timebulletin.us

IMF to meet with Pakistani government, assess billion-dollar bailout eligibility

The International Monetary Fund will hold a crucial round of talks with Pakistan’s newly elected government this week to determine whether the country has met conditions for receiving the much needed final $1.1 billion tranche of a $3 billion bailout, officials said Wednesday.The five-day talks will begin Thursday in Islamabad…

EU tracking Bangladeshi ship hijacked off Somalia’s coast

The 23 crew members of a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship boarded by pirates off Somalia this week have been taken hostage, and a European Union vessel is tracking the ship as it heads toward the coast, the EU’s maritime security force said Wednesday.The hijacking of the MV Abdullah, first reported Tuesday…

Another Mexican politician murdered in leadup to June elections

Prosecutors in southern Mexico said Wednesday that a mayoral candidate was killed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, one of a half-dozen local politicians murdered so far this year ahead of the June 2 national elections.Tomás Morales was hoping to become mayor of the violence-wracked city of Chilapa, Guerrero.The…

At least 250,000 displaced as conflicts rage on in the Congo

Escalating violence in Congo’s eastern region has displaced at least 250,000 people in the last month, a senior United Nations official said Wednesday, describing the situation as an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.Far from the nation’s capital, Kinshasa, eastern Congo has long been overrun by more than 120 armed groups seeking a…

Austria expels 2 diplomats from Vienna’s Russian Embassy

Austria said Wednesday it has ordered two diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Vienna to leave the country. An Austrian official said the expulsions were related to spying activities.The Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement that the two Russian diplomats “engaged in acts incompatible with their diplomatic status” and…