International

Coming, ready or not: thousands pour in for Asian Games

  by Talek Harris © Agence France-Presse JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Thousands of athletes are flying in as Indonesia makes final preparations to host the Asian Games — the world’s second biggest multi-sports event, taking place against a backdrop of terrorism fears, environmental concerns and logistical headaches. Organisers are making reassuring noises about their arrangements but Indonesia has never hosted a sports event on this scale, with 16,000 competitors and officials descending on Jakarta and Palembang, […]

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Arms, investment and ‘instructors’: Russia boosts Africa role

  by Maxime Popov with AFP bureaus in Africa © Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Touting military cooperation and “instructors,” arms deals and investment, Russia is making a comeback in Africa after years of inactivity and now aims to rival European countries and even China, analysts say. Moscow has worked hard over the last three years to strengthen its position in Africa, a pace that seems to have accelerated in recent months, they say. Its […]

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Protests at funeral for Yemeni children killed in coalition strike

    SAADA, Yemen (AFP) — Thousands of Yemenis vented anger against Riyadh and Washington on Monday as they took part in a mass funeral for children killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition. At least 29 children were among those killed in the air raid Thursday on a bus in a crowded market in Dahyan, Saada province, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The mass funeral was held in Saada […]

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School boy, 14, runs for Vermont governor

  NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Most 14-year-old American schoolboys might be fixated on baseball, chasing girls and dodging their homework. Not Ethan Sonneborn. He’s running for governor in Vermont. The teenager is taking advantage of a quirk in the constitution of the bucolic northeastern state that imposes no age limit on running for governor. Candidates only have to have lived in Vermont for at least four years. Ethan, happily for his campaign, has […]

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Senior Trump officials survey California fire devastation

  by Frankie Taggart Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Senior members of the Trump administration were due in California Monday as blazes that have killed at least eight people continued to cut a catastrophic swathe through the country’s most populous state. Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes over the last month, with 14 blazes still threatening land and property from south of Los Angeles to the state’s border with […]

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Romania to probe alleged police violence at anti-corruption protest attended by 80,000

  BUCHAREST, Romania (AFP) — Romania has opened an inquiry into alleged police violence at a mass anti-corruption protest against the left-wing government that left hundreds injured last week, military prosecutors said Monday. Some 80,000 people — many of them Romanians living abroad — demonstrated late Friday in Bucharest, accusing the government of corruption and urging it to resign. Police used water cannon, tear gas, pepper spray and batons to disperse the crowd. More than […]

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Indonesia quake death toll tops 400 as more bodies recovered

  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — The death toll from an earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has topped 400, authorities said Monday, as bodies were still being recovered from the ruins of destroyed buildings. The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake on August 5 levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok, just a week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17. “Search and rescue teams are still removing victims who […]

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Protests at funeral for Yemeni children killed in coalition strike

  SANAA, Yemen (AFP) — Thousands of Yemenis vented anger against Riyadh and Washington on Monday as they took part in a mass funeral for children killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition. At least 29 children were among those killed in the air raid on Thursday on a bus in a crowded market in Dahyan, Saada province, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The mass funeral was held in […]

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1,800 evacuated as France defuses British WWII bomb

RENNES, France (AFP) — Some 1,800 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in northwest France on Sunday as a bomb squad defused a British bomb from World War II, officials said. The 220-kilogram (485-pound) bomb was found in late June during construction work near the center of Rouen in Normandy. Residents living within a 270-meter (nearly 900-foot) radius of the site was told to leave the area early Sunday ahead of the operation, which […]

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Nine killed in Taiwan hospice blaze

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Nine people were killed and 15 injured in a blaze that broke out early Monday at a hospice for the terminally ill near Taiwan’s capital Taipei, fire officials said. All of the 36 people inside, including three staff, were evacuated after the fire started at the hospice on the seventh floor of a nine-storey hospital in New Taipei city. Sixteen had cardiac arrests and seven were revived. The other nine died […]

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Mali counts votes after poll worker slain

by Clément SABOURIN Agence France Presse BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Vote counting was underway across Mali on Monday after a tense presidential runoff in which a poll worker was killed and 100 polling stations were forced to close due to the security threat from Islamist militants. Security had been drastically boosted ahead of the election’s second round between President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and former finance minister Soumaila Cisse. But over 100 stations had to be […]

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Mali counts votes after poll worker slain

  by Clément Sabourin Agence France-Presse BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Vote counting was under way across Mali on Monday after a tense presidential runoff in which a poll worker was killed and 100 polling stations were forced to close due to the security threat from Islamist militants. Security had been drastically boosted ahead of the election’s second round between President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and former finance minister Soumaila Cisse. But over 100 stations had to be […]

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