Ethiophia, Eritrea discuss plan for peace
Compiled from news services
ADDISABABA, Ethiopia —For the first time since a brutal border war in the late 1990s left a violent rift between Ethiopia and Eritrea, leaders of the two nations embracedon an airport tarmac Sunday, hinting at a new era forthe two countries.
Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, led his country’s first state visit to Eritrea since the war broke out in 1998 and sat for a meeting in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, with President Isaias Afwerki.
At a state dinner Sunday evening, Mr. Abiy announced that he had agreed with the Eritrean president to “resume the services of our airlines, to get our ports working, to get our people to trade and to open our embassies again.”
Direct telephone lines had been restored between the two countries Sunday afternoon for the first time in two decades.
Trump to meet NATO allies
WASHINGTON— With the established global order on shaky footing, President Donald Trump’s weeklong trip to Europe will test already strained bonds with some of the United States’ closest allies, then put him face to face with the leader of the country whose electoral interference was meant to help put him in office.
Mr. Trump departs Tuesday on a four-nation tour amid simmering disputes over trade and military spending with fellow Western democracies and speculation about whether he will rebuke or embrace Russian President Vladimir Putin. He meets the Russian leader in Helsinki as the finale of a trip with earlier stops in Belgium, England and Scotland.
On this trip, after meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels, he’ll travel to the United Kingdom, where widespread protests are expected, before he heads to one of his Scottish golf resorts for the weekend.
Turkey fires civil workers
ISTANBUL— Turkey purged more than 18,500 people from government jobs for allegedly posing a security risk to the state, a day before Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes office as an executive president with vastly expanded powers.
About 9,000 police personnel and more than 6,000 officers from the country’s armed services were among the 18,632 public sector workers dismissed Sunday, along with almost 200 academics and about 650 teachers, according to the latest decree the government published under its state of emergency. Three newspapers, one TV channel and 12 associations were also shut down.
Da Silva’s release order
RIODE JANEIRO — A judge in Brazil ruled Sunday that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva be released from prison while he continues to appeal a corruption conviction, an unexpected decision that touched off an immediate legal and political uproar. Whether the order for Mr. da Silva’s release would take effect was not at all clear.
The order was the latest twist in the tumultuous leadup to Brazil’s presidential election in October.
Even from prison, Mr. da Silva holds a lead in the polls. He is hoping to be on the ballot even though the corruption conviction for which he is serving a 12-year sentence makes him legally ineligible to run for office.
On Sunday, a federal judge, Rogério Favreto, who has ties to Mr. da Silva’s leftist Workers’ Party, ordered the former president’s release. The order prompted a quick rebuke from the trial judge, Sergio Moro, who urged federal police officials to disregard Mr. Favreto’s order. In an order, he wrote that Mr. Favreto did not