International

Sefcovic: EU commissioner vying for Slovak presidency

by Laszlo Juhasz Agence France-Presse BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – Maros Sefcovic, the ruling party’s candidate in Saturday’s Slovak presidential run-off against a government critic, is a long-time EU commissioner and career diplomat with a passion for sports. Though running as an independent, the 52-year-old European Commission vice-president has the backing of the governing populist Smer-SD party, which may have cost him first place in round one. Support for the three-party governing coalition took a hit last […]

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Slovaks vote for president with outsider tipped to win

by Laszlo Juhasz / with Anna Maria Jakubek in Warsaw Agence France-Presse BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – Slovaks vote for a new president on Saturday with the odds-on-favorite an outsider whose anti-corruption stance has resonated with voters, still reeling from the fallout from an investigative journalist’s murder. An environmental lawyer with no experience in political office, Zuzana Caputova could become the EU and eurozone member’s first female president. Her rival in the run-off election is the […]

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Facebook to tighten live stream access after mosque attacks

by Glenn CHAPMAN Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Facebook on Friday said it is tightening live video streaming rules in response to the service being used to broadcast deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand. The Christchurch attacks — carried out by a self-avowed white supremacist who opened fire on worshipers at two mosques — claimed 50 lives. Many people have “rightly questioned how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate […]

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New docs, recording released in Canada PM meddling scandal

by Michel COMTE Agence France-Presse OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) – A political meddling scandal threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s re-election bid was given fresh impetus Friday with the release of messages and a secret recording supplied by his former attorney general. The House of Commons justice committee, looking into the explosive allegations that Trudeau officials pressured attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to shield engineering firm SNC-Lavalin from trial, released the materials from the now former official. The controversy […]

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Rebuilding at North Korea’s rocket site ‘almost complete’: Seoul

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has almost completed rebuilding a long-range rocket site it had promised to close, Seoul lawmakers told reporters Friday after a closed-door meeting with South Korean intelligence officials. The claim comes a month after a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February ended without an agreement, deepening a gap between the two on how to achieve “complete denuclearisation”. Shortly […]

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New UN Global Climate report ‘another strong wake-up call’ over global warming: Guterres

The increasing number of natural disasters and dangers linked to climate change, highlighted in a major UN report released on Thursday, represents “another strong wake-up call” to the world, which must be countered by finding sustainable solutions quickly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said. Speaking at the launch of the State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Mr. Guterres reiterated his call for action, underlining that the alarming conclusion that […]

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Trump, Moon to meet in Washington in April: Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US President Donald Trump will host his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in next month, Seoul said Friday, after the latest summit between Washington and Pyongyang ended in deadlock. Moon has long backed a policy of engagement with nuclear-armed, sanctions-hit Pyongyang and was instrumental in brokering talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But the failure of Kim and Trump to reach an agreement in Hanoi on curtailing […]

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Bangladesh firefighters comb blaze-hit skyscraper

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Firefighters were combing through the charred shell of a Bangladesh skyscraper Friday where at least 19 people died in a high-rise blaze, with many having jumped to their deaths. Flames tore through the 22-storey FR Tower in Dhaka on Thursday afternoon, trapping hundreds of office workers. Some made it to safety by sliding down cables on the side of the building, but others took their chances and jumped in a bid to […]

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US Supreme Court stays execution of ‘Texas Seven’ convict

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of one of the last members of the “Texas Seven,” a group of escaped prisoners who killed a police officer during a high-profile crime spree in 2000. The court granted Patrick Murphy, 57, a last-minute reprieve in the name of religious equality, pointing out that under Texas policy, Christian and Muslim clerics can be present in the execution room, while […]

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PM Jacinda Ardern’s address to national ceremony for mosque attack victims

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AFP) — Herewith the text of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s address to a national remembrance ceremony Friday for the 50 Muslims slain by a white supremacist in two Christchurch mosques on March 15: “We gather here, 14 days on from our darkest of hours. “In the days that have followed the terrorist attack on the 15th of March, we have often found ourselves without words. “What words adequately express the […]

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Britain to hold third vote in Brexit crisis

by Joe JACKSON LONDON, United States (AFP) — Prime Minister Theresa May will put her twice-rejected Brexit divorce deal to a third parliamentary vote on Friday in a renewed bid to avoid a chaotic split from the European Union in two weeks. May’s throw of the dice comes a day after her dramatic pledge to resign in order to persuade her rivals to finally back her vision for breaking Britain’s 46-year membership of the bloc. […]

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Trump threatens to shut Mexico border, again

by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday again threatened to seal the US-Mexican border, claiming in a tweet that America’s southern neighbor is allowing illegal immigrants to cross unhindered. “May close the Southern Border!” the president wrote. “Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action,” he said. “Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken […]

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