Tourists are reportedly fleeing Iceland’s world-renowned Blue Lagoon geothermal spa after earthquakes rocked the area, forcing the spa to temporarily close the bathing spot over volcanic eruption concerns. “Blue Lagoon has proactively chosen to temporarily suspend operations for one week, despite the authorities not raising the current level of uncertainty during…

The former head of Spain’s People’s Party in the Catalonia region was shot in the face in Madrid on Thursday, police said.Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot in the wealthy Salamanca area of central Madrid at about 1.30 p.m. and taken to hospital.Spanish police said they were hunting two men in connection…

Toxic gray smog has sickened tens of thousands of people in Pakistan’s cultural capital of Lahore, forcing authorities to shut schools, markets and parks for four days, officials said Thursday.The decision came after the country’s second-largest city was repeatedly ranked the world’s most polluted city. Doctors advised people to wear…

An undersea volcano erupted off Japan three weeks ago, providing a rare view of the birth of a tiny new island, but experts say it may not last very long.The unnamed undersea volcano, located about half a mile off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, which Japan calls Ioto, started…

An Israeli official said it is not his country’s intention to “reoccupy Gaza or control it for a long time” following the war with Hamas, according to a report. The remarks from what Reuters described as a senior Israeli official in Washington come as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday…

Turkey’s highest court on Wednesday upheld a controversial media law that mandates prison terms for people deemed to be spreading “disinformation,” rejecting the main opposition party’s request for its annulment.The legislation calls for up to three years in prison for journalists or social media users convicted of spreading information deemed…

Leftist Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Wednesday that private rail companies will soon be required to offer passenger services.Noncompliant rail carriers will be forced to allow government-owned trains to operate on their tracks.”This is not an expropriation, it is in the Constitution and the law,” López Obrador said,…

The badges said they were there to participate in negotiations to curb climate change. They stated affiliations like the government of Brazil, Indigenous organizations of the Amazon, the Climate Registry. But in reality, the livelihoods of these participants were more aligned with what’s keeping the problem going: fossil fuels.Close to…

Denmark’s domestic and foreign intelligence services on Wednesday won a case against a Dane of Syrian origin who claimed he worked for them in Syria in 2013 and 2014 and spied on Danish jihadi fighters.Ahmed Samsam was sentenced to eight years in 2018 in Spain for fighting with the Islamic…

Brazilian authorities, working with Israeli intelligence, foiled a plot by Hezbollah to orchestrate attacks on Jews in the South American country, officials said Wednesday. Brazil’s Federal Police arrested two people suspected of being financed by the Lebanon-based and Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group to commit domestic attacks and to recruit Brazilian citizens,…