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by Francesco FONTEMAGGI Agence France Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — One year after mobilizing the international community against North Korea, Donald Trump is trying to force another arch enemy to the negotiating table by targeting Iran with a similar campaign of “maximum pressure.” But if North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has seen his standing with the US president transformed in the 12 months since Trump’s United Nations debut, the prospects of Hassan […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday spoke to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the first time since last week’s downing of a Russian military plane, telling him of Moscow’s plan to deliver a new S-300 air defense system to the Syrian army. In the phone call, initiated by Assad, Putin spoke of “additional measures to ensure the safety of Russian troops in Syria and to reinforce the country’s air defense system, which includes […]
by Amal Jayasinghe Agence France Presse COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — The strongman leader of the Maldives on Monday conceded defeat in the presidential election, easing fears of a fresh political crisis in the archipelago at the centre of a battle for influence between India and China. “The Maldivian people have decided what they want. I have accepted the results from yesterday,” President Abdulla Yameen said in a televised address to the Indian Ocean […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — A solo Indian yachtsman trapped in his bunk by a serious back injury thousands of kilometers (miles) from land was rescued Monday, an Indian navy official said. Abhilash Tomy, a competitor in the Golden Globe round-the-world race, was badly injured when his vessel was damaged in a storm on Friday 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) from western Australia. Race organizers said the 39-year-old Indian navy commander had been “incapacitated on his […]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP)- A critically endangered elephant has been found dead in a palm oil plantation on Indonesia’s Sumatra island in what is suspected to be a deliberate poisoning, an official said Friday. The 10-year-old female Sumatran elephant was found in Jambo Reuhat village in North Aceh on Thursday — the third of its species to be found dead of suspected poisoning in the same palm plantation since 2015. “We found fruits and a pouch with traces of powder inside the animal,” Aceh […]
Langkat, Indonesia (AFP)- Indonesian palm oil farmer Kawal Surbakti says his livelihood is under attack, but the threat is not from insects or hungry orangutans eating his prized crop. Half a world away, the European Parliament is moving to ban the use of palm oil in biofuels, while British grocer Iceland has announced it will stop using the commodity over concerns that it causes widespread environmental destruction. Losing the key European market worries small farmers like Surbakti and […]
ALGIERS, Algeria (AFP) — A meeting between oil producing countries on Sunday decided not to alter supply to the global market, after calls by US President Donald Trump for an immediate hike in output to reduce prices. A committee of participating states “expressed its satisfaction regarding the current oil market outlook with an overall healthy balance between supply and demand”, a statement said, at the end of a meeting in Algiers. But Saudi Arabia’s energy […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US immigrants who get public benefits like food stamps or housing vouchers could be denied green cards, under a new proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump came to power pledging to make immigration to the United States more difficult, and reduce the number of people allowed to stay in the country. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Saturday that under the proposed rule change, being a current or […]
by Amal JAYASINGHE Agence France Presse COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has declared victory in the Maldives’ presidential election Sunday, following a controversial campaign observers said was rigged in favor of strongman President Abdulla Yameen. Solih had the backing of a united opposition trying to oust Yameen but struggled for visibility with the electorate, with local media fearful of falling afoul of heavy-handed decrees and reporting restrictions. “I call on Yameen to […]
by Elaine Yu Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — A new high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and mainland China launched Sunday, a multi-billion-dollar project that critics say gives away part of the city’s territory to an increasingly assertive Beijing. Chinese security have been stationed in semi-autonomous Hong Kong for the first time at the harbourfront West Kowloon rail terminus, as part of a new “special port area” that is subject to […]
LOKOJA, Nigeria (AFP) — Nigeria has declared a national disaster after severe flooding left about 100 people dead across 10 states, the country’s main relief agency said on Tuesday. Heavy seasonal rains have caused the Niger and Benue rivers to burst their banks, inundating communities, farms and trapping tens of thousands of people in their homes. Sani Datti, from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told AFP: “We have declared a national disaster in four […]
by Tristan MCCONNELL Agence France-Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Tanzanian rescue workers scrambled Friday to find scores of people feared drowned after a ferry capsized in Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, killing at least 86 people. The MV Nyerere may have been carrying as many as 200 passengers — double the ferry’s capacity — when it capsized close to the pier on Ukara Island on Thursday, according to reports on state media. Witnesses reached […]
