International

Factory tour for N. Korea’s Kim on secretive Beijing visit

by Laurent THOMET Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly visited a pharmaceutical factory in China on Wednesday as he seeks economic support from his key ally along with diplomatic backing before his expected summit with Donald Trump. Kim arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a fourth visit to his country’s sole major diplomatic friend, a trip seen as a strategy session ahead of his possible second meeting […]

Macedonia starts crunch debate on controversial name change

by Saska CVETKOVSKA Agence France Presse SKOPJE, Macedonia (AFP) — Macedonian lawmakers gather from Wednesday to vote on changing their country’s name to settle a decades-long dispute with Greece and open the way to NATO and EU membership. But the switch to “the Republic of North Macedonia” is an uphill task involving four constitutional amendments and the support of two thirds of the 120-member parliament. The Social Democrat-led ruling coalition does not itself have those […]

Australian minister hints Saudi teen likely to get asylum

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Australia gave its strongest hint yet on Wednesday that an 18-year-old Saudi woman in Bangkok would be granted humanitarian asylum, despite efforts by Riyadh and her family to force her return home. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has documented her bid to flee her allegedly abusive family with minute-by-minute social media updates, intensifying the global spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s rights record. As public pressure heightened, an Australian minister appeared to go beyond Canberra’s […]

Maduro dismisses legitimacy questions as second term looms

by Maria Isabel SANCHEZ / Alexander MARTINEZ Agence France Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will begin his second mandate on Thursday plagued by accusations of illegitimacy and increasing international isolation in a country crippled by an economic crisis. The 56-year-old leader will be sworn in by the Supreme Court rather than the sidelined — and opposition controlled — parliament having been reelected in May in a poll boycotted by the majority […]

UN under attack?World body hit hard after US pullback

by Carole LANDRY Agence France Presse UNITED NATION, United States (AFP) — The year 2019 started off at the United Nations with Somalia brazenly kicking out the UN envoy, followed soon after by Guatemala ditching a UN-sponsored anti-corruption commission. After a tough year that saw the United States, the UN’s top financial backer, cut funding, pull out of the Human Rights Council and scrap UN-backed agreements, the United Nations is taking more hard hits. Some […]

Stop holding Americans ‘hostage’ over shutdown, Pelosi tells Trump

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Top congressional Democrats on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump of holding Americans “hostage” by refusing to strike a deal to fund shuttered government agencies, and using fear mongering to justify his demand for his much-hyped border wall. “President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis, and must re-open the government,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in a curt rebuttal to Trump’s address to […]

Trump demands $5.7 bn for steel barrier on US-Mexico border

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump repeated his demand Tuesday for $5.7 billion to fund a wall on the border with Mexico, describing a “growing crisis” of illegal immigration hurting millions of Americans. In his first ever televised Oval Office address, the president stopped short of calling for a much-touted state of emergency, instead appealing to the need to slash the cost of the illegal drug trade, which he put at $500 billion […]

US-Mexico border situation a ‘growing crisis’: Trump

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The situation along the US border with Mexico is a “growing crisis,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday, stressing that uncontrolled illegal immigration is hurting millions of Americans. “There is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border,” the president said in a rare live Oval Office address to the nation, adding that every day US Customs and Border Patrol agents “encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter […]

Mexico probes state oil company’s ex-security chief for fuel theft

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is waging a major crack-down on fuel theft, announced Tuesday an investigation into the former security chief of state oil company Pemex. Army general Eduardo Leon Trauwitz, the man who was charged with fighting the large-scale tapping of Pemex’s pipelines by Mexican gangs, is under investigation for involvement in the multi-billion-dollar criminal industry he was supposed to fight. “He’s on a list of people […]

Drone sighting briefly halts Heathrow Airport flights

by Dario THUBURN Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest hub, suspended all departing flights for around an hour Tuesday following a drone sighting, just three weeks after a similar incident at Gatwick caused havoc. A spokeswoman told AFP at 1835 GMT that flights at the airport, which handles 213,668 passengers a day, had resumed following the interruption. The Metropolitan Police said they were called at around 1705 GMT […]

South African train collision kills three, injures 600

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Two passenger trains collided head on during the morning rush hour in South Africa’s capital city Pretoria Tuesday, killing three people and injuring hundreds, emergency services said. Two critically injured people were airlifted from the scene of the crash in Mountain View, northern Pretoria, spokesman Charles Mabaso told AFP. Another 641 people were hurt, with 11 sustaining critical injuries and 62 suffering “moderate” injuries. “The current fatalities stand at three, […]

Trump to declare border ‘crisis’ in national TV address

by Sebastian Smith Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump will tell Americans in a prime-time speech Tuesday that the US-Mexico border is in “crisis” and Congress must approve construction of a wall to end a government shutdown now in its 18th day. After weeks of lashing out at Democratic opponents, mostly via Twitter and impromptu press conferences, Trump will deploy the presidency’s biggest PR gun: a formal address to the […]