International

NY suspect confesses IS inspired, ‘felt good’ after attack

by Jennie MATTHEW / Thomas Urbain in Paterson Agence France-Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – The Uzbek immigrant behind New York’s worst attack in 16 years confessed to acting in the name of the Islamic State group and “felt good” about the killings, having planned an assault for a year, investigators said Wednesday. The shocking details emerged after federal agents questioned Sayfullo Saipov in a Manhattan hospital, injured with a police bullet to the abdomen after […]

US approves $1 bln Qatar arms deal despite Gulf crisis

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States government on Wednesday approved a $1.1 billion deal to service Qatar’s F-15 fighter jets despite the diplomatic stand-off between the Gulf emirate and its neighbors. Qatar, home to one of the largest US military bases in the Middle East, is locked in a bitter dispute with Washington’s other Arab allies in the region, led by Saudi Arabia. US President Donald Trump took Riyadh’s side in June when Saudi Arabia, […]

Anger wells in NY suspect’s shocked Jersey town

by Thomas Urbain Agence France-Presse United States (AFP) — The largely Muslim neighborhood where the New York terrorist suspect lived for little over a year seethed with anger Wednesday, furious that the Uzbek had besmirched their hard-working immigrant community. “They should hang him!” snapped the manager of a launderette near the two-storey brick building where Sayfullo Saipov lived with his wife and children in the New Jersey town of Paterson. “If you come to the US, it’s […]

Axed Catalan leader spurns Spanish legal summons

by Simon Sturdee with Laurence Boutreux in Barcelona Agence France-Presse MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Axed Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont’s lawyer confirmed Wednesday his client will spurn a Spanish legal summons to be grilled about alleged rebellion and sedition in his quest for independence. “He will not go to Madrid and I have suggested that he be questioned here in Belgium,” Paul Bekaert told Spanish television channel TV3. Puigdemont, currently in Brussels, and 13 other members of his […]

Suspect planned NY attack for weeks in name of IS: police

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov spent weeks planning to conduct an attack in the name of the Islamic State group, police said Wednesday, after eight people were killed in New York’s worst attack since September 11, 2001. Authorities say Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant who moved to America in 2010, used a rented pickup truck to mow down pedestrians and cyclists along a mile-long stretch of a bike path on Lower’s […]

Uzbekistan offers help in New York truck attack probe: president

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The president of Uzbekistan on Wednesday offered to help US authorities in the investigation of the attack in New York where a truck driver, reportedly an Uzbek national, mowed down passersby, killing eight. “Uzbekistan is ready to use all forces and resources to help in the investigation of this act of terror,” President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said, offering condolences to US President Donald Trump in a statement on the foreign ministry’s website. […]

Puigdemont ‘not going to Spain’: lawyer

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Catalonia’s axed separatist leader Carles Puigdemont will not return to Spain as there is a “good chance that he would be detained,” his lawyer has said. Speaking to Dutch public newscaster NOS late Tuesday, Belgian lawyer Paul Bekaert said “as far as he told me, that’s not going to happen” when asked if his client would go back to Spain. “That’s because we are awaiting further reactions from the Spanish […]

5 children killed by ‘young girl’ suicide bomber in Cameroon

YAOUNDÈ, Cameroon (AFP) – Five children were killed Tuesday night and two others wounded by a suicide bomber described as a “young girl” in a northern region of Cameroon plagued by Boko Haram attacks, sources said Wednesday. “A suicide bomber blew herself up (on Tuesday) around 7.45 pm (1845 GMT)” in the village of Zamga, two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Nigerian border, said a security officer responsible for the zone, reached from the capital […]

Japan MPs re-elect Abe after election landslide

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s parliament on Wednesday formally re-elected Shinzo Abe as prime minister after his party’s crushing election victory, setting the 63-year-old on track to become the country’s longest-serving premier. MPs voted by a huge majority to re-install Abe, after his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) swept to a two-thirds “super majority” on October 22. During the campaign Abe had stressed the need for strong leadership to deal with what he called Japan’s […]

Using vehicles as weapons of terror in Europe and America

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A pickup driver ploughed a truck into cyclists and pedestrians in New York on Tuesday, killing eight people in the first deadly “act of terror” in the city since September 11, 2001. Vehicles have previously been used as weapons of terror, often by supporters of the Islamic State (IS) group, attacking nations in the US-led coalition fighting the jihadists in Iraq and Syria. Barcelona’s Las Ramblas On August 17, […]

N. Korea slams ‘incurably mentally deranged’ Trump

SEOUL, South Korea (Agence France Presse) — North Korea slammed US President Donald Trump as “incurably mentally deranged” in a personal diatribe ahead of his first visit to Asia as head of state, amid high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults against each other in recent months, heightening worries about a potential conflict on the divided Korean peninsula. Trump has warned […]

Trump won’t go to DMZ during S. Korea visit: White House

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump will not be going to the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean peninsula when he visits South Korea next week, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The decision to skip the DMZ at a time of high tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea was attributed to time constraints. “The president is not going to visit the DMZ, there is not enough time in the schedule,” the official said. […]