Caracas / AFP Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowed to jail opposition leaders if they incite violence during upcoming protests seeking a referendum on removing him from power. Maduro, blamed by opponents for a devastating economic crisis, accused opposition leaders of plotting a “terrorist coup” against him before Thursday’s nationwide protests. “We must defeat the coup d’etat without impunity,” he told …

  Washington / AFP The United States rebuked Israel on Wednesday over what it said was its accelerated building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in the face of mounting international concern. “We are deeply concerned by the government of Israel’s announcement today to advance plans for over 500 new settlement units in the West Bank,” a senior …

  Tokyo / AFP Surging flood water and mud brought by a devastating typhoon killed nine people in an elderly care home in northern Japan, officials said on Wednesday, after the third storm in two weeks ripped through the country. The bodies were discovered in a riverside care complex half buried in mud, uprooted trees and rubble after Typhoon Lionrock tore …