International

Australia pushes Solomons to rely on Pacific nations for security

SYDNEY, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – Australia urged Solomon Islands to rely on fellow Pacific nations for security assistance Wednesday during a visit by China-friendly Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele. The Solomons leader was visiting Australia as part of a three-nation tour that will also take him to China and Japan. It is Manele’s first official international trip since he replaced enthusiastic Beijing supporter Manasseh Sogavare as prime minister in May. Sogavare switched diplomatic recognition from […]

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North Korea launches missile in sea in apparent show of force

SEOUL, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, according to the Yonhap news agency. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch but gave no details, saying an analysis is under way. The office of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed on social media platform X that North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile. “The suspected ballistic missile […]

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After long wait, Kenyan police begin security mission in Haiti

By Jean Daniel Senat with Hillary Orinde in Nairobi and Shaun Tandon in Washington PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 25, 2024 (AFP) – Kenyan police arrived in violence-ravaged Haiti on Tuesday on a long-awaited mission to help wrest the Caribbean nation from powerful gangs, just as Nairobi saw its own deadly turmoil during mass protests. Wearing camouflage uniforms, helmets and rifles, about 200 officers descended from a Kenya Airways plane on the tarmac in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. […]

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Russia puts US journalist Evan Gershkovich on trial

YEKATERINBURG, Russia, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – US journalist Evan Gershkovich will face the start of a closed-door trial on espionage charges in Russia on Wednesday, more than a year after he became the first Western journalist since the Soviet era to be detained on such accusations. The Wall Street Journal correspondent, who along with his employer and the White House has denied the charges, was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip […]

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Westerners arrested in Russia

PARIS, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – US reporter Evan Gershkovich is due to face the start of a closed-door trial on espionage charges in Russia on Wednesday. He is one of several Westerners held by Russia at a time when Moscow’s tensions with the West have soared to Cold War-era levels, following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to […]

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Biden, Trump offer competing vision of US role in world

By Shaun TANDON WASHINGTON, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – Ahead of their first presidential debate, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are offering sharply different visions of the US role in the world, both in style and substance. The rare matchup between a current and former president puts their stark contrasts on display. Trump during his 2017-2021 presidency vowed to put “America First,” with a combative and often isolationist view of the world, while Biden took […]

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King Charles hails ties as Japan royals make UK state visit

LONDON, June 25, 2024 (AFP) – King Charles III hailed Britain and Japan’s “close friendship” at a lavish state banquet for Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday as the Japanese royals began a three-day state visit. It is the first state visit to the UK by a Japanese head of state since 1998 and, unusually for such a trip, comes during a general election campaign. Some typical political elements, such as […]

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WikiLeaks founder Assange freed in US plea deal

By Andrew McKirdy and Harumi Ozawa SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – A US judge freed Julian Assange on Wednesday in a plea deal that ended years of legal drama for the WikiLeaks founder, long wanted by Washington for revealing military secrets. “With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” said the judge in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, […]

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Wolf attack at French zoo leaves woman seriously injured

PARIS, June 23, 2024 (AFP) – Police and prosecutors were investigating how a 37-year-old woman came to be attacked and seriously injured by three wolves in a zoo outside Paris Sunday. The woman was bitten “on the neck, the calf and the back” at the Thoiry zoo around 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the French capital, a source close to the case told AFP. Maryvonne Caillibotte, chief prosecutor in Versailles, had said the woman’s […]

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Gunmen in Russia’s Dagestan kill police and priest in ‘terror’ attack

MOSCOW, June 24, 2024 (AFP) – Gunmen attacked churches and synagogues in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing at least eight police and national guard officers and a priest, officials said. The unidentified gunmen launched simultaneous attacks in Dagestan’s largest city of Makhachkala and in the coastal city of Derbent. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened criminal probes over “acts of terror” in Dagestan, a largely Muslim region of Russia neighbouring […]

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BREAKING: Gunmen fire on police car, wounding one, in Dagestan village: ministry

MOSCOW, June 23, 2024 (AFP) – The interior ministry in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan said attackers shot at a police car, wounding one officer, as deadly shootouts with police continued in two cities in the region. The Dagestan interior ministry’s spokeswoman said that on the central square of the village of Sergokal, 65 kilometres from the region’s main city of Makhachkala, “unknown (attackers) fired on a police car. One is wounded,” RIA Novosti […]

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Hong Kong matches record for hottest summer solstice

HONG KONG (AFP) – Hong Kong matched on Friday its record for the hottest summer solstice as a subtropical ridge drove temperatures up to 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit). “The maximum temperature recorded at the observatory was 34C, the highest so far this year and equalling the record high for summer solstice set in 1980,” the city’s weather observatory said. The Chinese finance hub saw its hottest summer on record last year, with the […]

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