KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) – Yemen’s government delegation to peace talks were leaving Kuwait on Monday after the rebel side rejected a draft peace plan proposed by the United Nations, its representatives said. “We now leave Kuwait… but are not quitting the consultations and not ending them before August 7,” said the head of the delegation, Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi. He was referring to the end date set by the UN envoy Ismail Ould […]
International
Police rescue kidnapped mother-in-law of F1’s Ecclestone
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) – Brazilian police said they rescued the kidnapped mother-in-law of British Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone unharmed after more than a week in captivity and arrested two men over her abduction. Aparecida Schunck Flosi Palmeira — the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone’s Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi — had been kidnapped on July 22. Schunck spoke briefly to television cameras as she arrived at a police station after being freed on Sunday, before hugging […]
Trump feud with slain soldier’s parents roils White House race
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – by Michael Mathes Donald Trump’s confrontation with the parents of a slain Muslim American soldier escalated Monday, shaking the US presidential campaign amid Republican Party outcries over the real estate tycoon’s comments about the couple. The feud has become a flash point of the 2016 White House race that pits Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton. It has dominated the news cycle ever since Pakistani immigrant Khizr Khan galvanized the Democratic […]
Five dead as Russian military helicopter downed in Syria
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) – by Sara Hussein A Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria on Monday, killing all five people on board in the single deadliest incident for Moscow since it intervened in the war. The attack came as Syrian opposition fighters and their jihadist allies battled government forces outside Aleppo in a bid to ease the regime’s siege of rebel-held parts of the northern city. Russia’s defence ministry announced the downing of the helicopter, […]
Taiwan apologises to indigenous people for first time
TAIPEI, TAIWAN (AFP) – Wearing traditional dress from feather headdresses to loincloths, members of Taiwan’s indigenous community met President Tsai Ing-wen Monday as she made a landmark apology for centuries of suffering including the loss of ancestral lands. Tsai, the island’s first leader with aboriginal heritage, will personally head a committee to investigate past injustices as part of government efforts to ease tensions with the native community. “I apologise to the indigenous people on behalf […]
Nineteen rescued from broken fair ride on London riverside
LONDON, England (Reuters) — Fire crews rescued six children and 13 adults on Sunday (July 31) after they were left hanging 20 meters in the air from a broken fairground ride next to the river Thames in central London, the London Fire Brigade said. They were rescued from 10 capsules, London Fire Brigade said, which hung motionless in the air after the ride on the capital’s Southbank experienced a fault. Two aerial ladder platforms, similar […]
New Tokyo governor says defying party secured win
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s new governor Yuriko Koike on Monday credited her landslide victory to having stood up to the powers that be in Japan’s ruling party who didn’t want her to run. Koike, 64, was elected Tokyo’s first female governor in the Sunday vote, winning more than 2.9 million votes, far outpacing the nearly 1.8 million ballots cast for closest challenger Hiroya Masuda. Masuda, a former governor of Iwate prefecture in northern Japan, […]
French ferry evacuated after mystery underwater blast
MARSEILLE, France (AFP) — A passenger ferry docked in the southern French port of Marseille was evacuated Sunday after an explosion was felt on board, with authorities investigating if it was caused by an old wartime bomb. France has been on high alert following the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice which killed 84 and the jihadist murder of a priest last week. All the passengers had already disembarked after their voyage from Corsica and […]
Clinton’s ‘Rust Belt’ tour courts white working class
by Ivan Couronne PITTSBURGH, United States (AFP) — Hillary Clinton took a bus tour across the US “rust belt” region this weekend in a quest to win over white, working class voters who tend to support populist Republican Donald Trump. With her husband ex-president Bill Clinton in tow, the former first lady, top diplomat, ex-senator and now Democratic presidential candidate took her seat on a blue bus that meandered over 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from […]
Kabul hotel attack ends after three Taliban fighters killed: police
KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — A Taliban attack on a Kabul hotel housing foreign contractors ended Monday after all three Taliban fighters were killed, around seven hours after the assault began, police said. “The operation is over now. One policeman lost his life and three others were wounded but none of the hotel staff or guests were hurt,” Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters. © 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse
Taiwan apologizes to indigenous people for first time
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — President Tsai Ing-wen formally apologized to Taiwan’s indigenous people for their centuries of suffering on Monday, the country’s first ever leader to do so. Tsai, the island’s only leader with aboriginal blood, will personally head a committee to investigate past injustices as part of government efforts to ease tensions with the native community. “I apologize to the indigenous people on behalf of the government, to give our deepest apology over the […]
Slain soldier’s father calls Trump a ‘black soul’
by Jim Mannion WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The father of a slain Muslim American soldier assailed Donald Trump as a “black soul” Sunday in an impassioned exchange with the Republican presidential candidate over the qualities required in a US leader. Khizr Khan electrified the Democratic convention last week with a tribute to his fallen son that ended with a steely rebuke that Trump had “sacrificed nothing” for his country. Trump defended himself in an […]
