International

Panama Papers database on shell companies goes online

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) by Paul Handley The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on Monday published online detailed data from the Panama Papers trove on more than 200,000 secret offshore companies. The searchable database built on just a portion of the documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca reveals more than 360,000 names of individuals and companies behind the anonymous shell firms, the ICIJ said. Reports already published in April based on the explosive […]

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Brazil impeachment drive against Rousseff tips into chaos

BRASILIA Brazil (AFP) – by Damian Wroclavsky The impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was thrown into confusion Monday when the acting speaker of the lower house of Congress annulled the April vote by lawmakers that launched the process. Just days before the Senate seemed near certain to suspend Rousseff for six months and open an impeachment trial, the new leader of the lower house threw a spanner in the works — dramatically ramping up the […]

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Saudi police shoot dead suspected jihadist

RIYADH , Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi security forces on Monday shot dead a suspected jihadist in the western province of Taif a day after a policeman was killed in a shootout, the interior ministry said. The gunman was killed after refusing to surrender to security forces hunting him over his suspected involvement in an attempt to infiltrate a police station parking area in the province on Sunday, a ministry statement said. It identified him […]

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Austrian chancellor quits after far-right triumph

by Simon STURDEE VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann quit Monday, bowing to intense pressure two weeks after the opposition anti-immigration far-right dealt his coalition a historic blow in the first round of presidential elections. The centre-left Faymann, 56, chancellor since 2008, said in a statement that he no longer had “strong backing” in his party, the Social Democrats (SPOe). “As a result of this insufficient support I am drawing the consequences and […]

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Russia and US to ‘redouble’ efforts for Syrian political settlement

MOSCOW ,Russia (AFP) — Russia and the United States on Monday agreed to step up efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict and extend a truce across the whole of the country. “The Russian Federation and United States are determined to redouble efforts to reach a political settlement of the Syrian conflict”, according to a joint US-Russian statement published by the Russian foreign ministry. The two sides, co-chairs of the International Syria Support […]

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At least 81 injured in downtown Cairo fire

CAIRO , Egypt (AFP) — At least 81 people including firefighters suffered minor injuries on Monday when a fire spread quickly through a commercial area in downtown Cairo, Egyptian officials said. The fire erupted overnight in a small hotel in the Al-Mosky neighborhood, not far from the Al-Azhar mosque, and moved rapidly to four nearby buildings, police told AFP. The buildings included warehouses containing plastic materials which helped the fire to spread. The cause of […]

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China landslide death toll rises to 31

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — The number of bodies recovered from a landslide that engulfed workers at a Chinese construction site rose to 31 on Monday with seven people still missing, authorities said. Heavy rain at the weekend buried a temporary shed used by workers at a hydropower station construction site in Fujian province, in the southeast, under 100,000 cubic metres of mud and rock, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Major rescue efforts were continuing, […]

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N. Korea detains, expels BBC reporter

SEOUL , South Korea (AFP) — A BBC reporter in North Korea was detained, interrogated for eight hours and eventually expelled over his reporting in the run-up to a rare ruling party congress, the British broadcaster said Monday. Foreign reporters invited to cover specific events in North Korea are subjected to very tight restrictions on access and movement. Numerous journalists have been prevented from returning because their previous coverage was deemed “inaccurate” or “disrespectful” — […]

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Landslides kill nearly 50 in Rwanda

KIGALI, Rwanda (AFP) — At least 49 people were killed this weekend in landslides caused by torrential rains in rural Rwanda, the government said on Monday. Authorities had previously given a death toll of 20, many of them children, as downpours drenched the densely populated country of steep hills and deep valleys. “During the night of 7-8 May 2016, heavy rains caused landslides in several parts of Rwanda, resulting in loss of lives, and destructing […]

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Twitter cuts intel agencies off from analysis service: report

WASHINGTON , United States (AFP) — Twitter has barred US intelligence agencies from accessing a service that sorts through posts on the social media platform in real time and has proved useful in the fight against terrorism, the Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper, in its report Sunday evening, cited a senior US intelligence official as saying that Twitter seemed worried about appearing too cozy with intelligence services. Twitter owns about a five percent stake […]

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Three killed, 20 injured in Burundi blasts

NAIROBI , Kenya (AFP) — The mayor of Burundi’s capital on Monday vowed to crush “terrorists” blamed for a spate of weekend grenade attacks that left three people dead and about 20 injured. Hundreds have been killed and a quarter of a million people have fled Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial decision April 2015 to run for a third term, a vote he won amid opposition boycotts in July. Anti-government protests were brutally quashed […]

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At least 50 injured in downtown Cairo fire

CAIRO , Egypt (AFP) — At least 50 people including firefighters suffered minor injuries on Monday when a fire spread quickly through a commercial area in downtown Cairo, Egyptian officials said. The fire erupted overnight in a small hotel in the Al-Mosky neighbourhood, not far from the Al-Azhar mosque, and moved rapidly to four nearby buildings, police told AFP. The buildings included warehouses containing plastic materials which helped the fire to spread. “At least 50 […]

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