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by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House said Thursday it was preparing for a US government shutdown as Congress hit a stumbling block in its efforts to pass a stopgap spending bill before midnight. With just hours to go before current federal funding expires, the effort stalled in the Senate when one lawmaker blocked a quick vote on the compromise bill, which includes a major budget deal that […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Russia’s UN ambassador on Thursday slammed as “criminal” the US-led coalition strikes against pro-regime forces in Syria that left more than 100 dead. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that he protested the assault in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor during a closed-door Security Council meeting. “It was inadmissible for whatever reasons it was justified,” Nebenzia told reporters, adding that he told the United States “to remember that they […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Deadly air strikes by a US-led coalition on pro-regime forces in eastern Syria were purely an act of self-defense, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Thursday, in an apparent effort to tamp down controversy over the incident. “It was self-defense,” Mattis told reporters. “We are not getting engaged in the Syrian civil war.” More than 100 forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were killed in the attack by the US-backed […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — A Canadian submarine is patrolling the western Pacific for the first time in nearly 50 years, the navy said Thursday, amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Although HMCS Chicoutimi’s mission was scheduled a year ago, it comes after the United States and its allies agreed at crisis talks in Vancouver last month to tougher measures to halt North Korean sanctions violations, including naval security operations to prevent maritime […]
by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Top US lawmakers scrambled Thursday to rally support for a deal to keep the federal government open past a midnight deadline, as rebellion simmered among Republicans and Democrats over the bipartisan budget agreement struck to end the logjam. Senators were expected to take up and pass the breakthrough bill later Thursday, and then send it to the House of Representatives — which will barely […]
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AFP) — More than 500 North Koreans are converging on Pyeongchang in South Korea for the 2018 Olympics, in a historic cross-border exchange between two countries still technically at war. AFP looks at what we know so far about the visitors from the isolated, nuclear-armed state. Kim’s sister The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit South Korea for Friday’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony and meet with South […]
by Jung Ha-won Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea staged a military parade in Pyongyang Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on a show just a day before the Winter Olympics open in the South. The nuclear-armed North is on an Olympics-linked charm offensive — sending a troupe of performers, hundreds of female cheerleaders, and the sister of leader Kim Jong Un to […]
by Michelle Yun Agence France Presse HUALIEN, Taiwan (AFP) — At an elementary school turned shelter in Taiwan’s Hualien city some survivors of a tower block left teetering by Tuesday’s quake were baffled and angry that such a seemingly solid structure had folded with deadly results. Emergency workers on Thursday were still pulling bodies from the 12-storey Yun Tsui apartment block, which was left tottering at a fifty-degree angle when its lower floors pancaked […]
by Michelle Yun Agence France Presse HUALIEN, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwanese rescuers Thursday braved aftershocks coursing through a dangerously leaning apartment block that was partially toppled by a deadly earthquake as their search for survivors uncovered two more bodies. At least nine people were killed and dozens remained missing after a 6.4-magnitude quake hit the popular eastern tourist city of Hualien late Tuesday, according to a revised toll from the national fire agency. The […]
by Julie Charpentrat Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick on Wednesday denied conspiring to steal autonomous driving technology in a tense courtroom appearance that could be key to a blockbuster trial over allegedly ill-gotten trade secrets. In a second day of testimony in the trial pitting former Google car division Waymo against Uber, Kalanick maintained he did not ask for proprietary data when he hired a star engineer from […]
by Daphné Benoit Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – France on Wednesday announced plans to boost defense spending by more than 40 percent, bringing it into line with NATO targets after complaints from US President Donald Trump that Europe is not pulling its weight. European NATO members have come under pressure from Trump to relieve the burden on the US, which currently accounts for about 70 percent of combined NATO defense spending. The French government unveiled a bill […]
by Michael Mathes Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – US Senate leaders said Wednesday they had reached a bipartisan budget deal for 2018 and 2019 — a move which, if approved by Congress, would avert a second government shutdown in just three weeks. The deal, months in the making, was seen as a major achievement for both the ruling Republicans and opposition Democrats in a deeply divided Washington. The breakthrough came on the eve of a […]
