International

US mourns Vegas massacre victims as shooter motive sought

by Cyril Julien  with Frankie Taggart in Mesquite Agence France Presse LAS VEGAS, United States (AFP) — America mourned victims of the worst gun massacre in recent US history Tuesday as investigators probed the motive behind an apparently senseless attack on Las Vegas concert-goers. President Donald Trump branded the attacker — who raked a crowd with gunfire from a 32nd floor hotel room, leaving 59 dead and at least 527 injured — a “demented man.” […]

Kim Jong-Nam suffered extensive organ damage, trial hears

  by M Jegathesan Agence France Presse SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AFP) — The half-brother of North Korea’s leader suffered extensive organ damage after being attacked with a nerve agent, a pathologist said Tuesday, as more chilling details emerged at the trial of his alleged killers. Vital organs, including his lungs and brain, swelled due to a build-up of fluid, testified Mohamad Shah Mahmood, who carried out the post-mortem on Kim Jong-Nam. Two women are on […]

At least 16 dead as suicide bombings hit Damascus police station

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — A double suicide bomb attack hit a police station in Syria’s capital Damascus on Monday, state media said, with a monitor saying at least 16 people were killed. Damascus has been largely insulated from the worst of the violence during the country’s brutal six-year war, but several bomb attacks have shaken the city. Syria’s interior ministry said two suicide bombers had blown themselves up at the police station in the southern […]

Police arrest 5 after homemade bomb found in Paris

PARIS, France (AFP) — French police arrested five people, including one on a terror watchlist after discovering a suspected home-made bomb in one of Paris’ most exclusive neighborhoods at the weekend, officials said. Police discovered two gas cylinders in the hallway of a building in the city’s western 16th district in the early hours of Saturday morning and two others on the pavement outside. A mobile phone attached to the cylinders is being investigated as […]

Australia offers to help US with gun reform

by Martin Parry SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia offered to help the United States reform its gun laws Tuesday after a successful two-decade clampdown on firearms in the wake of its own worst mass shooting. The US is reeling after at least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured when retired accountant Stephen Paddock opened fire on thousands of concertgoers in Las Vegas before killing himself. The shocking tragedy has sparked renewed calls […]

Vegas shooter’s ‘companion an Australian granny’

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock’s “regular companion” was an Australian woman who moved to the United States 20 years ago to work on the casino strip, the government confirmed Tuesday. Marilou Danley, 62, was initially said to be a “person of interest” but has since been cleared of any involvement in the shocking shooting that left 59 dead and more than 500 injured. American authorities said she was out of […]

EU breaks cover to urge Catalonia crisis dialogue

by Danny Kemp and Damon Wake Agence France Presse Brussels, Belgium (AFP) — EU leaders on Monday called for dialogue to solve the crisis over Catalonia’s banned independence referendum and urged an end to violence in a cautious first reaction to a thorny subject for the bloc. Breaking weeks of virtual silence on the subject after scores were hurt in clashes in Catalonia, the European Commission said the referendum was “not legal” under Spanish law […]

Japan gov’t: No knowledge of whereabouts of Las Vegas shooter’s alleged girlfriend, Marilou Danley, in Tokyo

  The Japanese government on Tuesday (October 3) said it is unaware of any information at this point corroborating Las Vegas sheriffs comments earlier that the long-time girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock is in Tokyo. Marilou Danley, 62, is believed to be an Australian citizen born in the Philippines and possibly visiting relatives in the Philippines at the time of the shooting, though U.S. authorities now believe she could be in Tokyo. U.S. […]

Watch: Barcelona residents rally against police violence in Catalan vote

https://youtu.be/w5puocJ-NtA   Residents in Barcelona, Spain took to the streets on October 2, 2017 to protest the violent police crackdown during Catalonia’s banned independence referendum on October 1, 2017. People waved Catalan pro-independence ‘Estelada’ flags as they took part in a protest in Barcelona. “The central government has been consistent with its historical performance until the end, that is to say that mean every time they have not been able to solve any issue that […]

Catalans describe moment they were hurt in vote chaos

by Laurence Boutreux Agence France Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — From a grandmother whose wrist was broken to an independence supporter violently hit in the head, several people who were injured by police during Catalonia’s independence referendum banned by Madrid told AFP of their ordeal. Shocking footage of police violence went round the world, sparking controversy over what critics described as “the disproportionate use” of police force and the “humiliation” of voters — sometimes elderly […]

Catalonia set for general strike over independence poll violence

by Marianne Barriaux Agence France Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Large numbers of Catalans are expected to observe a general strike on Tuesday to condemn police violence at a banned weekend referendum on independence, as Madrid comes under growing international pressure to resolve its worst political crisis in decades. Flights and train services could be disrupted as well as port operations, after unions called for the stoppage to “vigorously condemn” the police response to the […]

WWII bomb forces evacuation of 10,000 in Berlin

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — About 10,000 people in Berlin were forced to leave their homes on Monday as bomb disposal units prepared to defuse an unexploded World War II bomb. Construction workers found the 250-kilo (550-pound) device earlier in the day, prompting police to seal off the area within a 500-metre radius of the site in west Berlin’s Innsbrucker Platz. Underground and suburban rail traffic was disrupted, and officers went house to house to ensure […]