Venezuela to help Nicaragua after U.S. rebuff

Venezuela has promised to give Nicaragua $50 million to replace money that the United States said this week it would withhold from the Central American country, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra said Saturday. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised the aid after Ortega learned that the United States was canceling $62 million of aid that was to have come from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S.-government-funded anti-poverty fund set up by former President George W

Share

Owners of day care that burned quit government jobs

Two of the owners of the day-care center that burned Friday, killing 44 children, have resigned jobs they had with the government, they told reporters Tuesday. Antonio Salido, a functionary for the state of Sonora’s secretary of urban infrastructure, and Alfonso Escalante, a sub-secretary of livestock farming, said they were resigning so that there would be no obstruction in the investigation into the cause of the fire. Salido, speaking for both men, told reporters they had not used their government positions to obtain the day-care concession.

Share

Death toll rises to 15 in Pakistan explosions

The death toll climbed to 15 in the wake of a series of explosions that rocked northwest Pakistan on Thursday, officials announced Friday. The attacks shook Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, where government forces have waged a massive operation against Taliban militants

Share

Market bombs kill two, injure 70, in Pakistan

Back-to-back explosions shook two markets in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Thursday evening, killing two civilians and wounding 70 others, an official from the deputy police superintendent’s office said. Another official, Sahib Zada Muhammad Anis Khan, the district coordination officer for Peshawar District, told CNN the blasts took place in the center of the city at adjacent markets: Qissa Khawani Bazaar and Kabari Bazaar.

Share

Secret raids ensnare 10 mayors in Mexico

More than two dozen Mexican public servants, including 10 mayors and several police chiefs, allegedly linked to illicit drugs and organized crime were arrested in simultaneous raids in Michoacan state, its governor said. The secrecy leading up to the arrests was so extensive, Gov

Share

Explosion rocks Upper East Side in New York

An explosion outside a Starbucks on the Upper East Side of Manhattan sent frightened people running into the street early Monday. The explosion blew out the windows of a Starbucks coffeehouse at East 92nd Street and Third Avenue at 3:25 a.m., according to New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. A “low-order improvised explosive device” exploded after being left on a wooden bench in front of the coffeehouse, Kelly said

Share