International

Facebook corrects post under Singapore disinformation law

SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Facebook published a correction on a user’s post-Saturday following demand from Singapore, the first time a tech giant has complied with the city-state’s law against misinformation. Authorities had ordered the social media giant to correct a post promoting an article on a fringe news site containing “scurrilous accusations” of election rigging, ramping up their use of a controversial law against misinformation. The law gives ministers powers to tell platforms to put […]

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Victims of London Bridge attack lauded by their families

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British police on Sunday named the two victims who died in the London Bridge terror attack, as their families paid glowing tributes to the pair. Jack Merritt, 25, from Cambridgeshire in eastern England, and 23-year-old Saskia Jones of Warwickshire in the West Midlands, were both killed by convicted terrorist Usman Khan during his rampage Friday, the Metropolitan Police said. Merritt, a course coordinator at Cambridge University’s criminology institute, and Jones, […]

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‘Still angry’: Hong Kong protesters return to the streets

by Jerome TAYLOR / Su Xinqi HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Police fired tear gas and pepper spray in Hong Kong on Sunday as tens of thousands of black-clad protesters flooded into the streets, a week after pro-democracy candidates scored a landslide local election victory. The rally heralded an end to a rare lull and a return to the large-scale demonstrations that Hong Kongers have staged for nearly six months, fuelled by growing fears that […]

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10 wounded in shooting in busy New Orleans tourist area

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Ten people were wounded in a shooting early Sunday in New Orleans’ French Quarter, a popular tourist hub, US police said, adding that two of the victims were in critical condition. The shooting took place at 3:21 am (09H21 GMT) on a crowded commercial street near many hotels in a historic district that attracts visitors from around the world. Police reported earlier that 11 people had been wounded but subsequently […]

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Two killed by knifeman as terror returns to London Bridge

  by Robin MILLARD / Charlotte DURAND Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A man suspected of stabbing two people to death in a terror attack on London Bridge was a former prisoner convicted of terrorism offences and released last year, police said Saturday. The knifeman, wearing a suspected hoax explosive device, was shot dead by police after the daylight assault on Friday that also saw bystanders intervene to try and disarm him. […]

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Opposition leader Keiko Fujimori leaves prison in Peru

  LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru opposition leader Keiko Fujimori was released from prison Friday after spending 13 months in pre-trial detention in a corruption case linked to Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Her release comes days after the country’s Constitutional Court ordered her freed in a ruling related only to her detention and which otherwise has no bearing on the corruption case against her. “For me, it was the most painful event of my life,” […]

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Hong Kong Airlines delays salaries as protests hit tourism

  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Low-cost carrier Hong Kong Airlines said Friday it will delay salary payments to some staff, warning its business has been “severely affected” by the political unrest in the city. Nearly six months of protests in the international finance hub have dealt its tourism sector a massive blow, and airlines serving the city have struggled. “Hong Kong Airlines’ business is severely affected by the social unrest in Hong Kong and […]

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Seven dead in small plane crash in Canada

TORONTO, Canada (AFP) — Five Americans and two Canadians were killed when a light aircraft crashed in a wooded area on the north shore of Lake Ontario, Canada’s transport safety agency said Thursday. The US-registered single-engine Piper PA-32 departed Toronto’s Buttonville Airport and was apparently headed to Quebec City when it crashed on approach to the Kingston, Ontario airport on Wednesday just after five pm (2200 GMT), Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigator Ken Webster told […]

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Former Japanese PM Nakasone dies at 101

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, an ardent conservative who worked to forge a stronger military alliance with the United States, has died at the age of 101, local media said Friday. In-office for five years from November 1982 to November 1987, Nakasone was known for trying to integrate the nation defeated in World War II as a full-fledged member of the West during the Cold War era. He poured his […]

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Freak waves flood homes in Marshall Islands

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (AFP) — More than 200 people have been forced to flee their homes after they were inundated by freak waves in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro. Swells averaging five meters (16 feet) washed rocks and debris onto roads, temporarily cutting access to the international airport at the peak of the flooding on Wednesday. The Red Cross set up evacuation centers at two schools, with local churches and Majuro’s mosque also offering help […]

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Seven dead in small plane crash in Canada

TORONTO, Canada (AFP) — A small airplane crashed in a wooded area on the north shore of Lake Ontario in eastern Canada Wednesday evening, killing all seven people on board, Canada’s transport safety agency said Thursday. The US-registered single-engine Piper PA-32 plane was traveling from Toronto’s Buttonville Airport to Kingston, Ontario when it went missing at around 5 pm local time (2200 GMT). Emergency services, including police on all-terrain vehicles and a military search and […]

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Assad approves $9.2 billon budget

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday approved a $9.2-billion budget for his war-torn country, official media reported. The 2020 budget, approved by Syria’s parliament before being signed off by Assad, sees the country’s deficit rise by 54 percent compared to the current budget, according to the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan. The country’s devastating eight-year war has inflicted damage estimated by the United Nations last year at some $400 billion. The Syrian pound […]

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