International

Kim must make ‘meaningful’ gesture to see sanctions ease: Trump

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un must make a “meaningful” gesture if he wants to see sanctions lifted, US President Donald Trump said Wednesday ahead of a second summit between the two men. “The sanctions are on in full. I haven’t taken sanctions off,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I’d love to be able to, but in order to do that, we have to do something that’s meaningful […]

Cardinals blame ‘homosexual agenda’ for abuse crisis

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Two  cardinals criticized on Wednesday Pope Francis’s approach to the clerical paedophilia crisis, saying “abuse of power” was not to blame but homosexuality. “We turn to you with deep distress! The Catholic world is adrift,” US Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and German Cardinal Walter Brandmueller said in an open letter to the heads of the bishops’ conferences. “Sexual abuse is blamed on clericalism. But the first and primary fault of the clergy does not rest […]

UPDATED: Fire kills 56 in Bangladesh capital, says official

by Shafiqul ALAM Agence France Presse DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 56 people have died in a huge fire that tore through apartment buildings also used as chemical warehouses in an old part of the Bangladeshi capital, a fire official said Thursday. Dozens of people were trapped in the buildings, unable to escape onto narrow streets clogged with traffic, as the highly-combustible stores of chemicals, body sprays and plastic granules erupted in flames. Bangladesh’s […]

Three MPs abandon May over Brexit as UK political sands shift

by Joe JACKSON Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Three MPs quit Britain’s governing Conservative Party on Wednesday in protest at its “disastrous” hard line on Brexit, joining a rebellion in parliament that is redrawing the country’s political landscape just weeks before it leaves the EU. The resignations by the pro-European trio posed a fresh and embarrassing headache for Prime Minister Theresa May as she headed to Brussels for talks with European Commission […]

2,500 foreign children in northeast Syria camps: charity

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — More than 2,500 foreign children from 30 countries who have fled the Islamic State group’s last redoubts are living in desperate conditions in camps in northeastern Syria, Save the Children said Thursday. The charity urged their countries of origin to “take action to ensure the safety of their citizens” as US-backed forces battle IS in the final sliver of territory it holds near the Iraqi border. “They need specialised help to […]

Venezuela aid standoff hardens between Guaido, Maduro

by Roland LLOYD PARRY Agence France Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido forged ahead Wednesday with plans to bring US medical and food aid into the country in defiance of the military-backed government, raising fears of possible weekend confrontations. In the latest maneuver of his standoff with socialist President Nicolas Maduro, self-declared interim leader Guaido rallied bus drivers who he said will head to the borders to collect aid for Venezuelans […]

Trump bars US-born woman who joined IS from returning

by Shaun TANDON / with Gianrigo Marletta in Tampa Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist from returning home, making the highly unusual case that she is not a US citizen. Trump’s refusal to admit 24-year-old Hoda Muthana comes just as he is pressing Europeans to repatriate their own Islamic State fighters and will likely face legal challenges, with US […]

DFA: 3 Filipino tourists sentenced to jail in HK for using forged docs to open bank accounts

(Eagle News)—-Three Filipino call center employees were sentenced to five months in prison in Hong Kong after they opened bank accounts there using forged documents, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. In a statement, the DFA said the three were meted out a “reduced sentence for pleading guilty to two counts of “using a false instrument” before the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts. The DFA said the call center employees went to Hong Kong as tourists in […]

Six dead in Malaysia karaoke fire

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Six people, including three foreigners, were killed when a fire broke out Wednesday in a Malaysian karaoke centre, with rescuers describing scenes of chaos as the blaze engulfed the building. The fire erupted before dawn on the fourth floor of an eight-storey building in the city of Ipoh, northern Perak state. Firefighters rushed to the scene and found the bodies of six people who had died of smoke inhalation, Perak […]

One dead after Swiss avalanche, rescue search paused

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — One person engulfed in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps has died, police said Wednesday, as rescue operations to find other possible victims were paused after an all-night search. Four people had been reported as injured in the avalanche on Tuesday at the Crans-Montana ski station in southern Switzerland. One of the wounded, a 34-year-old French national, has died, police in Valais canton said in a tweet. “Searches that continued through […]

Gunmen killed ‘over 130’ in NW Nigeria: governor

ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP) — An attack by gunmen on villages in northwest Nigeria last week claimed “over 130” lives, more than double the toll initially reported, the governor of Kaduna state said on Tuesday. “The last report we got is that over 130 people were killed, not even 66,” governor Nasir El-Rufai said after a meeting of military and security chiefs in Abuja. El-Rufai, who was invited to speak at the briefing with President Muhammadu […]

Cyclone Oma strengthens, Australian coast warning triggered

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Cyclone Oma intensified to a damaging category three storm, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Wednesday, warning that it could bring severe weather to the continent after hitting the Pacific Islands. In the early hours of Wednesday Oma produced winds of up to 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, roughly equivalent to a category one hurricane. It is currently gusting far off the Australian coast, having passed New Caledonia, where high winds […]