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PARIS, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – The French government said on Friday it will deploy more than 95,000 police and military personnel for New Year Eve’s celebrations, adding that a heightened “terrorist threat” required tight security. Paris alone, where up to one million revellers are expected on the Champs-Elysees Sunday night — twice as many as last year — will get 6,000 security forces to keep order. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that Sunday’s […]
By Grégory PLESSE SYDNEY, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – Three years after steep Chinese tariffs halted imports of Australian barley as tensions between the two countries ratcheted higher, the grain is once again flowing freely. Barley is not only used to brew beer but to feed pigs, and China was Australia’s leading market, taking 50 percent of its barley exports. China has imported 314,000 tonnes of Australian barley worth 139 million Australian dollars (around $94 […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – Taiwan’s presidential candidates clashed on Saturday over their positions on the self-ruled island’s relations with China, in a debate before an upcoming vote closely watched from Beijing to Washington. Democratic Taiwan is two weeks from the pivotal election, the results of which could determine Taipei’s future ties with an increasingly bellicose China. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has vowed to take it by force if […]
NEW YORK, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – A federal prosecutor in New York has decided against pursuing a second trial, this one over corruption and illegal political donations, against former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried. The founder and CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange platform, Bankman-Fried had been charged earlier with misappropriating billions of dollars of his clients’ funds without their consent. He was found guilty in early November of seven counts including fraud, conspiracy and […]
NAMHSAN, Myanmar, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – A squad of Myanmar pro-democracy fighters works quickly to ready drones for an attack on a nearby military base, the latest target in a wave of aerial assaults that has helped turn the war against the junta. The team stood back as one contraption named “Bomber VIII” carrying a new six-kilogram explosive soared over a line of trees. “The military position is four kilometres away from us,” said […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – With multiple US states hearing challenges to Donald Trump’s right to run in the 2024 election, his supporters claim his enemies are tearing up democracy to prevent his return to the White House. Rulings in Colorado and Maine banning the ex-president from their primary nominating contests under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause” set off a political earthquake that could upend the campaign. But do they pose a genuine threat to […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – In the middle of the Pacific ocean, an abandoned US airfield once key to dropping the nuclear bomb on Japan — and nearly lost to history amid encroaching forest — is being revived. But as the Americans hack away at the jungle overgrowth at Tinian island airfield and other old, World War II-era bases across the region, it won’t be with Japan on their mind. Rather, it’s Beijing’s growing […]
SEOUL, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – A new reactor at North Korea’s main nuclear facility will likely be fully operational by next summer, Seoul’s defence minister said, a week after the UN atomic agency called it a “cause for concern”. Shin Won-sik told local media Thursday that the new reactor at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex appears to be in a “trial operation” stage and that it is expected to be fully operational next summer. […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Friday announced the approval of a $147.5 million sale of 155mm high-explosive artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel under an emergency provision that waives the usual congressional review. The same provision was used earlier this month to approve the sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of 120mm tank ammunition to Israel, which is battling Hamas in Gaza in a highly destructive conflict that began with […]
MEXICO CITY, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – Gunmen killed six people at a party in northwestern Mexico on Friday, including an alleged criminal believed to have been targeted in the attack, authorities said. “Initial investigations indicate that it was a direct attack against the leader of a criminal group who had arrest warrants for attempted femicide, homicide, illegal deprivation of liberty and criminal association,” the Sonora state prosecutor’s office said. It said the unidentified target […]
By Anna MALPAS with Florent Vergnes KYIV, Ukraine, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – Russia launched a massive air attack over Ukraine on Friday, killing at least 30 people and wounding over a hundred across the country in the fiercest assault since the first days of the war nearly two years ago. Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the barrage, said Ukrainian officials. The attacks — […]
WARSAW, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – A Russian missile passed through Polish airspace Friday, entering from and then back into Ukraine, the Polish army said, as Russia pummelled Ukraine with one of the biggest air attacks of the war. “Everything indicates that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace… It also left our airspace,” said General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces. “We have national and allied radar confirmation,” he […]
