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by Maria PANINA TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s far east on Friday as the countries step up efforts to boost trade ties and resolve a lingering territorial dispute. Tokyo-Moscow relations are hamstrung by a row dating back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the southernmost islands in the Pacific Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories […]
ROUNEN, France (AFP) — The death toll from a fire in northern France this month, sparked by birthday cake candles, rose to 14 on Thursday after a young woman died in a Paris hospital, a family lawyer said. The fire quickly killed 13 people, most aged between 18 and 25, after it broke out during a birthday party on August 6 in the Au Cuba Libre bar in Rouen. Six others remain injured as a […]
by Mariëtte Le Roux PARIS, France (AFP) — At least 2.6 billion people, over a third of the global population, live in parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific where Zika could gain a new foothold, researchers warned Friday, with 1.2 billion at risk in India alone. These are people who reside in as-yet unaffected parts of the world with the right climate and abundant mosquitoes for the virus to settle, spread and propagate an […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) – by Damian Wroclavsky and Sebastian Smith Impeached Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff filed a Supreme Court challenge Thursday to her removal from office in an early blow to new President Michel Temer’s bid to stabilize the country. The appeal, filed by Rousseff’s lawyer Jose Eduardo Cardozo and seen by AFP, demands “the immediate suspension of the effects of the Senate decision.” The Senate voted Wednesday to convict Rousseff on charges of having […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States announced a long list of fresh sanctions on Thursday aimed at Russia over its continuing support for Ukraine’s rebels and the 2014 seizure of Crimea. The new list took aim at a key unit of Bank Rossiya, often called the personal bank of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and some of Russia’s largest construction companies. It included 17 Ukrainian separatists, 11 of them officials of the government Russia […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) – by Rana Moussaoui Rebels and jihadists battled pro-government forces in the central Syrian province of Hama Thursday as the country’s UN envoy warned that more people could be forcibly evacuated from towns besieged by the regime. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 25 civilians, including children, were killed in government air strikes as fighting raged in Hama, south of the opposition-held Idlib province. Anti-government groups, which […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — The east coast of New Zealand was hit by a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake before dawn Friday, generating a small tsunami, but officials said there was no significant damage or injuries. A swarm of aftershocks, several of nearly 6.0 magnitude, rocked the region for many hours after the initial jolt as coastal residents made their way to high ground by torchlight. But less than three hours later they were advised […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) – Taiwan’s already frosty relations with Beijing are set to cool further after the appointment of a controversial diplomat to handle cross-strait ties sparked a backlash. Beijing still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory and has been piling pressure on new president Tsai Ing-wen to acknowledge that there is only “one China”. It deeply mistrusts Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is traditionally pro-independence. Beijing has cut official communications with Tsai, who […]
KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) – by Bienvenu-Marie BAKUMANYA Police and protesters clashed Thursday in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital Kinshasa ahead of crunch talks aimed at avoiding political chaos when the president’s term expires later this year. Tensions have been growing in mineral-rich but troubled DRC over fears that President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, will try to extend his rule with a third term, beyond the constitutional maximum of two. Riot police […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – by Nina LARSON The UN Syria envoy on Thursday criticised Damascus’ “strategy” of forced evacuation from Daraya following a brutal four-year government siege, warning that other besieged towns could follow. Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva that there were “indications that after Daraya we may have other Darayas,” adding that “there is clearly a strategy at the moment to move from Daraya” to other besieged areas “in a similar pattern”. Long […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – by Maria Isabel SANCHEZ Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of volatile Venezuela Thursday in a test of strength between its government and opponents seeking a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro. Police deployed in their hundreds to keep apart anti-government protesters angry at food and medicine shortages from Maduro’s supporters who vowed to defend his “socialist revolution.” Demonstrators dressed in white marched in the east of the capital, […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — 17 people were unaccounted for in Japan Thursday after Typhoon Lionrock tore through the north of the country, leaving 11 people dead and some 1,600 cut off in isolated communities, officials said. Ten died in the town of Iwaizumi after it was hit by surging river water and mud, with nine of them perishing in a care home for the elderly. The typhoon, which packed wind gusts of over 160 kilometers […]
