Jeddah / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to secure its support ahead of a potential showdown with Russia at talks on the Syrian conflict. After his Saudi meetings, Kerry was due to fly to Vienna which this week will host the international contact groups engaged in efforts to halt fighting ...

  LAREDO / AP A charter bus headed to a casino crashed in far South Texas, killing eight people and injuring about 40 in a one-vehicle rollover, officials said. Webb County spokesman Larry Sanchez said seven people died at the scene on US Highway 83 north of Laredo, the Laredo Morning Times reported. An eighth person died later at a ...

  Proschim / AP German police said on Sunday they arrested 120 people following violent clashes between environmental activists and security personnel at anti-coal demonstrations in the east of the country. A police spokeswoman said the clashes occurred on Saturday in Lausitz when around 300 demonstrators forced their way into the Schwarze Pumpe coal-fired power station belonging to Swedish state-owned ...

Sydney / AFP Five young men face life behind bars after they were charged with terrorism offences over a plan to sail to Indonesia to join extremist groups in Syria, Australian police said. The men, aged in their twenties and early thirties and whose passports had been cancelled, included notorious Australian Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio, who was detained in the ...

  Karang/ AFP Senegal and The Gambia will hold talks on Sunday aimed at ending a three-month border blockade that has created shortages of essential daily items on both sides of the frontier. Gambian authorities slapped a hundred-fold hike on fees for trucks entering its territory—which is completely surrounded by Senegal—without warning in February, infuriating Senegalese drivers who are now ...

Port-au-Prince / AFP The UN Security Council expressed “deep disappointment” with electoral gridlock in Haiti, a day in which the country had been slated to inaugurate a new president but did not due to an indefinitely postponed vote. Haiti’s presidential election has been repeatedly postponed, with the most recent vote, scheduled for April 24, never materializing and officials setting no ...

  Unterhaching / AFP Out with the cardboard boxes, rough forklift crates and no-frills warehouse look — in with cozy wood panelling, natural light and chilled fruit smoothies at the breakfast bar. Aldi, Germany’s original discount supermarket chain, is getting a major facelift — spelling the end of an era, at least in design terms, for the traditional first-stop shop of ...

  Paris / Bloomberg Airbus Group SE disclosed a cracking issue in its A400M military transport aircraft and said its government customers must inspect the planes and make fixes if necessary. The issue doesn’t impact flight safety, the European planemaker said. The issue was first identified in 2011 in tests before the plane went into service, Airbus said in an ...

Shanghai / Bloomberg An anti-counterfeit group suspended the membership of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., one month after the Chinese Internet giant joined, after questions were raised about conflicts of interest involving the coalition’s president and complaints from some members. The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, a nonprofit global organization that fights counterfeit products and piracy, created a new membership category in April ...

  Washington / Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc. directors got a Delaware judge to throw out investors’ claims they bungled the handling of a probe into alleged bribes paid to facilitate Mexican real-estate deals, wiping out the majority of lawsuits over the scandal. Disgruntled Wal-Mart shareholders accusing the retailer’s board of covering up the bribery scheme can’t re-litigate their claims over ...