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GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — An Israeli air strike on a Gaza base of Hamas’s military wing killed two people on Saturday, health officials of the territory’s Palestinian Islamist rulers said. The strike on a base in Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip, one of several in the early hours, came amid protests across the Palestinian territories against US President Donald Trump’s deeply controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Hamas health […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A former priest wielding a samurai sword killed his Shinto priestess sister and another woman in an apparent family vendetta at a historic Tokyo shrine, before turning the blade on himself, police told AFP Friday. Shigenaga Tomioka, 56, set upon his older sister Nagako, chief priestess at Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, with a samurai sword late Thursday in a rare violent assault in the Japanese capital. The 58-year-old Nagako was later pronounced […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to purchase offensive air-to-surface missiles to counter North Korea’s rising military threat, its defense minister said Friday, a move likely to stir debate over its decades-long pacifist policy. Itsunori Onodera said the ministry intends to request a special budget for the fiscal year starting April 2018 to purchase long-range cruise missiles deployed on fighter jets. According to local media, the ministry plans to buy JASSM and LRASM long-range, air-to-ground […]
by Veronique Dupont Agence France Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Firefighters on Thursday battled raging wildfires across southern California that have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, including residents on the outskirts of Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city. Winds with hurricane-force gusts of up to 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour) fueled the blazes, creating apocalyptic scenes of hillsides engulfed in billowing smoke and towering plumes of […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House warned Thursday that canceling a planned meeting between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Vice President Mike Pence in the wake of the US policy shift on Jerusalem would be “counterproductive.” Amid indications that Abbas may withdraw from a planned meeting later this month, a White House aide said Pence “still plans to meet with Abbas as scheduled” and “believes it would be counterproductive for him to pull […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian president Vladimir Putin is “deeply concerned” by Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the Kremlin said in a statement Thursday. In a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Putin called for the Palestinians and Israel to “hold back” and renew negotiations. “This kind of measure can block possible paths to peace in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of US President Trump’s move. […]
by Veronique Dupont Agence France Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Replica Tuscan castles, minimalist mansions and country cottages in the rarefied Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles could soon be reduced to ashes, their owners’ fame and wealth providing little immunity against California’s latest raging wildfires. “We’re evacuating the street you must leave!” a police officer barked into a bullhorn, amid the din of helicopters and airplanes dropping fire retardants. “The fire is at […]
by Joe Dyke with Majeda El-Batsh in Jerusalem Agence France Presse RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital sparked Palestinian protests, sporadic clashes and a call for a new intifada on Thursday as fears grew of fresh bloodshed in the region. Trump’s announcement also prompted an almost universal diplomatic backlash, including warnings from Turkey, the European Union and Russia. And a senior Palestinian official said US Vice […]
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of former president Cristina Kirchner for allegedly covering up Iranian involvement in a 1994 bombing at a Buenos Aires Jewish center that left 85 people dead, according to a judicial source. The order also removes the judicial immunity of Kirchner, who served as president from 2007-2015 and is now a senator. She has previously called the case an “absurdity.”
DOHA, Qatar (AFP) — Qatar announced Thursday it had agreed to buy 12 French-built Rafale fighter jets, with an option for 36 others, during a state visit by President Emmanuel Macron. The deal, which follows Qatar’s purchase of 24 Dassault Aviation-built Rafale fighter jets in 2015, comes as the emirate is hit by a trade and diplomatic boycott by neighbouring countries in the region’s worst political crisis in years. © Agence France-Presse
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea on Thursday voiced regret over the decision to ban Russia from the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, saying the participation of the country’s athletes was crucial to the success of the event. The South Korean sports ministry urged Russian athletes to compete as neutrals following the International Olympic Committee’s unprecedented ban, saying in a statement it had “worked hard over the past seven years to make meticulous preparations” for a […]
LONDON, United States (AFP) — A 20-year-old man appeared in court on Wednesday charged with plotting to assassinate British Prime Minister Theresa May in a bomb and knife attack. Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman is accused of planning an explosion outside May’s Downing Street office then trying to enter the building with a suicide vest and a knife in a bid to kill her. State prosecutor Mark Carroll said Rahman planned to detonate an improvised explosive device […]
