TORONTO – Ontario Premier’s, who is openly gay, is urging businesses upset by a so-called religious objections law in Indiana to set up shop in Canada’s most populous province. The Indiana law, which takes effect July 1, does not specifically mention gays and lesbians, but critics say it is designed …
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BEIJING – Officials say seven members of a family on a holiday outing in southern China drowned when a 17-year-old girl fell into a reservoir and several relatives dove in after her in a deadly attempt to rescue her. The government in the Guangdong province city of Shantou said in …
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ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper says two of its journalists have been charged with “openly insulting the people’s religious values” for featuring French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad in their columns. The pro-secular newspaper said Thursday that columnists Ceyda Karan and Hikmet …
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CAIRO – Egypt has arrested a journalist on claims he is wanted in seven different cases — just days after he published a series of critical articles about the police. The country’s Ministry of Interior announced Sunday in a statement on its Facebook page that Hussein Abdel Halim, a journalist …
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DAMASCUS, Syria – A Palestinian official and an activist say local fighters in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus have advanced in clashes with Islamic State militants. Damascus-based Palestinian official Khaled Abdul-Majid said Wednesday that Palestinian factions have forced the IS fighters to retreat from some positions in Yarmouk camp. …
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BEIJING – The top anti-graft body of China’s Communist Party says more than 100,000 officials have been reprimanded since late 2012 for violating policies mandating more austere working practices. The party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in its monthly report Monday that 5,340 officials were reprimanded in December 2014, …
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BEIRUT – Syrian activists say government airstrikes have killed at least 11 people in rebel-held areas in the capital’s suburbs. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the airstrikes on Wednesday in Harasta, a suburb northwest of Damascus, killed at least nine people, including two women, and wounded others. …
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NEW DELHI – Officials say at least 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured in India in a powerful earthquake that struck neighboring Nepal. A government official in the eastern state of Bihar says at least 14 deaths were reported in seven districts that share a border with …
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BEIRUT – A Syrian rebel spokesman and activists say clashes between opposition fighters and Islamists suspected of links to the Islamic State group have raged for days in the country’s south near the Israeli-held Golan Heights. The IS group is not known to have a significant presence in southern Syria. …
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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea has confirmed that North Korea detained a South Korean student of New York University, but says it’s still unclear whether the 21-year-old New Jersey resident attempted to enter the North illegally. An official from Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Sunday his department is still trying …
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