MOSCOW/WASHINGTON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, during which considerable attention was paid to prospects for resolving the Ukraine crisis, the Kremlin said.
On global energy developments, Russia reaffirmed its readiness to supply oil and petroleum products to U.S. and global markets, according to the Kremlin. (Russia-US-Phone Conversation)
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PANAMA CITY -- A powerful earthquake and a series of strong aftershocks rattled Panama on Friday, sending residents into the streets, disrupting water supplies and briefly halting flights as the government mobilized emergency personnel and resources.
The University of Panama's Institute of Geosciences measured the initial quake at magnitude 7.2. It struck at 12:56 p.m. local time (1756 GMT) at a depth of 4 kilometers. By 5:30 p.m. local time, more than 40 earthquakes had been recorded, including over a dozen with magnitudes above 5.0. A quake at 3:25 p.m. had a magnitude of 6.9. (Panama-Earthquake-Aftershocks)
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WASHINGTON/THE HAGUE -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday added the International Criminal Court (ICC) to its sanctions list, extending U.S. sanctions against the Hague-based court from individual officials to the institution itself.
"Today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. (US-ICC-Sanctions)
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ABU DHABI -- Attorney-General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said Friday that investigations into the Sept. 30 incident aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 revealed that the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv.
In a statement, Al Shamsi said the suspect, a 29-year-old Omani national, had planned to crash the aircraft into the terminal to cause as many casualties as possible. (UAE-Investigation-Flydubai) ■
