International

China counterpunches against US in growing trade war

by Douglas Gillison / with Ryan MCMORROW in Beijing Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States – China on Friday struck back against US President Donald Trump’s trade offensive, intensifying the expanding and unpredictable dispute between the world’s two largest economies. Late Friday, China announced it was expanding its existing complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization, hours after the countries slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of cross-border trade. Beijing called the […]

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Iran talks aim to save nuclear deal after US pullout

by Frank Zeller Agence France-Presse VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – The top diplomats of Iran and five world powers meet Friday as Tehran seeks assurances it will benefit economically from the nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal from the pact. But in a setback on the eve of the talks, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron that European economic measures now on offer did not go far enough. Rouhani, who this week visited Europe […]

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33 clientes sin suministro eléctrico en Chile por el sistema frontal

Krest-Anne Cortes Eagle News Service SANTIAGO, Chile — El sistema frontal que la zona central del país enfrentó durante la jornada del día de ayer, llegó con lluvias y vientos intensos, el cual deja esta noche a unas 33 mil clientes sin suministro eléctrico. Esto fue señalado por la ministra de energía, Susana Jiménez, quien en declaraciones a Emol, detalló que “a nivel país, exactamente (tenemos) 32.639 afectados.” “Los principales cortes están en las regiones […]

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Death toll from Canada heat wave rises to 33

MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — A heat wave in Quebec has killed 33 people in the past week as high summer temperatures scorched eastern Canada, officials said Thursday. Eighteen of the dead were reported in the provincial capital Montreal, according to regional public health director Mylene Drouin. She added that the majority of the victims in the city were men aged between 53 and 85 living in vulnerable conditions and without access to air conditioning. The rest […]

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Seven bodies found as hopes dim for Chinese tourist boat sunk off Thai coast

by Elizabeth Law Agence France-Presse PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand’s navy pulled seven bodies from waters off the coast of the holiday island of Phuket on Friday after a tourist boat went down in heavy seas with dozens of Chinese passengers on board. The grim find takes the death toll so far to eight, with 49 other passengers unaccounted for but believed to have been trapped on the Phoenix as it sank in the Andaman […]

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Ex-Navy Seal dies in Thai cave rescue: official

Mae Sai, Thailand (AFP) — A former military diver has died after running out of oxygen while assisting in the rescue of 12 boys and their football coach trapped inside a cave in Thailand, an official said Friday. His death highlights the perils of the operation to extract the team from deep inside the waterlogged cave, raising questions about the feasibility of bringing youngsters out the same way. “A former Seal who volunteered to help […]

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Divers to check sunken Thai boat for Chinese tourists: Phuket governor

PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) – The search for scores of missing Chinese tourists whose boat capsized off Thailand’s Phuket island resumed early Friday, with divers poised to scour the sunken hull, the island’s governor told reporters. The Phoenix ran into trouble on Thursday afternoon, when it was hammered by five-meter high waves whipped up by a storm. The boat, which had left the popular snorkelling spot of Koh Racha to return to Phuket, was carrying 105 […]

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UN urges Libya not to detain rescued migrants

TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) – The head of the United Nations’ migration agency called Thursday on Libyan authorities not to detain migrants rescued or intercepted by the country’s coastguard. The International Organization for Migration’s William Lacy Swing said he had “suggested” to Libyan representatives that they and the IOM “try to break the link” between migrants being collected from the sea and put in detention. Migrants brought into Libya from the Mediterranean should instead be taken […]

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Fireworks explosions kill 24 in central Mexico

by Yemeli Ortega Agence France-Presse TULTEPEC, Mexico (AFP) – At least 24 people were killed in a series of explosions Thursday at fireworks warehouses in the town of Tultepec in central Mexico, including rescue workers who died saving others’ lives, officials said. The initial explosion occurred around 9:30 am (1430 GMT), then spread to other warehouses just as police and firefighters began attending to the first victims. Tultepec, a town of 65,000 people just north […]

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Justin Trudeau again defends himself against groping allegation

  OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau again defended himself Thursday against an allegation of sexual misconduct dating to nearly two decades ago, saying he did not act “inappropriately.” Following a meeting with Ontario’s new prime minister, avowed feminist Trudeau was asked about an allegation that he groped a journalist during a music festival in the western city of Creston, British Columbia in 2000. “I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in […]

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Japan’s emperor resumes duties after illness

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s ageing Emperor Akihito resumed his official duties on Thursday after three days of treatment for insufficient blood supply to the brain, a palace spokesman told AFP. The 84-year-old had cancelled engagements from Monday after suffering dizziness and nausea caused by the condition, known as cerebral anemia. A palace spokesman said the monarch on Thursday was “doing his official duties as usual,” declining to comment further. On Wednesday the palace had […]

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‘Race against water’ as rain threatens Thai boys in the cave

  by Thanaporn Promyamyai Agence France Presse MAE SAI, Thailand (AFP) — Thai rescuers on Thursday said they may be prodded into a complex extraction of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave if forecast rains hammer the mountainside and jeopardize the rescue mission. Thirteen sets of diving equipment have been prepared for the team, who have endured 12 nights underground in the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Thailand. Water is […]

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