Sanctions are eased, but Iran sees little relief
Halfway through a six-month nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers that was meant to allow time to reach a comprehensive agreement, the Iranians have seen little in the way of a boost from the sanctions relief they had been expecting, trade lawyers and diplomatic analysts say.
Nigeria blast kills dozens as militants hit capital
ABUJA, Nigeria — An explosion caused by a suspected car bomb tore through a crowded bus station in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Monday during the morning rush hour, and police said at least 71 people were killed and 124 wounded in one of the most lethal attacks to strike the country.
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A strong earthquake struck offshore near the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday morning, causing officials to issue a tsunami warning for the area. There were no immediate reports of damage.
US halts effort to collect old Social Security debts
WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration said Monday that it would stop trying to collect taxpayers’ debts that were more than 10 years old.
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UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council on Thursday voted unanimously to send 12,000 peacekeepers authorized to do whatever necessary to protect civilians in the Central African Republic, where a vicious sectarian conflict has effectively partitioned the country into Christian and Muslim swaths and left a trail of gruesome killings.
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Ready for Hillary, the independent group devised to build support for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential campaign, said Thursday that it had brought in 22,000 new donors and raised more than $1.7 million in the three-month period that ended March 31.
Prosecutor describes Pistorius as self-centered and bullying
After a day of intense courtroom confrontation and emotion, the athlete Oscar Pistorius returned to the stand for a fourth straight day on Thursday to face new questions from a dogged prosecutor intent on depicting him as narcissistic, self-centered and bullying, so intent on self-gratification that he ignored the feelings of the dead woman’s family.
Student stabs 21 people at a high school outside Pittsburgh
As classes began at a high school in suburban Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning, a 16-year-old student walked through the hallway stabbing and slashing students with two large knives, the authorities said.
U.S. agencies generally acted properly before Boston bombing
WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies “generally shared information and followed procedures appropriately” in their investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, in the years leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing, but they should have more closely scrutinized Tamerlan when he returned to the United States from Dagestan in 2012, according to a report by the inspector general for the intelligence community that was released Thursday.
CPW with a mix of sun and clouds
As MIT welcomes hundreds of high school seniors and their families to campus for Campus Preview Weekend, the “weather machine” is mostly being cooperative in honor of the event. Conditions will be especially nice for Saturday and Sunday of this weekend as a high pressure settles in. We will see mostly sunny conditions for the weekend and temperatures in the low 60s.
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KABUL, Afghanistan — After enduring months of Taliban attacks and days of security clampdowns, Afghans reveled Sunday in the apparent success of the weekend’s presidential election, as officials offered the first solid indications that the vote had far exceeded expectations.
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PRETORIA, South Africa — The trial of Oscar Pistorius was scheduled to resume on Monday as the defense begins to lay out its case that the double amputee track star killed his girlfriend in a tragic error and should not go to jail for murder.
Jet search team: signals are ‘consistent’ with black boxes
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Even as they celebrated the discovery of underwater signals that may have come from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the authorities involved in the search cautioned Monday that they were still far from confirming the location of the airliner and solving the mystery of its disappearance.
Surge of violence across Syria kills over two dozen
BEIRUT — Violence flared across Syria on Sunday, as an explosion killed more than two dozen anti-government fighters in the central city of Homs and shells struck areas of Damascus, the capital, killing at least two people. On Saturday, a man died after a riot broke out in the crowded Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.
Justices decline cases on gay rights and campaign finance
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear closely watched cases on gay rights, campaign finance and lethal injections. As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for turning down the appeals.
Spring has arrived
After an unseasonably cold month of March, normal springtime weather has finally found its way to New England. Temperatures in Boston have broken the 50-degree barrier in each of the last three days, and that city has not seen a temperature below the freezing point since March 27. This warming trend will continue for most of the upcoming week, with temperatures meeting or exceeding their climatological normals on each day. (For this time of year, normal high temperatures are in the mid 50s, while normal lows are in the high 30s).
Protestors in Ukraine’s East call on Putin to send troops
MOSCOW — Under the watchful eye of Russian state television, several hundred pro-Russian demonstrators in the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, declared Monday that they were forming an independent republic and urged President Vladimir Putin to send troops to the region as a peacekeeping force, even though there are no obvious threats to peace in the area.
Prime minister wins a second term in Hungary election
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Voters in Hungary have re-elected Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his conservative political alliance in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary election results released Monday.
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Federal health regulators approved a drug overdose treatment device Thursday that experts say will provide a powerful, life-saving tool in the midst of a surging epidemic of prescription drug abuse. Similar to an EpiPen used to stop allergic reactions to bee stings, the easy-to-use injector — small enough to tuck into a pocket or a medicine cabinet — will be prescribed for emergency use by the relatives or friends of people who have overdosed.
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KILLEEN, Texas — In the aftermath of a deadly rampage at Fort Hood here in November 2009 that left 13 people dead, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced a Pentagon review of the shooting to help ensure, he said, that “‘nothing like this ever happens again.”