International

Chinese billionaire arrested in US over sexual misconduct allegations

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Chinese e-commerce billionaire Liu Qiangdong — also known as Richard Liu — was briefly arrested in the midwestern US city of Minneapolis over allegations of criminal sexual conduct, authorities said. Records from Hennepin County Jail showed Liu, founder and CEO of Chinese online retail giant JD.com, was arrested over the misconduct allegations late Friday night and released Saturday afternoon. The Minneapolis Police Department said the investigation remained active and […]

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China’s ‘Silk Road’ project runs into debt jam

  by Julien Girault Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s massive and expanding “Belt and Road” trade infrastructure project is running into speed bumps as some countries begin to grumble about being buried under Chinese debt. First announced in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the initiative also known as the “new Silk Road” envisions the construction of railways, roads and ports across the globe, with Beijing providing billions of dollars in loans to […]

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Saudi-led coalition admits ‘mistakes’ in deadly Yemen bus strike

  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen admitted Saturday that “mistakes” had been made in an August air strike that killed 40 children. The bombing on a crowded market in part of northern Yemen held by Huthi rebels killed a total of 51 people, according to the Red Cross. Fifty-six children were also among the 79 people wounded in the August 9 strike on Saada province, a stronghold of […]

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Israel welcomes end of US funding for UN Palestinian refugee agency

JERUSALEM (AFP) —  Israel welcomed Saturday a US decision to end funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), accusing the organisation which supports some five million Palestinians of perpetuating the Middle East conflict. Israel and the United States have accused the nearly 70-year-old agency of maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to the homes from which they fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied […]

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Palestinian anger as US ends funding for UN agency

  by Hossam Ezzedine Agence France Presse RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — Palestinians reacted angrily Saturday to a US decision to end all funding for the UN agency that assists millions of refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause. Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), announced on Friday that it would no longer […]

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New cases of sex abuse of minors by Catholic priests in Chile discovered; cases triple to 119

  by Paulina Abramovich Agence France Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Scores of new cases of priestly sexual abuse of minors have come to light in Chile, public prosecutors said Friday, deepening a crisis in the country’s Catholic Church that has embroiled its Pope Francis. The country’s chief prosecutor’s office said the number of cases it was investigating had soared to 119 as more victims came forward. A total of 167 bishops, priests and lay […]

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Double stabbing at Amsterdam station in possible terror attack

by Germain Moyon with Jan Hennop in The Hague Agence France Presse AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch police were investigating Saturday a suspected terror attack at Amsterdam’s Central Station, in which two people were stabbed before the knifeman was shot by police. The assailant was identified as an 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit. “We are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive,” Amsterdam police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek told AFP. […]

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Four dead, three missing after Myanmar dam overflow

BAGO, Myanmar (AFP) — Floods from a dam breach in Central Myanmar has left four people dead and three missing, a ministry official confirmed Friday, the first casualties reported two days after a portion of the levee collapsed from heavy monsoon rains. The deceased were three men and one woman, said Phyu Lei Lei Tun, a director at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. “According to the information we got as of this […]

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Deposed Australian PM Turnbull quits parliament

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Deposed Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull officially resigned from parliament Friday, sparking a by-election for his Sydney seat that could threaten the government’s slim one-seat majority. Moderate Turnbull, 63, was ousted a week ago in a Liberal party coup driven by a hardline conservative faction and he indicated at the time he would not move to the backbench. New Prime Minister Scott Morrison paid tribute to his “legacy of great achievement”. […]

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London’s new train line delayed for nearly a year: CEO

LONDON, United States (AFP) — London’s new train line, which was set to open through the city centre in December, has been put back for nearly a year, the Crossrail project announced Friday. “We have made huge progress with the delivery of this incredible project but we need further time to complete the testing of the new railway,” Crossrail chief executive Simon Wright said in a statement. © Agence France-Presse

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US groups representing victims of clergy abuse press US justice dep’t to conduct probe of cover-up

https://youtu.be/LqFIVfPvTBU     United States groups representing survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests called Thursday on the Vatican to publish a list of clerics accused of sexual assault, even as they pressed the US Department of Justice to “do something about this.” The calls came after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican envoy to Washington, dropped an 11-page bombshell letter on Saturday accusing Pope Francis of ignoring sexual abuse allegations against prominent US […]

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In Kenya, rubbish reborn as art

by Zina DESMAZES Agence France Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — In a room that is both home and studio, Evans Ngure works on a sculpture, a fantastical fish fabricated from found objects: wooden spoons, broken scissors and an old machete. Long before upcycling became a hipster mantra, Ngure turned his Nairobi apartment into a workshop, and junk into art, his choice of artistic expression echoing a necessary developing world culture of re-use. After trying his […]

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