International

Kosovo Serb politician killed in drive-by shooting

by Tanja Vujisic Agence France-PresseKOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo – Prominent Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic was shot dead in a brazen drive-by shooting on Tuesday that risked fanning ethnic tensions in the volatile region. The killers struck on the very day that Belgrade and Pristina resumed EU-moderated talks on normalising ties after a hiatus of more than a year. Both Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials refrained from explicitly accusing each other of being behind the killing as the international […]

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Macron gets tough on migrants, vowing ‘no more Jungles’

by Clare Byrne with Katy Lee in Paris Agence France-Presse CALAIS, France –President Emmanuel Macron vowed Tuesday that France would no longer allow migrant camps like the notorious “Jungle” as he defended a tougher line on immigration that has attracted sharp criticism from some of his allies. In a closely watched speech in Calais, Macron promised a more orderly immigration policy with zero tolerance for camps like the Jungle, the squalid shantytown near the northern city’s port […]

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Pope in Chile seeks forgiveness for Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals

  by Catherine Marciano Agence France Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday opened his visit to Chile by asking forgiveness for child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in the South American country. “I cannot begin to express the pain and shame that I feel over the irreparable harm caused to children on the part of Church ministers,” the 81-year-old pontiff said. “I would like to join with my […]

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South Korean soldiers’ wages almost doubled

(AFP) — South Korea nearly doubled wages for its rank-and-file conscripted soldiers on Tuesday but their pay will remain just a fraction of the country’s minimum wage. Salaries for conscripted privates were raised 88 percent from 163,000 won to 306,100 won ($288) a month, with privates first class and corporals enjoying similar increases. But they remain far below South Korea’s minimum wage of 10,000 won ($9.40) per hour. President Moon Jae-In has promised to increase […]

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Australia offers cash for Great Barrier Reef rescue ideas

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia is calling on the world’s top scientific minds to help save the Great Barrier Reef, offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund research into protecting the world’s largest living structure. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef is reeling from significant coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change. The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) site is also under pressure from farming runoff, development and predatory crown-of-thorns starfish, with experts warning […]

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Eight bodies found as ‘North Korean’ boat washes up in Japan

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Eight bodies have been recovered from a wrecked boat that washed ashore in central Japan, authorities said Tuesday, suspecting the vessel is the latest in a series of North Korean “ghost ships.” Coastguard rescuers found the corpses of seven men inside the wreckage of the boat that washed up in Kanazawa, central Japan, last week, senior police official Hiroshi Abe told AFP. The badly decomposed remains of another man were […]

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Scandals overshadow pope’s meetings in Chile

by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Catholic Pope Francis will hold a closely watched meeting with members of Chile’s under-fire clergy on Tuesday, the first full day of his visit to a country whose church is beset by sex abuse scandals. He arrived in Santiago Monday night and was received by leftist President Michelle Bachelet — an agnostic who has faced down the conservative opposition, including from the church, to spearhead social […]

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US, allies meet to find diplomatic way out of N. Korea crisis

by Michel Comte  © Agence France-Presse VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — Foreign ministers from 20 nations began crisis talks Monday on North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, though China’s absence cast doubt over the effectiveness of any deal. The two-day Vancouver meeting hosted by Canada and the United States comes amid signs of easing tensions on the Korean peninsula, after the North and South met for the first time in two years and Pyongyang agreed to […]

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Denmark to charge 1,000 youths with spreading sex videos via Facebook

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — More than 1,000 youths in Denmark are to be charged with spreading sex videos of two 15-year-olds through Facebook, Danish police said on Monday, in the nation’s largest case of its kind. Facebook had received reports of two videos and an explicit photo from 2015 being spread on its instant messaging service, showing a boy and a girl having consensual sex. The company later informed US authorities. The material was spread […]

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Turkey unveils route of 45 km ‘Istanbul Canal’

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — The Turkish government on Monday unveiled the route of its planned new canal for Istanbul, a hugely ambitious 45 kilometre (28 miles) project designed to be its answer to the famed artificial shipping lanes in Panama or Egypt’s Suez. The project, first announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while he was prime minister in 2011, is by far the most complex of a string of new ventures for the city. The […]

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Palestinian leaders call for suspension of recognition of Israel

by Nasser Abu Bakr and Joe Dyke Agence France-Presse RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian leaders voted on Monday to call for the suspension of recognition of Israel in a move with potentially deep implications as they met in response to US President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. While withdrawing the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s recognition of Israel could spark international backlash, it was unclear whether the vote was binding. A previous vote by the […]

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Pope voices nuclear war concerns as he begins Latin America trip

by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) – Pope Francis admitted Monday he was frightened by the prospect of an accidental nuclear apocalypse, as he began a weeklong visit to Chile and Peru to bolster a local Catholic Church riven by sex abuse scandals. “I think we are at the very edge,” the pope told reporters aboard his plane when asked about the threat of a nuclear war in the wake of a recent string of […]

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