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BEIJING, China (AFP) — China is increasingly part of Brazil’s future, President Jair Bolsonaro said Wednesday, signaling a more pragmatic approach to the Latin American country’s biggest trade partner. Standing alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, Bolsonaro said he hoped the two countries could not only increase but also “diversify our trade relations.” “China is becoming more and more part of Brazil’s future,” Bolsonaro said after the two men signed […]
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday sidestepped rows snaring US relations with fellow NATO member Turkey, instead of telling visiting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he is a “fan.” On a day when Congress was holding its first nationally televised hearings in the impeachment probe against Trump, the US president spent several hours meeting at the White House with Erdogan and claimed to be paying no attention to […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Schools in Tehran were ordered to be closed on Wednesday after the Iranian capital was cloaked in dangerously high levels of air pollution, authorities said. Governor Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpey said kindergartens, preschools, and primary schools would be shut in the city and the counties of Gharchak, Pishva and Varamin. “The air quality index for the city of Tehran still has not passed the unhealthy status for sensitive groups,” he was quoted as […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A helicopter crashed while fighting a bushfire in northern Australia on Wednesday and the pilot managed to survive with only minor injuries, officials said. “The helicopter crashed during waterbombing operations at the Pechey fire today,” a Queensland Fire and Emergency Service spokesperson told AFP. A rescue helicopter was sent to the scene and the pilot was treated for minor injuries, a Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman told AFP. “We transported one male […]
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — Six people were killed and 15 injured when a leaking oil pipeline caught fire in Egypt’s northern province of Bahira on Wednesday, officials said. The head of Egypt’s oil pipelines authority, Abdelmoneim Hafez, said the leak was the work of “thieves” siphoning off oil. The fire broke out on the pipeline near Itay al-Baroud, a village half-way between Cairo and Alexandria, health ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed said in a statement. The […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Mainland Chinese students have begun fleeing Hong Kong campuses over security fears, police and university officials said Wednesday, as the city’s seething political crisis saw some of its worst violence this week. The most intense clashes on Tuesday occurred at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where pitched battles were fought with the police firing tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets and protesters throwing petrol bombs and bricks, […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Pro-democracy protesters Wednesday stepped up a “blossom everywhere” campaign of road blocks and vandalism across Hong Kong that has crippled the international financial hub this week and ignited some of the worst violence in five months of unrest. The new phase in the crisis, which has forced schools and shopping malls to close as well as the shutdown of large chunks of the vital train network, prompted police to […]
CANBERRA, Australia (AFP) — Disgraced Catholic Cardinal George Pell was handed a final chance to clear his name Wednesday, when Australia’s top court agreed to allow his appeal against convictions for child abuse. The 78-year-old former Vatican treasurer is currently serving a six-year jail sentence for molesting two 13-year-old choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s, but continues to deny any wrongdoing. Justice Michelle Gordon — in a statement that took less than […]
by Ella IDE VENICE, Italy (AFP) — Venice was hit by the highest tide in more than 50 years late Tuesday, with tourists wading through flooded streets to seek shelter as a fierce wind whipped up waves in St. Mark’s Square. The exceptionally intense “acqua alta,” or high waters, peaked at 1.87 meters (six feet) as the flood alarm sounded across the Italian city of canals, the tide monitoring center said. “We’re currently facing an […]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AFP) — Seven people died in Bolivia in violence that broke out after Evo Morales was declared the winner of a recent presidential election, the attorney general said Tuesday. Four of those fatalities were from gunfire, Juan Lanchipa said. Until now, the toll was three dead. Morales resigned Sunday and went into exile in Mexico on Tuesday. “All of these cases will be investigated until we establish the truth and find out […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia escaped the worst-feared impacts of bushfires during a day of “catastrophic” conditions but the threat remains high, with dozens of fires still blazing and expectations of a brutal summer ahead. More than 300 new fires — including 19 that reached emergency level — were sparked Tuesday during high temperatures, gusting winds and dry conditions that were described as the worst on record. Thousands of firefighters deployed to combat the fires […]
by Franck IOVENE ROME, Italy (AFP) — Powerful rainstorms hit Italy on Tuesday, with the worst affected areas in the south and Venice, where there was widespread flooding. The heavy rainfall closed schools in several southern cities including Taranto, Brindisi, and Matera, as well as the Sicilian cities of Pozzallo and Noto, according to the national weather service. In Matera, this year’s European Capital of Culture, a tornado caused trees and lamp posts to fall, […]
