Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been sentenced to eight months in prison for taking cash from an American businessman. He was also fined $25,700. Police said Olmert received the money from 1993 through 2006, during his tenure as Jerusalem’s mayor and while holding ministerial positions under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He took over as prime minister in 2006 ...

South Sudan troops and rebels are fighting heavy battles close to vital oil production zones in the northeastern battleground state of Upper Nile. Two mortar bombs hit the UN base in Melut, killing four civilians including a child, who were among more than 1,500 people sheltering there, the UN said. Eight others were wounded. Melut lies some 35 kilometres (20 ...

Twelve Sudanese medical students, most carrying Western passports, are believed to have traveled to Turkey with the intention of crossing into Syria to join Islamist militant groups, the university’s dean of students said Sunday. If confirmed by authorities, the group would be the second of its kind from Khartoum’s University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST), founded by a Sudanese ...

US, Shiite fighters not working together at Iraq base: ­ The Pentagon said Tuesday that there are some Shiite fighters at an Iraqi military base where Washington just sent 450 reinforcements, but they were not working with U.S. forces, underscoring concerns over links with the sectarian fighters. Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said that while there is a “small group” ...

US President Barack Obama has again pointed to Australia’s swiftly introduced, post-Port Arthur massacre gun laws as an example for America. Mourning last week’s gunning down of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, and frustrated by a Congress he describes as in the lobbying grip of the National Rifle Association, the president said the US public needs to be more ...

Tribal court in Sindh fines 10-year-old boy for ‘affair’ with married woman – The Express Tribune KARACHI: A tribal court in Sindh has convicted a 10-year-old boy of having an affair with a married woman in her late 30s and ordered him to pay a fine of $7,000, police said Tuesday. The incident occurred Monday in the remote village of Bakhrani ...

Police have been unsuccessful in tracking down the whereabouts of anti-Mugabe activist Itai Dzamara [AP] Harare, Zimbabwe – Activist Itai Dzamara was grabbed from a barbershop at gunpoint and thrown into a waiting vehicle three months ago after staging sit-ins demanding the resignation of President Robert Mugabe. He hasn’t been seen since. Zimbabwean officials say they have searched for clues into the ...

If Iran and world powers reach a nuclear deal, the United Nations Security Council will likely delay for at least a month action to lift U.N. nuclear sanctions on Tehran so U.S. Congress can review the agreement, officials said. Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was an unwelcome development but politically necessary since Congress, dominated by Republicans ...

Stock markets around the world fell on Monday, pressured by the collapse of 11th-hour talks between the near-bankrupt Greece and its creditors, with investors worried about the possibility the country could default. Risky assets like equities and crude oil were widely lower, though major stock indexes ended off their lows of the session and the euro recovered from earlier weakness ...

The U.S. launched airstrikes in eastern Libya targeting a terrorist leader who was behind a 2013 attack on a gas plant in Algeria that killed at least 38 hostages, including three Americans, the Pentagon said Sunday. The airstrikes against veteran Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar were carried out by U.S. aircraft Saturday, said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. The Libyan ...