Salah Abdeslam, handed a life sentence on Wednesday for his role in the November 2015 attacks on Paris, is the sole surviving member of the terror cell that massacred 130 people in the French capital.. Abdeslam was sentenced to a whole-life term, which offers only a small chance of parole after 30 years, only the fifth time in French legal history such a punishment has been handed out.
A Mexican reporter was shot dead on Wednesday in the violence-plagued northeastern state of Tamaulipas -- the 12th journalist killed so far in a particularly bloody year for the country's press.. Tamaulipas is one of the Mexican states most affected by violence involving drug cartels, which have repeatedly tried to silence the press with attacks, according to rights groups.
The number of migrants who died in San Antonio, Texas after they were abandoned in a red-hot trailer rose to 53 Wednesday, US immigration authorities said.. A worker near an isolated road in San Antonio heard a cry for help, went to investigate the trailer and found a number or corpses inside.
Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine: - NATO acts against Russian 'direct threat' - NATO leaders meeting in Madrid say Russia now poses a "direct threat" to the Western alliance and agree to bolster its forces, as its chief Jens Stoltenberg says Ukraine can count on support "as long as it takes". . The leaders, meeting to agree strategy amid Moscow's war in Ukraine, agree to bolster their forces, promising to deploy extra combat-ready troops on the eastern flank.
President Joe Biden thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday for dropping opposition to the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, with the US also signalling support for Turkey's plan to buy F-16 warplanes.. The warm words from Biden and apparent boost for the delayed F-16 purchases came a day after Turkey surprised fellow NATO members by suddenly dropping weeks of opposition to the Finland and Sweden applications to join the alliance, where unanimous consent is required for enlargement.
A Mexican reporter was shot dead on Wednesday in the violence-plagued northeastern state of Tamaulipas, according to the newspaper Expreso where he worked.. The victims are often reporters working for local media in states riven by drug cartel-related violence.
Canada said Wednesday it would boost its diplomatic presence in central and eastern Europe as well as the Caucasus, opening four new embassies to "help counter Russia's destabilizing activities" in the region, as the war in Ukraine drags on.. The ministry said the changes would also "further enhance Canada's engagement in the region, help counter Russia's destabilizing activities and increase support for Operation REASSURANCE." That international military operation, under which 1,400 Canadian soldiers are deployed in Latvia, is currently Ottawa's biggest.
US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received Communion at St. Peter's Basilica Wednesday, according to a local news report, after being barred from the sacrament in her home city of San Francisco.. Catholic online newspaper Crux Now reported Wednesday that Pelosi, who was seen by an AFP photographer attending the mass with family members, received Communion from one of the priests present.
For nearly 90 years, anyone in France needing to know what time it is down-to-the-second could ring up the Paris Observatory and get an automated, astronomy-based response. . It all started when in 1933, the astronomer and Paris Observatory director Ernest Esclangon, got fed up with people clogging up the centre's only phone line to ask the official time -- an essential service in the days of mechanical clocks.
Regional leaders voiced alarm Wednesday over escalating tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan in a disputed border area and appealed for dialogue to stem the crisis.. "The chairperson appeals for complete refrain from any military action whatever its origin and calls for dialogue between the two brotherly countries to solve any dispute."
