World Top News

NATO member and Russia’s neighbor Estonia is boosting its defense capabilities by acquiring an advanced U.S. rocket artillery system in the Baltic country’s largest arms procurement project ever, defense officials said Saturday. The deal signed Friday for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System is worth more than $200 million and includes equipment such as ammunition and rockets, as well as training. The package includes HIMARS rockets with ranges of 70-300 kilometers (43-186 miles), the Estonian Center for Defense Investment said in a statement. Lockheed Martin Corp. is expected to make the first deliveries in 2024. Estonian officials didn’t disclose the number of rocket launchers but local media outlets said the purchase consists of six HIMARS. "The HIMARS multiple rocket launchers ...

 A strong earthquake shook parts of Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, causing panic but only minor damage just two weeks after an equally powerful quake killed hundreds. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.7 quake was centered about 18 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Banjar, a city between West Java and Central Java provinces, at a depth of 112 kilometers (70 miles). One resident was injured in Selaawi village of West Java's Garut district, and at least four houses and a school were damaged, said Suharyanto, the National Disaster Management Agency head who goes by a single name. He said authorities were still collecting information about the damage. A magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Nov. 21 killed at least 331 people and injured nearly 600 in West Java’s Cianjur ci...

Russian authorities rejected a price cap on the country's oil set by Ukraine’s Western supporters and threatened Saturday to stop supplying the nations that endorsed it. Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the United States and the 27-nation European Union agreed Friday to cap what they would pay for Russian oil at $60-per-barrel. The limit is set to take effect Monday, along with an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia needed to analyze the situation before deciding on a specific response but that it would not accept the price ceiling. Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, warned that the cap's European backers would come to rue their decision. “From this year, Europe will live withou...

 The government of El Salvador sent 10,000 soldiers and police to seal off a town on the outskirts of the nation’s capital Saturday to search for gang members. The operation was one of the largest mobilizations yet in President Nayib Bukele’s nine-month-old crackdown on street gangs that long extorted money from businesses and ruled many neighborhoods of the capital, San Salvador. The troops blocked roads going in and out of the township of Soyapango, checking people’s documents. Special teams went into the town looking for gang suspects. “Starting now, the township of Soyapango is completely surrounded,” Bukele wrote in his Twitter account. He posted videos showing ranks of rifle-toting soldiers. More than 58,000 people have been jailed since a state of emergency was declared followin...

Five pilot whales that were stranded on a Massachusetts beach have been returned to the ocean, but they may still be in peril, according to experts. Conservationists from the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team were sent to Sunken Meadow Beach in Eastham, Massachusetts, Monday night after six live pilot whales were spotted swimming close to shore around 4:45 p.m. ET, just after dark, Stacey Hedman, communications director for the research center, told ABC News. All of the whales were briefly examined, and two were given satellite tags, Hedman said. By Tuesday morning, the whales had become stranded on the beach, and one -- a calf -- had died, Hedman said. Rescues are underway for several pilot whales stranded on a beach in Eastham, M...

Wales fans are starting to feel more upbeat as kick-off approaches for their World Cup game against England. Wales must beat England and hope Iran-USA is a draw to go to the next round. If the other game is not a draw, Wales need to beat England by four or more. Earlier they began gathering on the front in Doha and at a fan party at a hotel. Rhodri Charles, from Cardiff, thought Wales were down and out after the first two games. Image caption, Ed Buckley, pictured with daughter Charlotte, has waited all his life to see Wales at a World Cup "The closer we get to kick-off, I start wondering if we can actually pull it off," the 47-year-old said. His wife Anwen, 45, added: "We have to keep believing." Julie...