International

Venezuela’s financial accountability authority probes Guaido

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s office of financial accountability said on Monday it has opened an investigation into opposition leader Juan Guaido’s income. The agency’s chief, Elvis Amoroso, said that Guaido, who has been recognized as Venezuela’s interim president by around 50 countries, “allegedly … received money from international and national bodies without any justification.” Amoroso, an official close to the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, whom Guaido is trying to dislodge, said the parliament […]

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Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan arrives in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan arrived in Afghanistan on a surprise visit Monday as the United States seeks to support the Kabul government while negotiating peace with the Taliban. Shanahan will meet President Ashraf Ghani, whose government was not part of major talks between US and Taliban officials last month that negotiators hope could bring a breakthrough in the grinding 17-year conflict. The US diplomat leading the talks has expressed hope […]

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Poverty not an obstacle to excellent healthcare in Africa: Gates

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday that excellent basic healthcare that would prevent easily treatable but deadly conditions was achievable even in Africa’s poorest nations. “The good news about health is that by spending modest amounts on the prioritized areas, you can get phenomenal benefits,” he told AFP on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. “You don’t have to get all the way to middle-income before […]

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New Zealand wildfire expected to burn for weeks

WELLINGTON, United States (AFP) — A large New Zealand wildfire is expected to burn for weeks longer but has moved away from some inhabited areas, allowing residents of an evacuated village to return home soon, firefighters said Monday. About 3,000 inhabitants of Wakefield, just outside Nelson at the top of South Island, were ordered out Saturday as flames razed bushland within two kilometers (1.2 miles) of their homes. The fire erupted early last week amid […]

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Modest praise for US reform of visa program for skilled workers

by Rob Lever Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Trump administration’s new rules for a US visa program widely used for technology workers are getting cautious praise from Silicon Valley amid surging demand for high-skill employees. The H-1B visa program, which admits some 85,000 foreign nationals each year, will give higher priority to people with post-graduate degrees from US universities, under a final rule published in January by the Department of Homeland […]

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Turkey building collapse death toll rises to 17

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — The death toll from the collapse of an apartment building in Istanbul rose to 17 as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that authorities have “lessons to learn” from the incident. The eight-storey block in the Kartal district on the Asian side of the city collapsed on Wednesday but the cause is not yet clear. Erdogan Saturday visited the site and said the death toll had risen to 17 with 14 […]

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Hard work still needed before Kim-Trump summit – US envoy

by Claire Lee with Olivia Hampton in Washington Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — There was still some hard work to be done ahead of the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a Washington envoy said Saturday after three days of talks in Pyongyang. Stephen Biegun, the US Special Representative for North Korea, said preparatory talks had been productive, but more dialogue was needed ahead […]

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Family tries to revive search for Sala plane pilot

    LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The family of the pilot of the small plane that crashed over the Channel while flying Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala to Britain has launched a fundraising campaign to find his remains. British rescuers on Thursday formally identified the one body pulled from the submerged wreckage as that of the 28-year-old striker. But strong currents and winter weather forced them to call off the search before locating 59-year-old pilot […]

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Thousands without power as storm lashes Sydney

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Thousands of Sydney homes were without power Saturday after severe storms hit Australia’s largest city, causing transport hold-ups, inundating vehicles with floodwater and delaying a national football match. Heavy rains and lightning storms lashed parts of Sydney late Friday, with close to 60 millimetres (nearly two and a half inches) of rain falling in some areas. In Sydney’s west, which experienced some flash flooding, one suburb saw nearly 42 millimetres […]

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15 killed in knife rampage and arson attack in China

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Fifteen people were killed in China on the night of the Lunar New Year in two family tragedies, after one man started a fire and another went on a knife rampage. As people celebrated to welcome in the  Chinese New Year Monday night, a man surnamed Lu set fire to the home of his brother in the northern province of Shaanxi, killing seven, according to police in the town of Baoji. […]

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Fire in Brazil kills at least 10 in Flamengo youth football facility

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Fire swept through a training facility for Brazil’s most popular football club Flamengo Friday, killing at least 10 people, authorities said. The pre-dawn blaze in Rio de Janeiro hit a building that housed youth-category players aged 14 to 17, firefighters said. In addition to the deaths, three people were injured in the fire. The cause was not immediately known. Globo TV broadcast aerial footage of the fire, which it […]

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Erupting Indonesian volcano spews ash, lava

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has spewed a plume of grey ash into the sky as fiery red molten lava streamed down from its crater. Authorities did not raise the rumbling volcano’s alert status after the eruption on Thursday evening. But any activity at Merapi raises concern and local residents have previously been ordered to stay outside a five-kilometre (three-mile) no-go zone around the crater near […]

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