SYDNEY – Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 2.25 percent on Tuesday in a bid to jolt an economy weighed down by falling commodity prices. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s quarter percentage point rate cut at a monthly board meeting was its first …
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PARIS – French President Francois Hollande has pledged to redouble efforts to shore up France’s cherished secular traditions in response to threats from religious extremists like the radical Islamic terrorists who murdered 17 people last month. Hollande said that the “Spirit of Jan. 11” that saw millions of French people …
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LONDON – A British police force has apologized after an officer asked a store for the names of people who had bought copies of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Wiltshire Police said the inquiries were part of “an assessment of community tensions” after the deadly Jan. 7 attack on the …
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CAIRO – Egypt’s top prosecutor has imposed a media gag order on the case of the death of a female protester killed during a peaceful demonstration widely caught on cameras last month. Rights groups and political factions accuse the police of killing 32-year old Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, pointing to widely circulated …
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GOLD COAST, Australia – South Korean-born Australian teenager Su Oh shot a 4-under 69 Sunday to win the Australian Ladies Masters by three strokes in only her second start as a professional. Oh, the co-leader after the first round, finished with a 7-under total of 285 on the Royal Pines …
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WARSAW, Poland – Hundreds of farmers are marching in Warsaw to demand government compensation for crops lost to wild boar and for profits reduced by Russia’s embargo against some Polish meat and dairy products. With sirens and banners, they are walking Thursday from the Parliament building to the office of …
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PARIS – France has deployed an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to strengthen its military operation against Islamic State extremists in Iraq. President Francois Hollande announced days after deadly attacks by Islamic radicals in Paris last month that France would dispatch the Charles de Gaulle carrier to the Middle …
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JERUSALEM – Israel’s state comptroller has issued a report on the rapid rise in housing prices, another blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just weeks before next month’s national election. Wednesday’s report says the cost of buying a house rose by over 50 percent in recent years. For many Israelis …
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PARIS – The profile of “Jihadi John,” the university-educated Londoner whose masked face is emblematic of the grisly executions by the Islamic State group, is vastly different from that of the marginalized men who carried out terror attacks in France and Denmark. That comes as no surprise to those who …
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CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s tourism minister has been replaced just as his father-in-law, the mayor of Caracas, is being charged with conspiring against the socialist government. President Nicolas Maduro went on television Tuesday night to announce that he had decided to give Andres Izarra a new job, though he didn’t …
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