TEGUCIGALPA/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Honduran President Xiomara Castro has said she had asked the country’s foreign minister to open official relations with China, pressuring Taiwan ahead of a sensitive visit by President Tsai Ing-wen to the United States and Central America. China does not allow countries with which it has diplomatic relations to maintain official ties with Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan strongly disputes. Castro had floated the idea of starting relations with China and cutting ties with Taiwan during her electoral campaign, but said in January 2022 she hoped to maintain ties with Taiwan. If the Central American country does end relations with Taiwan, it will leave the island with only 13 diplomatic allies.

 

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Wednesday that his country could soon ratify Finland’s application to join NATO, allowing for the possibility of the country joining the military alliance separately from Sweden. Alarmed by Russia, Ukraine war a year ago, Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of nonalignment and applied to join the alliance. All 30 NATO members have approved their applications, and 28 have ratified their accession. Only Turkey and Hungary have failed to do so.

 

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BOGOTA (Reuters) - An explosion caused by accumulated gas in six adjoining coal mines in central Colombia has killed at least 11 workers and trapped 10 below ground, authorities said on Wednesday. The explosion took place late on Tuesday in a rural area of Sutatausa, about 75 km (46 miles) north of Bogota. “People are trapped between 700 and 900 meters,” Cundinamarca provincial governor Nicola Garcia told journalists, adding more than 100 rescue workers had joined the search. Two people had already been rescued and seven escaped unaided.

 

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch court hearing a class action lawsuit on Wednesday found that the European subsidiary of Meta, Facebook Ireland, improperly used personal data of Dutch citizens between 2010 and 2020, saying the company had “violated the law”. “Personal information was processed for the purposes of advertising when in this case that is not allowed,” a summary of the court ruling said. “Personal information was given to third parties without Facebook users being informed and without there being a legal basis to do so.” The decision was directed at Facebook Ireland because it is the part of the company that oversees the processing of Dutch user data.

 

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan health, railway, port and other state workers were on a daylong strike Wednesday to protest against sharp increases in income taxes and electricity charges, as the island nation awaits approval of an International Monetary Fund package to aid its bankrupt economy. Most government hospitals around the country suspended their outpatient clinics because doctors, nurses and pharmacists were on strike. The railways operated fewer trains and armed soldiers guarded carriages and train stations fearing sabotage. Trade unions say the increase in taxes and electricity charges have hit them hard amid difficulties from the country’s worst economic crisis. They have threatened to extend the strike indefinitely if the government fails to address their demands.