PERIBAN, Mexico (AFP) — Residents from a Mexican village try to clean damaged streets and houses after at least five people died and nine are missing following heavy rain and a river flooding. https://youtu.be/34GVWkx3OwU
International
In abandoned villa, Syrian children study on the ground
ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — In rebel-held northern Syria, displaced children sit or lie on the ground of an unfinished villa, bending over their notebooks to apply themselves as they write the day’s lesson. Four teachers instruct around 100 children — girls and boys aged six to 12 — at the makeshift school in an opposition-held area in the west of the northern province of Aleppo. Between the bare walls of the villa abandoned mid-construction, children […]
China says can’t hold US trade talks with ‘knife to the throat’
by Ryan MCMORROW Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said on Tuesday it was impossible to hold trade talks with the United States while Washington is imposing tariffs that are like “holding a knife to someone’s throat”. Speaking a day after Washington activated tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen said China is open to negotiations but that the two sides must treat each other “equally and with […]
After N. Korea, Trump targets Iran with ‘maximum pressure’
by Francesco FONTEMAGGI Agence France Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — One year after mobilizing the international community against North Korea, Donald Trump is trying to force another arch enemy to the negotiating table by targeting Iran with a similar campaign of “maximum pressure.” But if North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has seen his standing with the US president transformed in the 12 months since Trump’s United Nations debut, the prospects of Hassan […]
DFA: 7 of 12 crew members abducted from ship off Nigeria are Filipinos
(Eagle News)–The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Sept. 25, confirmed seven of the 12 crew members who were abducted from a ship off the coast of Nigeria were Filipinos. In a statement, the DFA said it was taking the necessary steps to ensure the safe release” of the Filipino crew members of the MV Glarus who were taken as the Swiss-owned vessel was making its way from Lagos to Port Harcourt. The vessel had 19 […]
US violent crime rate fell in 2017: official data
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States saw a 0.2 percent fall in overall violent crime in 2017, returning to a long-term trend of decline after two years of increases, according to data published by the FBI on Monday. The bureau recorded almost 1.25 million cases of violent crime in 2017, which included nearly 18,000 homicides, or a murder rate of 5.3 for every 100,000 inhabitants in its report, “Crime in the United States, […]
Putin tells Assad of planned S-300 delivery in phone call: Kremlin
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday spoke to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the first time since last week’s downing of a Russian military plane, telling him of Moscow’s plan to deliver a new S-300 air defense system to the Syrian army. In the phone call, initiated by Assad, Putin spoke of “additional measures to ensure the safety of Russian troops in Syria and to reinforce the country’s air defense system, which includes […]
Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh: ‘I will not be intimidated’
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh rejected Monday fresh accusations of sexual assault when he was young and said he would not withdraw from consideration for the high court. “These are smears, pure and simple,” he said in a statement. “I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process.” He charged the allegations that he assaulted women more than three decades ago were part of an unfounded […]
US gives $185 million in aid for Myanmar Rohingya
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The United States pledged $185 million Monday to help Rohingya refugees who fled an army crackdown in Myanmar last year and are sheltering in camps in Bangladesh. US Ambassador Nikki Haley announced the new funding for food, water, health care and other critical aid during a ministerial meeting on the crisis in Myanmar, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. The UN, along […]
Relief as Maldives strongman concedes defeat
by Amal Jayasinghe Agence France Presse COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — The strongman leader of the Maldives on Monday conceded defeat in the presidential election, easing fears of a fresh political crisis in the archipelago at the centre of a battle for influence between India and China. “The Maldivian people have decided what they want. I have accepted the results from yesterday,” President Abdulla Yameen said in a televised address to the Indian Ocean […]
Solo yachtsman stranded at sea rescued: Indian navy
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — A solo Indian yachtsman trapped in his bunk by a serious back injury thousands of kilometers (miles) from land was rescued Monday, an Indian navy official said. Abhilash Tomy, a competitor in the Golden Globe round-the-world race, was badly injured when his vessel was damaged in a storm on Friday 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) from western Australia. Race organizers said the 39-year-old Indian navy commander had been “incapacitated on his […]
Sumatran elephant ‘poisoned’ in Indonesia palm plantation
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP)- A critically endangered elephant has been found dead in a palm oil plantation on Indonesia’s Sumatra island in what is suspected to be a deliberate poisoning, an official said Friday. The 10-year-old female Sumatran elephant was found in Jambo Reuhat village in North Aceh on Thursday — the third of its species to be found dead of suspected poisoning in the same palm plantation since 2015. “We found fruits and a pouch with traces of powder inside the animal,” Aceh […]
