International

Trump calls talks between North and South Korea ‘a good thing’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Thursday that high-level talks set for next week between North and South Korea are “a good thing,” while also seemingly taking credit for them. “With all of the failed ‘experts’ weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the […]

Apple takes French tax activists to court over store protest

PARIS, France (AFP) — Apple has filed a lawsuit against the Attac activist group after about 100 of its supporters occupied the tech giant’s flagship store in Paris last month, protesting alleged “wide-scale tax evasion” by the firm. An Apple spokesman told AFP on Thursday that while it respected the group’s right to expression, its recent actions had “put the security of our customers and employees at risk.” It is seeking 3,000 euros ($3,600) from […]

Storm Eleanor brings chaos to Europe

by Joseph Schmid Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Winter storm Eleanor swept across Europe on Wednesday, bringing death, damage and disruption, snarling transport networks and cutting power to tens of thousands of people. Two people died on Spain’s northern Basque coast, the couple swept away by a huge wave, officials said, and another person had to be rescued after attempting to save them. In France, a 21-year-old skier was killed by a falling […]

Windsor begging clampdown urged ahead of royal wedding

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The leader of the local authority covering Windsor Castle has called for police action against “aggressive begging” ahead of Prince Harry’s wedding there in May, it emerged on Wednesday. Simon Dudley, the leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, wrote to the local police chief to warn that the beggars’ possessions, sometimes left unattended on the streets, presented a security risk. Harry is due to marry American actress […]

First Florida snow in 29 years as major storm hits US

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — It’s called snow, something residents of North Florida hadn’t seen in almost three decades until Wednesday, and it is part of a deep-freeze striking the entire US East Coast. The US National Weather Service warned that a major winter storm would bring heavy snow and ice, from Florida in the southeast up to New England and the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday. New York City was under a winter storm […]

23 civilians killed in Syria, most in Russian air strikes: monitor

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — At least 23 civilians were killed Wednesday in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, most of them in Russian air raids, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that 18 people were killed by Russian strikes in the town of Misraba, while the remainder died in shelling from government forces. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said three children and 11 women were among […]

Clashes in Equatorial Guinea as government says it thwarted coup

  MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) — Clashes were reported in Equatorial Guinea near the border with Cameroon on Wednesday, shortly after the West African state said it had thwarted a coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa’s longest-serving leader. Government troops had shot dead a “mercenary” and “used gunfire to disperse them in the forests along the border,” state television TVGE said, without specifying how many “mercenaries” were involved or how long the clashes lasted. Reports of […]

Trump slams Bannon, says ex-aide has ‘lost his mind’

by Andrew Beatty and Chris Lefkow Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump unleashed a spectacular denunciation of one of his closest political allies Wednesday, describing former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as insane and irrelevant. After the release of explosive excerpts from a new book in which Bannon reportedly described Trump’s eldest son’s meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” Trump wasted no time firing back. […]

Tired of waiting, Ryanair passenger gets out and sits on wing

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — The passenger of a Ryanair flight from London to Malaga in southern Spain, apparently tired of waiting inside the plane on arrival, got out and sat on the wing, a witness and the airline said Wednesday. “We had been waiting around half-an-hour to get out of the plane,” Fernando del Valle, another passenger, told AFP of the incident on Monday evening. “The man calmly went to the emergency exit, pulled the […]

EU foreign policy chief says ‘blockade’ of Cuba not solution

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Blockading Cuba is not the solution, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said Wednesday on a trip aimed at strengthening ties with Havana, after Washington tightened restrictions on the island. Much of the half-century-old US economic embargo against Cuba remains entrenched in law, but under former president Barack Obama federal authorities began to loosen some rules — something his successor Donald Trump vowed to reverse. “The blockade (of Cuba) is not the solution. […]

Fifty bodies recovered from horrific Peru bus crash

LIMA, Peru (AFP) – Peruvian emergency workers on Wednesday said they had recovered 50 bodies — six of them children — from a horrific bus crash over a cliff north of the capital Lima. The coach had plunged around 100 meters (330 feet) over a seaside cliff in Peru on Tuesday after a collision with a truck on a precarious stretch known as the “devil’s curve.” It had been traveling from Huacho, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north […]

Ex-Trump aide Manafort sues Mueller, Justice Department

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort sued special prosecutor Robert Mueller and the Justice Department Wednesday for allegedly overstepping their mandates, in a challenge to the Russia probe that threatens the US president. Two months after his arrest for tax evasion and money laundering, Manafort charged in a civil suit that the department and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave Mueller excessively broad authority in his investigation of possible collusion between the […]