Politics

BAGHDAD / AFP A car bomb tore through a Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least nine people in what appeared to be the latest in a series of deadly attacks by the IS group. Elsewhere, four attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least seven people, bringing the day’s overall death toll to at least 16. Those attacks, mostly by ...

  BEIRUT / AP A large explosion hit a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, according to Syria’s state TV. The attack was a major blow to the nearly week-old and already shaky cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey. First videos that emerged from the scene in the town of Jableh show charred ...

  SEOUL / AP Prosecuting lawmakers accused South Korean President Park Geun-hye of “broadly and gravely” violating the constitution as the Constitutional Court began hearing oral arguments on Thursday in her impeachment trial. While the lawmakers, functioning as prosecutors in the trial, argued Park should be removed from the presidency, her lawyers said the accusations lacked evidence. Park is accused of ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Senior US intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win. The Armed Services Committee’s cyber threats hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors ...

  QUANTICO / AP A Marine Corps staff sergeant accused of cruelty and mistreatment following an investigation of hazing at the Parris Island training center is facing a preliminary hearing. The staff sergeant is one of four Marines facing military judicial proceedings this week related to the hazing investigation. The Marine Corps launched a probe after the March 18 death of ...

  STOCKHOLM / AP A spokesman for one of Sweden’s three nuclear power plants says they will have armed guards outside the facilities starting next month in a decision made by the country’s nuclear watchdog. Anders Osterberg of the Oskarshamn power station says “the elevated level” was based on a general security assessment, not a specific threat. Osterberg said Thursday in ...

  ATHENS / AP Greek police on Thursday recaptured a convicted far-left militant wanted for more than four years after she absconded during her trial on domestic terrorism charges. Pola Roupa, 48, was arrested during an early morning raid in Athens, police said, while a 25-year-old Greek woman suspected of aiding and sheltering Roupa was also taken into custody. Roupa was ...

  Washington / AFP Under mounting pressure to free convicts as a last act, President Barack Obama is planning at least one more batch of pardons and commutations before leaving office in two weeks, but don’t expect many famous offenders to make the list. The list of bold names appealing to Obama for compassion in his final weeks includes accused leaker ...

  Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will consider joint naval exercises with Russia, his spokesman said on Thursday, months after he decided to reduce military drills with the US. At a briefing in the presidential palace, spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte saw this week’s visit by two Russian warships to Manila would enhance friendship between the navies. Duterte, who in ...

  NEW ORLEANS / AFP The Coast Guard says it’s responding to a fire on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. A Coast Guard news release says the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. Thursday on an oil platform about 80 miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana. The Coast Guard says four people aboard ...