World Top News

LONDON -- Northern Ireland's political deadlock deepened Friday when the U.K. government delayed calling an early election for the Belfast-based Assembly after a deadline to restore the mothballed administration expired. The limbo means more uncertainty and delays to government decision-making at a time when many people in Northern Ireland are struggling with soaring food and energy prices. A deadline for the Northern Ireland Assembly to elect a governing executive passed at midnight Thursday amid a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Under the rules of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing politics, a new election must be held within 12 weeks. Civil servants will keep essential services running in the meantime. U.K. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had been expected to annou...

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Canada's government announced Friday it is imposing sanctions on 35 more Russians in response to that country’s invasion of Ukraine and issuing bonds that individuals can purchase to support the Ukrainian government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the group being sanctioned includes leaders of Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom and six energy sector entities. “As Russia continues its illegal and unjustifiable aggression against Ukraine, Canada will continue to support the Ukrainian government and people,” Trudeau said in a statement. The five-year Ukraine Sovereignty Bonds are to be offered to investors through Canadian banks and the money will be channeled to Ukraine through the International Monetary Fund. Trudeau was in Winnipeg, where the Congress ...

PREDAPPIO, Italy -- About 1,000 anti-fascists celebrated the anniversary of the 1944 liberation of Benito Mussolini’s birthplace Friday, as scattered fascist nostalgics quietly marked the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome that brought the Italian dictator to power in a bloodless coup. An organization representing partisans who fought to free Italy from fascism and Nazi occupiers during World War II organized the march down the main street in Predappio, where Mussolini was born and buried. They were joined by trade unionists and left-wing politicians. “I owe this to my parents and to all those people who gave us freedom, and I mean the partisans,'' Daniela Vicchi, the daughter of a partisan, said during the march. Italy’s uneasy reckoning with its fascist past was under extra scruti...

BERLIN -- The German economy grew in the third quarter, an unexpectedly positive performance powered largely by private spending, official figures showed Friday. But the immediate outlook for Europe's biggest economy remained gloomy, with inflation rising again in October. Gross domestic product expanded by 0.3% in the July-September period compared with the previous quarter, the Federal Statistical Office said. That followed a slight increase of 0.1% in the second quarter. “The German economy managed to hold its ground despite difficult framework conditions of the global economy, with the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain interruptions, rising prices and the war in Ukraine,” the statistics office said. The government said earlier this month that GDP was believed to have shrunk...

MONTREAL -- The United States must work with countries like Canada to solve world problems, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday. Neither Canada nor the United States can alone face challenges such as climate change, global health issues and the impact of new technologies, Blinken told a group of dignitaries and university students. “When I started this role, my boss, President Biden, told me, above all, make an effort to re-energize our partnerships, our alliances,” said Blinken, who spoke in French during the event, which was also attended by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. “We’re starting with the closest partner, Canada,” Blinken said. In an interview earlier in the day with a Montreal television station, Blinken called Canada and the U.S. “essential partne...

It's like a needle in a haystack: how do you find one entangled whale in a vast expanse of ocean? Then how do you free the 20-tonne giant from a maze of constraints when it is panicked, sometimes angry, often injured, and always determined to evade you? That's a riddle that marine rescuers like Wayne Phillips have to solve on an increasingly regular basis. Each year, an estimated 40,000 humpback whales leave the freezing waters of Antarctica on the world's longest mammal migration. They make their way up Australia's east and west coasts to the tropics before returning, calves in tow, a couple of months later. For most Australians, the so-called "humpback highway" from May to November is a fun and exciting spectacle. Bu...