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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump is set to approve the release of an explosive memo alleging abuse of power in the FBI’s probe of his election campaign, a White House official said Thursday. Rejecting entreaties from the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation to block the document on the grounds it could expose top secret counterintelligence data, the official told AFP the president’s green light would likely come on Friday. “The president is […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — The aerial search for survivors from a ferry that sank in the remote Pacific was suspended Friday with more than 80 people still missing, many of them children, officials said. “The Kiribati government has suspended aerial searches for survivors of the ferry MV Butiraoi,” Rescue Coordination Center New Zealand said in a statement. The Butiraoi set off January 18 on a two-day voyage with 88 people aboard, including 23 children and teenagers. […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) – A wartime bomb was defused in Hong Kong on Thursday after forcing a busy commercial district into lock-down, with roads closed and thousands evacuated from surrounding shops, hotels and offices. It was the second time within a week that an American bomb dropped during WWII had been discovered at a harborfront construction site in Wan Chai. Police sealed off parts of the district after a worker found the device on Wednesday morning, […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – India’s government promised hundreds of billions of dollars to develop poor rural areas and help struggling farmers in its annual budget Thursday, looking to win over voters ahead of the next general election. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would spend $220 billion on rural infrastructure, including building new roads and toilets and bringing electricity to millions of rural households. Jaitley also announced a national healthcare scheme that will enable half […]
by Mehdi Cherifia and Clare Byrne Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – In the Brussels neighborhood where he lived until his capture, Salah Abdeslam was known as a pot-smoking petty criminal whose former lawyer described him as having “the intelligence of an empty ashtray.” But the sole survivor of the jihadist team that wrought carnage in Paris in November 2015 — who goes on trial in Belgium on Monday over the shootout — remains something of an […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The Suffragettes were instrumental in securing the vote for British women 100 years ago, at a time when women had few rights and no role in national politics. The name Suffragettes was the derogatory name given in 1906 by the Daily Mail newspaper to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), one of the groups that had been pushing for women’s suffrage for decades. The organization was formed three years […]
by Annabel Symington Agence France-Presse KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — Poor regulation and overcrowding are pushing Everest climbers away from Nepal to China, which is investing millions to boost a rival path to the top of the world. Veteran climbing outfits, fed up with what they regard as a lax attitude to safety on Nepal’s southern flank of the 8,848-meter (29,029-foot) peak, are starting to shift operations to Everest’s north side in Tibet. “The south side […]
by Michael Mathes Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A train carrying several dozens of Republican lawmakers including US House Speaker Paul Ryan collided with a garbage truck Wednesday in Virginia, killing one person and sending six others, including a congressman, to a hospital, officials said. The White House said no members of Congress were seriously injured, and that President Donald Trump had been briefed on the accident. At least 300 people, including lawmakers, […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Many children and teenagers are among those missing after a ferry sank in the remote Pacific, official figures have revealed, with victims described as their region’s “youngest and brightest.” Radio Kiribati reported late Wednesday that a council survey of Nonouti island, where the ferry departed on January 18, showed there were 88 people aboard. It said they included 10 children of primary age and 13 high school students. The youngsters […]
by Kyoko Hasegawa Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Eleven people died after a fire broke out at a residence for elderly people with financial difficulties in northern Japan, police said on Thursday. Television footage showed the three-storey building engulfed in flames and dozens of firefighters battling the blaze in snowy conditions. Pictures of the aftermath showed the blackened husk of the building, whose roof had apparently collapsed due to the fire. The victims — […]
by Paul Handley Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The first and only US citizen caught on the battlefield allegedly fighting for the Islamic State is in a legal limbo, held in Iraq without rights as Washington grapples with his fate. Identified in court papers as “John Doe,” the man has been held for nearly five months, the military allowing him access to legal advice only after being forced to do so by a federal judge […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The Trump administration will ask Congress to cut funding for clean energy and energy efficiency programs by 72 percent in this year’s budget, according to a report in the Washington Post, underscoring its preference for fossil fuels. The Post said it had obtained draft documents that outlined the administration’s starting point for negotiations for the 2018 budget, set to be unveiled in February. Congress, which is ultimately tasked with deciding appropriations, could […]
