International

US crude exports becoming bigger presence in global oil

  by Juliette Michel © Agence France-Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Boosted by surging output, the United States is becoming a significant exporter of crude oil, a shift that is remaking American infrastructure and altering the global petroleum market. Now pumping more than 10 million barrels per day, the US has become the second biggest oil producer in the world behind Russia and ahead of Saudi Arabia. The bounty is the result of the […]

Russia votes with strongman Putin set for fourth term

by Theo Merz © Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russians headed to the polls Sunday in elections set to hand President Vladimir Putin a historic fourth Kremlin term, as the country faces increasing isolation over a spy poisoning in Britain and a fresh round of US sanctions. With the vast country stretching across 11 time zones, polls opened in the Russian far east at 2000 GMT on Saturday and will close in Kaliningrad, the country’s […]

NY, NJ High school students march during nationwide walkout

NEW YORK (Eagle News) – It’s a cry for help for high school students. A long-standing issue that needs a resolution from Congress. Students voicing their needs and concerns regarding gun violence in schools throughout the nation. In schools and public places in New York and New Jersey,  students rallied and held peaceful demonstrations Wednesday morning as part of National School Walkout Day. This march was to honor the 17 students and faculty members of […]

Engineer warned of cracking in US bridge before deadly collapse

by Leila Macor Agence France-Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — The chief engineer of a Florida bridge project warned authorities of cracking in the structure days before it collapsed, killing at least six people, the southern US state’s department of transportation said Friday. Chief engineer Denney Pate left a voicemail on a Florida Department of Transportation employee’s landline on March 13, two days before the pedestrian walkway came crashing down on the major road beneath, […]

Xi gets second term with powerful ally as VP

By  Laurent Thomet and Ryan McMorrow Agence France Presse China’s parliament unanimously handed President Xi Jinping a second term Saturday and elevated his right-hand man to the vice presidency, giving him a strong ally to consolidate power and handle US trade threats. Xi’s reappointment by the Communist Party-controlled legislature was a foregone conclusion, but all eyes had been on whether his former anti-corruption enforcer, Wang Qishan, would become his deputy. The National People’s Congress has […]

Death and exodus as two Syria assaults escalate

by Maher al-Mounes with Tony Gamal-Gabriel in Beirut © Agence France-Presse ADRA, Syria (AFP) — Air strikes killed dozens of civilians in Eastern Ghouta on Friday and forced thousands more to flee, as Syrian troops pressed their blistering assault on the last rebel stronghold near Damascus. The latest deaths brought the toll for the nearly month-old offensive to 1,350, with world powers still unable to stop one of the devastating conflict’s worst crises. Syria’s war enters […]

Kremlin furious as Britain blames Putin for ex-spy attack

by Anna SMOLCHENKO with Alice RITCHIE in London Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia – Britain on Friday provoked Russia’s wrath by directly implicating Vladimir Putin in the nerve agent attack on an ex-double agent, with the Kremlin saying the claims were “shocking and unforgivable.” The war of words between Moscow and London over the poisoning of a former Russian spy escalated as Britain’s outspoken Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his government’s “quarrel” was with Putin rather […]

Top officials scramble to make Trump-Kim summit a reality

by Dave Clark / with Gael Branchereau in Stockholm Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States – Senior officials staged a flurry of calls and top-level meetings on Friday as they scrambled to make a proposed nuclear summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un a reality. There was no immediate breakthrough, but North Korea’s foreign minister was to remain in Stockholm into Saturday for further talks with Swedish leaders, as the Scandinavian […]

Protest in Madrid after street vendor’s death sparks clashes

by Laurence BOUTREUX Agence France-Presse MADRID, Spain – More than a thousand protesters took to the streets in central Madrid on Friday as tensions remained high a day after violent clashes over the controversial death of a Senegalese street vendor. The protesters gathered in a square in the Lavapies district of the Spanish capital in the early evening, many of them young, dressed in black and wearing bandanas. Some shouted “kill police”, an AFP journalist […]

Hillary Clinton fractures hand on India trip

  NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Hillary Clinton has fractured her hand during a tour of India, reportedly slipping in a bathtub at a luxury hotel in a former palace. A doctor at the private Goyal Hospital told AFP Friday that Clinton had undergone screening after suffering pain in her right hand following a fall. The 70-year-old former presidential candidate was staying at Umaid Bhawan, the palace of the former royal family of Jodhpur in […]

Deadly tragedy hits Florida again; overpass collapses killing six

FLORIDA (Eagle News) – A month after the mass shootings in South Florida, another tragic event took place in the Sunshine State. A newly constructed pedestrian bridge collapsed at Florida International University (FIU) in the middle of the afternoon causing injuries and killing at least six people. FIU released a statement that the street portion on 8th street would be temporarily closed for installment of the pedestrian bridge from Friday night, March 9, to early […]

S. Korea, US to scale down military drills: report

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea and the United States will scale down and shorten annual joint military exercises in light of a diplomatic thaw with Pyongyang, a report said Friday. The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills held every spring regularly infuriate the nuclear-armed North, which usually condemns them as preparations for invasion and responds with provocations of its own, ratcheting tensions higher. But the two Koreas and the US are in the […]