World

BANGKOK, (Reuters) – Thailand’s king has commuted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s eight-year prison sentence to one year, the royal gazette said today, a day after the billionaire submitted a request for pardon.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – More than 70 people were killed overnight when a fire raged through a run-down, five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday sentenced former far-right Proud Boys leaders Joseph Biggs to 17 years in prison and his co-defendant Zachary Rehl to 15 years, after a jury convicted them of seditious conspiracy for storming the U.S.

JOHANNESBURG,  (Reuters) – More than 70 people were killed overnight when fire raged through a five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread.

LIBREVILLE,  (Reuters) – Military officers in oil-producing Gabon said they had seized power yesterday, placing President Ali Bongo under house arrest and naming a new leader after the Central African state’s election body announced Bongo had won a third term.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has approved a military transfer to Taiwan under the Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, program normally used for sovereign states, according to a notification sent to Congress.

PERRY, Florida, (Reuters) – Hurricane Idalia plowed into Florida’s Gulf Coast yesterday with howling winds, torrential rains and pounding surf, then weakened as it turned its fury on southeastern Georgia, where floodwaters trapped some residents in their homes.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) yesterday backed Xochitl Galvez’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election at the expense of its own contender, paving the way for the maverick senator to head an alliance of opposition parties.

LIBREVILLE, (Reuters) – Military officers in oil-producing Gabon said they had seized power today and had put President Ali Bongo under house arrest, stepping in minutes after the Central African state’s election body announced he had won a third term.

STEINHATCHEE, Florida, (Reuters) – Millions of residents were evacuated or hunkered down in homes and bunkers as Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm today, and authorities warned a life-threatening storm surge was possible.

CEDAR KEY, Florida, (Reuters) – Hurricane Idalia gained fury over the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as it crawled toward Florida’s Gulf Coast, forcing evacuations in low-lying coastal areas expected to be swamped when the powerful storm hits on Wednesday morning.

(Reuters) – Ukrainian drones swept across Russia in overnight attacks that destroyed military aircraft and disrupted air traffic, Russian officials said early on Wednesday, hours after the funeral service for Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

BRUSSELS,  (Reuters) – Fossil fuels produced just 33% of the EU’s power in the first half of this year, the lowest share on record based on data going back to 1990, researchers said yesterday.

SYDNEY,  (Reuters) – Australians will vote on October 14 on whether they want to change the constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait island people, a defining moment in the struggle for Indigenous rights in the country.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. authorities yesterday said an international law enforcement operation had taken down the notorious “Qakbot” malware platform used extensively by cybercriminals in a variety of financial crimes.

(Reuters) – The Biden administration yesterday released its list of 10 prescription medicines that will be subject to the first-ever price negotiations by the U.S.

(Reuters) – Britain’s state-run national health service will be the first in the world to offer an injection that treats cancer to hundreds of patients in England which could cut treatment times by up to three quarters.

GUANIMAR, Cuba, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Idalia lashed western Cuba and was expected to strengthen into a major hurricane today as it crawled toward Florida’s Gulf Coast, where officials ordered evacuations and urged residents to prepare in advance of an expected Wednesday morning landfall.

(Reuters) – A campus police officer chased a white gunman off Florida’s first historically Black university a few minutes before the shooter killed three Black people at a discount store, the school’s president said Monday, two days after the attack.

TRIPOLI/JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – Libya’s prime minister sacked Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush yesterday in an effort to contain a growing furore over Mangoush’s meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, which prompted protests overnight in several Libyan cities.