Europe

Armenia, Azerbaijan exchange war prisoners

By Emil GULIYEV BAKU, Dec 13, 2023 (AFP) – Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday swapped prisoners of war, a first step towards normalising relations since Baku retook control of the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in a one-day autumn offensive. It is the first time the neighbours have exchanged prisoners since the lightening September offensive. Azerbaijan’s military operation ended almost three decades of Armenian separatist control of Karabakh, forcing tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee. […]

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French school in shock after 12-year-old threatens teacher with knife

By Laurent BANGUET, Clarisse LUCAS RENNES, France, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – A 12-year-old schoolgirl threatened a teacher with a knife in an apparent murder attempt at a French school on Wednesday, prosecutors said, the latest incident in the country’s increasingly tense education system. No one was injured in the incident during English class in the northwestern city of Rennes but prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation into attempted murder. Born in 2011, […]

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Zelensky aid plea hits Republican wall as Biden warns of ‘gift’ to Putin

WASHINGTON, Dec 12, 2023 (AFP) – President Joe Biden told President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday that the United States will not abandon Ukraine in its desperate fight against Russia, even as Republicans signaled opposition to extending US war funding. Standing alongside the Ukrainian leader at a White House press conference, Biden vowed: “I will not walk away from Ukraine and neither will the American people.” And he said that allowing a Ukrainian defeat would mean […]

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Germany charges 27 over far-right ‘treason’ plot

By Deborah COLE BERLIN, Dec 12, 2023 (AFP) – German federal prosecutors said Tuesday they charged 27 suspected adherents of a far-right “terror group” arrested last year with involvement in a plot to attack parliament and overthrow the government. Among those charged are 26 people accused of membership of a nationwide extremist network around Frankfurt aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, and one woman accused of supporting the group. “The accused are strongly suspected […]

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Ukraine forces say shot down eight Kyiv-bound missiles

KYIV, Ukraine, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – Ukrainian forces shot down eight Russian missiles headed for the capital Kyiv on Monday morning, the air force said. “The Russian invaders launched a missile attack on Kyiv region” at about 4:00 am local time (0200 GMT), Ukraine’s air force said, adding that “air defence destroyed eight air targets that were flying in the direction of the capital”. Missile fragments fell in the eastern Darnytskyi district of the […]

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Putin: The autocrat eyeing a new world order

WARSAW, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, who announced Friday he is running for a fifth term, has over the past two decades built a system of domestic repression and confrontation with the West that is almost certain to guarantee his re-election. Ever since the former little-known KGB agent first became president on New Year’s Eve 1999, he has consolidated power by bringing oligarchs to heel, banning any real opposition, and turning […]

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Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will run for re-election in 2024

MOSCOW, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday that he would run for re-election in 2024, allowing the Kremlin leader to extend his decades-long grip on power into the 2030s. The 71-year-old has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential ballots and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where opposition has become virtually non-existent. The announcement came at a set-piece Kremlin event for army personnel, […]

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Russian girl, 14, shoots and kills classmate, commits suicide

MOSCOW, Dec 7, 2023 (AFP) – A 14-year-old girl shot a classmate dead and injured five people before killing herself at a secondary school in the Russian city of Bryansk near the Ukraine border on Thursday. Fatal attacks at educational facilities — previously a rarity — have become more common in Russia in recent years. Moscow has taken steps to tighten already strict gun laws after a series of school attacks. After the Bryansk attack, […]

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EU’s von der Leyen tells Xi differences must be addressed

By Peter CATTERALL BEIJING, Dec 7, 2023 (AFP) – EU President Ursula von der Leyen told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday that the bloc and its biggest trading partner must address their differences, as they began the first in-person EU-China summit in over four years. China and the EU have ramped up diplomatic engagement this year in an attempt to steer post-pandemic recovery and repair damaged ties, with a number of its commissioners visiting […]

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President Vladimir Putin Putin seeks to bolster Russia’s influence in the Middle East with visits to Saudi Arabia, UAE

RIYADH, Dec 6, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Saudi Arabia Wednesday after visiting the United Arab Emirates, making a rare trip abroad as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage. It is only the third trip the Russian leader has taken outside the former Soviet Union since he invaded Ukraine, following visits to Iran and China, and comes as Moscow seeks to bolster its influence in the Middle East. […]

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US Senate blocks Ukraine, Israel aid in row over immigration

By Danny Kemp and Frankie Taggart WASHINGTON, Dec 6, 2023 (AFP) – Republican senators blocked a White House request for $106 billion in emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel Wednesday as conservatives balked at the exclusion of immigration reforms they had demanded as part of the package. The vote marked a significant defeat for President Joe Biden, who had warned Congress earlier in the day that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not stop with […]

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EU chief warns China on trade gap ahead of summit

BRUSSELS, Dec 5, 2023 (AFP) – European Union member states won’t tolerate their growing trade imbalance with China forever, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned Tuesday, ahead of a key summit. “We have tools to protect our market,” von der Leyen told an AFP reporter in an interview for the European Newsroom, while adding: “But we prefer to have negotiated solutions.” Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, who […]

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