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by Paul HANDLEY Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A senior US diplomat directly implicated President Donald Trump Wednesday in a scheme to force Ukraine to probe a political rival, in bombshell testimony to a televised impeachment hearing. Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, told lawmakers he followed the president’s orders in seeking a “quid pro quo” deal for Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden in exchange for a White […]
Buildings shook as far away as Bangkok after a shallow 6.1-magnitude earthquake that hit northwestern Laos near the Thai border early Thursday, alarming locals who felt the shaking. Tremors could be felt more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) away in the Thai capital, where Catholic Church’s Pope Francis is currently on a four-day visit. The quake hit at 6:50am (2350 GMT Wednesday), roughly three hours after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake in the same region triggered […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The fire danger was elevated across wider swathes of southern Australia on Thursday, with residents warned to avoid at-risk areas as smoke from bushfires choked Sydney and other major cities. Devastating fires along the country’s east coast have claimed six lives and destroyed more than 500 homes since mid-October, with climate change and unseasonably hot, dry conditions fuelling the unprecedented blazes. Now the fire danger has moved into states further south, […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman urged arch-rival Iran on Wednesday to abandon an expansionist ideology that has “harmed” its own people, following violent street protests in the Islamic republic. A wave of demonstrations erupted in the sanctions-hit country on Friday after an announcement that petrol prices would be raised by as much as 200 percent with immediate effect. “We hope the Iranian regime chooses the side of wisdom and realizes there […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Five people died Wednesday as a result of two explosions at a fireworks factory in Sicily, firefighters and police said after the incident at the family-run firm. The late afternoon blasts immediately killed two workmen and the 71-year-old wife of the owner of the Costa company in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, in Sicily’s Messina region. The owner’s son had attempted to save her and was one of four people taken to hospital […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US envoy on North Korea acknowledged Wednesday that Pyongyang has not yet taken verifiable action to denuclearize and called on the regime to “seize the moment.” Stephen Biegun, testifying to Congress on his nomination to be deputy secretary of state, also called for North Korea to step up its level of representation in talks. “There is no meaningful or verifiable evidence that North Korea has yet made the choice […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Senate unanimously adopted legislation Tuesday supporting “human rights and democracy” in Hong Kong and threatening to revoke its special economic status, angering China which promptly summoned a US diplomat and threatened countermeasures. The lawmakers also approved a measure that would ban the sale of tear gas, rubber bullets and other equipment that have been used by security forces to suppress pro-democracy protests for nearly six months. Chinese […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — An assailant has stabbed to death the son of former German president Richard von Weizsaecker in attack at a Berlin hospital that left one other person seriously injured, police said Wednesday. The motive for the attack on Fritz von Weizsaecker, 59, on Tuesday evening was unclear. Von Weizsaecker, a doctor, had just delivered a lecture on liver diseases at the Schlosspark hospital in the western Berlin neighbourhood of Charlottenburg […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — The US and South Korea will postpone joint air drills in an “act of goodwill” towards the nuclear-armed North, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday, after months of deadlocked diplomacy with Pyongyang. North Korea has long protested joint military drills, which it condemns as preparations for invasion, and has set Washington an end-of-year deadline to come up with a new offer in deadlocked negotiations on its weapons programs. The […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is “no longer interested” in summits with the US unless Washington offers new concessions in their nuclear negotiations, Pyongyang said Monday, hours after Donald Trump hinted at the prospect. “You should act quickly, get the deal done,” Trump tweeted Sunday, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “See you soon!” Kim and Trump have met three times since June last year, but talks have been gridlocked […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A coal mine explosion killed 15 people in north China’s Shanxi province, state media reported Tuesday. Nine other people were injured by the gas explosion on Monday afternoon, which took place in a mine owned by Shanxi Pingyao Fengyan Coal & Coke Group Co, according to official news agency Xinhua. Xinhua reported that 35 miners were working underground when the blast happened, but 11 miners were able to escape. The injured […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Some families of the 39 Vietnamese people found dead in a truck in Britain last month will borrow money from the government to repatriate their relatives’ remains, they told AFP Tuesday. Vietnam’s foreign ministry said they would help to bring either the ashes or the bodies of the victims back — but that families would have to cover the cost of repatriation. The price to bring ashes back in a jar […]
