Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
IQUIQUE, Chile (AFP) — Pope Francis on Thursday strongly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a priest’s sexual abuse of minors. “The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak,” the pope said in response to a journalist’s question about the 61-year-old bishop, appointed by Francis in 2015 despite being accused of covering up another priest’s abuse of boys. “There is not a single piece of proof against […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — A car ploughed into a crowd on Rio de Janeiro’s tourist-packed Copacabana seaside promenade on Thursday, killing a baby and injuring 17 people, authorities said, with the driver telling investigators he suffered a seizure. The black car, its windshield shattered and the front caved in, came to rest on the beach where some of the injured were frantically being treated. The Rio de Janeiro health secretariat told AFP that […]
by Jim Mannion Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The US House of Representatives passed a stop-gap funding measure late Thursday that would avert a government shutdown, sending it to the Senate where Democrats have vowed to block it. With the federal government set to run out of money Friday at midnight — the eve of the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration — the bill cleared the House with a 230-197 vote. But prospects appeared […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – Chinese authorities detained a prominent human rights lawyer on Friday, people familiar with the case said, just hours after he provided journalists with a letter calling for constitutional reform. Around a dozen people, including a SWAT team, seized Yu Wensheng as he left his Beijing apartment to walk his child to school, two sources told AFP. Local police said they were unaware of his detention. Yu has been a persistent voice for reform in […]
BERKELEY, United States (AFP) – Enter California student city Berkeley, and you’ll more than likely meet people marching and carrying signs. Protests are deeply-rooted in the city across the bay from San Francisco, where a movement for campus free speech originated in the 1960s and launched a heritage of activism. Now, in the face of an immigration crackdown since President Donald Trump took office one year ago, Berkeley is resisting again. It is one of some 400 […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — A car ploughed into a crowd on Rio de Janerio’s tourist-packed Copacabana promenade on Thursday, injuring 11 people, Brazilian police said. “A person lost control of his vehicle… running over at least 11 people,” a Rio military police spokesman told AFP, adding that initial information did not suggest it was an intentional attack. According to firefighters, one of the victims of the accident was seriously hurt. © Agence France-Presse
by Hui Min Neo with Jo Biddle in The Hague Agence France-Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Nine people including two firefighters were killed Thursday as violent gales battered northern Europe, snapping air and train links. Germany halted all long-distance rail traffic for at least a day, while numerous domestic flights were scrapped as hurricane-force winds lashed the country. The storm claimed six lives in Germany, including two firefighters deployed in emergency operations and two truck […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Leading Zimbabwe opposition figure Roy Bennett, one of long-time president Robert Mugabe’s most outspoken critics, has died in a helicopter crash in a remote area of the US state of New Mexico, authorities said Thursday. He was 60. Bennett was killed along with his wife Heather and three other people after the helicopter went down on Wednesday, New Mexico state police said. A crash survivor called 911 for help […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday she is expecting her first baby in June, making her the country’s first leader to give birth while in office. The 37-year-old, who took office in October, said the pregnancy was “unexpected but exciting” for her and partner Clarke Gayford. “We’re both really happy. We wanted a family but weren’t sure it would happen for us,” she said in a statement. The charismatic leader […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he hopes to visit the new US embassy in London next week, shortly after President Donald Trump refused to attend its opening ceremony. Tillerson will be in Britain on Monday at the start of a sweep through Europe that will take him on to Paris, Warsaw, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. His meetings in each city have not been finalized, State Department officials […]
BRAZILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Police violence in Brazil is unabated, Human Rights Watch warned on Thursday, calling on the government to take action against a spate of extrajudicial killings. In its latest report on human rights in 90 countries, HRW said that 437 police officers were killed in Brazil in 2016, the vast majority of them while off duty. The same year, police officers killed at least 4,224 people, about 26 percent more than in 2015, according […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — The bus fire in Kazakhstan in which 52 people were killed Thursday is among of the deadliest bus accidents in the world over the past five years. Here are some of the others. 2018 Peru: Fifty-two people die in January when a bus plunges 100 meters (330 feet) over a seaside cliff after colliding with a truck on a precarious stretch of road known as the “devil’s curve.” The accident is […]
