The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on five Iranian officials in charge of vetting candidates for the Islamic republic’s parliamentary elections, in which thousands, predominantly moderates, have been barred from running. The officials targeted ahead of Friday’s vote include Ahmad Jannati, a 92-year-old cleric who, according to the Treasury Department, oversaw the disqualification of […]

Ethiopian government on Thursday assumed custody of a priceless 18th-century crown that a former refugee had kept hidden in his apartment in the Netherlands for two decades. The handover took place at a ceremony in the capital, Addis Ababa, attended by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch minister for foreign trade and […]

Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga is turning 60 on May 14 and is planning a party with a difference by inviting along all Swiss citizens who share her birthday. There were 94,372 births in Switzerland in 1960 — the year Sommaruga was born — meaning that the average maximum number of invitees would be around 258. […]

South Korea reported its first death from the novel coronavirus Thursday as a new cluster of infections emerged at a hospital and the country’s total number of cases nearly doubled to more than 100. The man who died was in his 60s and a long-term patient among 15 people found to be infected at a […]

Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane will be charged with the murder of his estranged wife, who was gunned down ahead of his inauguration in 2017, police said Thursday, as the beleaguered premier announced he would quit by the end of July. Lilopelo Thabane, 58, was killed in June 2017 by unknown assailants on the outskirts […]