Robert Nisbet, Europe correspondent Greece is braced for one of the biggest strikes by workers in years as demonstrators protest against austerity measures. Greek journalists protesting in Athens ahead of the two-day strike Unions representing around half of the country’s four million-strong…
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A man rides his horse on a flooded street in Los Llanitos, Choluteca depart… View of Ateos bridge after it was destroyed by rains in La Libertad, 43 km … A man walks in a school severely damaged by heavy rains at El Aguacate, in … Civil defense officials across Central America were on high alert as the heavy rain that has pounded the region for more than a week showed no sign of abating. More than 80 people have been killed over the past week in mudslides and flooding across the mountainous region, home to 42 million people. Rain-swollen rivers have destroyed bridges and damaged highways, while flooding has…
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A general strike is under way in Greece, grounding flights, halting most public services and shutting offices and shops. The 48-hour strike comes as parliament prepares to vote on the latest round of austerity…
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of flag-waving Palestinians celebrated the homecoming Tuesday of hundreds of prisoners exchanged for an Israeli soldier, with the crowd and a freed Hamas leader exhorting militants to seize more soldiers for future swaps. Hamas, which had negotiated the release, turned the celebration into a show of strength for the Islamic militant movement, which had seized Gaza from its moderate rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007. The joyous crowd crammed into a grassy lot, where a huge stage was set up, decorated with a mural depicting the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit at an army base near the Gaza border. The prisoners…
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Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has finally returned home after emerging frail but elated from 1,941 days of captivity in a deal that saw 477 Palestinians walk free. Thousands of spectators whistled and cheered, waving giant Israeli flags and throwing white carnations and roses as a convoy carrying Shalit and his family pulled into their home village of Mitzpe Hila, in northern Israel on Tuesday. There was excitement also across the West Bank and Gaza following the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners, the first of some 1,027 who will be freed under a landmark prisoner swap between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement. “Today we experienced the rebirth of a son,” the freed soldier’s father,…
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Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has finally returned home after emerging frail but elated from 1,941 days of captivity in a deal that saw 477 Palestinians walk free. Thousands of spectators whistled and cheered, waving giant Israeli flags and throwing white carnations and roses as a convoy carrying Shalit and his family pulled into their home village of Mitzpe Hila, in northern Israel on Tuesday. There was excitement also across the West Bank and Gaza following the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners, the first of some 1,027 who will be freed under a landmark prisoner swap between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement. “Today we experienced the rebirth of a son,” the freed soldier’s father,…
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into Iraq on Wednesday, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 others in multiple attacks along the border. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had launched large-scale operations, including “a hot pursuit within the limits of international law.” He did not elaborate, but added, “We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey.” Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan after the attacks as the chief of the military as well as interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel offensives. NTV television, without…
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The Thai government says it will be impossible to protect all of the capital from flooding because of a build-up of water to the north. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said water would have to be allowed to flow through parts of Bangkok out to sea. Describing the flooding as a “national crisis”, she said officials were doing…
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ATHENS, Greece – By now, it almost feels like a ritual: a strike and large demonstration disrupted by skirmishes and tear gas ahead of a parliamentary vote on new austerity measures that Greece needs to take to qualify for the next installment of aid the country needs to fend off default. But what was different Wednesday, the first day of a two-day general strike before Parliament voted in the evening to approve new austerity measures, was the scale of the protest – tens of thousands of people – and the range of the demonstrators. Although the…
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Afghanistan to encourage President Hamid Karzai to continue efforts to reconcile with the Taliban. Mr Karzai has expressed frustration at the process…
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