Italian coast guard rescues 70 migrants
ROME — Seventy Afghan and Iraqi migrants were rescued from a packed boat off the southeastern coast of Italy and brought to shore on Sunday, Italy’s coast guard said.
Two Italian coast guard cutters brought the group to the port of Santa Maria di Leuca in Puglia. There were two women and four minors on board.
The UN refugee agency said about 35,500 migrants arrived in Italy by sea between the start of the year and the first week in May.
Landslide in Nepal
KATHMANDU, Nepal— Hundreds of residents living along a mountain river in the Myagdi District in western Nepal have been forced to seek higher ground after a massive landslide near the village of Kafaldanda blocked the Kali Gandaki River and created a huge natural dam that could burst.
The landslide rumbled down a narrow gorge about 1 a.m. Sunday and has since created a buildup of water, estimated at almost 500 feet high. It buried 15 homes, but no one was killed.
Putin signs law
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin signed legislation allowing prosecutors to deem foreign or global non-government organizations as “undesirable” in Russia, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and European Union.
The prosecutor-general may assign the label to international NGOs that “threaten Russia’s constitutional order, defense potential or security,” according to the law signed Saturday night. Such organizations lose rights to publish media materials, organize rallies and use local bank accounts.
It’s the latest move by Mr. Putin to clamp down on the groups questioning his government’s stewardship of the economy and its decision more than a year ago to annex the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
Poland presidential vote
WARSAW — Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski conceded defeat to conservative challenger Andrzej Duda in Sunday’s presidential election, a result that will set alarm bells ringing for the government, which faces its own election race later this year.
Mr. Komorowski had originally been seen as a shoo-in for another term in office, and his defeat reflected a desire among voters for new faces.
The outgoing president, an ally of Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, announced he was conceding defeat after an exit poll showed he had won 47 percent, to 53 percent for Mr. Duda. Official results have not yet been released.
The victory for 43-year-old Mr. Duda marks the first major electoral win in almost a decade for his party, the opposition Law and Justice party. It is close to the Catholic church, socially conservative, and markets see it as less business-friendly than the governing Civic Platform.
Also in the world …
One police officer was killed and two more were wounded in a bombing by Colombia’s FARC rebels on Sunday in the first attack by the group since it called off a unilateral cease-fire during peace talks with the government. … Nigeria’s leading cell phone provider said Sunday it urgently needs diesel to prevent shutting down services countrywide — the latest business hit by a monthslong fuel crisis in Africa’s biggest oil producer. …Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said on Sunday he was heartbroken over a suicide bombing that killed 21 people at a Shi'ite mosque in the kingdom, and said anyone linked to the attack, claimed by the Islamic State, or who sympathized with it, would be brought to justice.