Abyzemen

Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice barred opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has declared himself the country's acting president, from leaving the country and froze his bank accounts Tuesday.  The court also said prosecutors could investigate Guaido, in apparent retaliation for sweeping U.S. sanctions on oil firm PDVSA, announced on Monday. The 35-year-old head of the National Assembly legislature "is prohibited from leaving the country until the end of the (preliminary) investigation," high court president Maikel Moreno said. The Supreme Court approved a request from Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab to open a preliminary investigation into Guaido based on accusations he helped foreign countries to interfere in internal matters. The court also imposed a travel ban on the 35-year-old leader and froze his bank accounts. In response to news earlier of the attorney general's plan, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton warned of "serious...

U.S. lawmakers introduced the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act on Tuesday with rare bi-partisan support to criminalize international doping fraud conspiracies, a week after the World Anti-Doping Agency decided against suspending Russia. The proposed law would attack U.S. sponsorship and broadcast rights money for global sports events with U.S. competitors to ensure fraud against Americans wouldn't go unpunished, with penalties up to a 1 million-U.S. dollar fine and 10 years in prison. "Now is the time to create stiff penalties for Russia's cheating and send a signal that Russia and other sponsors of state-directed fraud can't use corruption as a tool of foreign policy," U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said. WADA decided against re-imposing a ban on Russia for missing a deadline to provide data from drug tests in the wake of the 2016 report from Richard McLaren detailing Russian state-backed doping from 2011 to 2015 involving more than 1,000 athletes across more...

The death toll from the mine dam collapse in the Brazilian town of Brumadinho rose to 84 people, and 276 were still unaccounted for, according to rescuers working at the site on Tuesday. They said that more than 40 people have been identified so far, as work continues in the area. The mining barrier collapsed in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais on January 25, spewing millions of tons of muddy sludge across the facility and down towards the nearby town.

Five police officers have been shot in southeast Houston, reported local media on Monday. "We have had several officers shot please pray for officers on the way to the scene now more information to follow," confirmed Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Twitter.  The suspect is dead, but the site remains an active scene, according to reports. It's still not clear what led the shooting. 

Officials say the death toll from the mine dam collapse in Brazil has increased to 65 people and that 279 people are missing. The death toll earlier Monday stood at 60. Lt. Col. Flavio Godinho of the Minas Gerais state civil defense department also told reporters Monday that 192 people have been rescued, a number that has not changed since an earlier announcement about those rescued. Officials have said they expect the death toll to rise "exponentially." Brazilian mining company Vale says a lawyer who said the company's board of directors would not step down following a mine collapse that killed at least 60 people was not authorized to speak for the world's largest iron ore producer. Monday's statement came after Vale lawyer Sergio Berdumes said in an interview in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that "no wrongdoing has been proven." He also told the newspaper that "there was no negligence." Vale says the company's board is tr...

British Prime Minister Theresa May will on Tuesday ask her Conservative lawmakers to send a message to Brussels that they would support her Brexit deal if a plan to avoid a hard border in Ireland is replaced. Parliament will try to shape the future of the country's exit from the European Union by debating and voting on what changes they want May to seek to her Brexit deal. With exactly two months until Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, there is no agreement yet in London on how and even whether to leave the world's biggest trading bloc after May's plan was rejected by an overwhelming majority in parliament. On Tuesday, lawmakers will debate and vote on May's next steps, with some hoping to gauge the level of support for alternatives to her deal and others even seeking to wrestle control of the process from the government. It is not a rerun of the January 15 vote on whether to approve May's Brexit deal, but a chance to discover what sort of chang...

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un praised U.S. President Donald Trump while expressing satisfaction over the results of recent official-level talks ahead of the second summit between both leaders, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday. Kim said he trusts Trump's positive way of thinking, KCNA stated, weeks after Kim warned his country could seek a "new path" if U.S. sanctions and pressure against it continued, suggesting the DPRK leader is focused on the sit-down with Trump to produce results. "Kim Jong Un said that we will believe in the positive way of thinking of President Trump, wait with patience and in good faith and, together with the U.S., advance step by step toward the goal to be reached by the two countries of North Korea (DPRK) and the United States," it said. Trump's letter The DPRK leader also expressed "great satisfaction" after receiving a letter from Trump ahea...