuentes. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20542[/attach] The UN Security Council warned that upcoming elections in Burundi could turn violent and vowed to take action against those who are fomenting unrest. The 15-member council called on the government and the opposition to refrain from acts of violence and intimidation ahead of the May parliamentary vote and the presidential polls that will follow. "The upcoming elections are an extremely sensitive issue that has the potential to spur violence and undermine the peace sustained for almost a decade in Burundi," the council said in a statement. Police on Friday fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in Bujumbura calling for President Pierre Nkurunziza to step aside and not run for a third term. Continue reading...