International

Obama torches Trump at his final Washington correspondents’ dinner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday took aim at Democrats and Republicans alike in his final appearance headlining the star-studded White House correspondents’ dinner, but saved his sharpest barbs for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. “The Republican establishment is incredulous that he’s their most likely nominee,” Obama told attendees at the black-tie event, which brought together journalists and media moguls with Hollywood stars and power brokers from Capitol Hill and beyond. “They […]

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Rousseff rallies Brazil anti-impeachment crowd

by Natalia RAMOS SAO PAULO , Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s embattled leftist President Dilma Rousseff vowed at a protest Sunday to go down fighting ahead of what could be her final full week in power before impeachment. Thousands of people attended May Day rallies organized by labor unions in cities across Latin America’s biggest country, with Rousseff telling a crowd in the financial powerhouse Sao Paulo that she would “fight to the end.” The traditional […]

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Indonesian sailors home after Philippine kidnap ordeal

by Olivia Rondonuwu JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Ten Indonesian sailors held hostage by Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants returned home Sunday after being freed in the southern Philippines, less than a week after the gunmen beheaded a Canadian captive. About five weeks after being abducted, the 10 tugboat crew turned up outside the house of the provincial governor on the remote Philippine island of Jolo. They flew back to Jakarta later the same day, arriving on […]

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Car bomb kills two Turkish police, wounds 22 near Syria border

by Stuart WILLIAMS ISTANBUL ,Turkey (AFP) — A car bomb on Sunday struck the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a major refugee hub near the Syrian border, killing at least two policemen and wounding 22 people as the country reels from a succession of militant attacks. On a day of violence dubbed “Black Sunday” by local media, three Turkish soldiers died in a separate attack in the province of Mardin to the east, in an ambush […]

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Crisis-hit Venezuela sets clocks ahead to save power

by Ernesto TOVAR CARACAS , Venezuela (AFP) — With their country gripped by an economic crisis, Venezuelans lost half an hour of sleep Sunday as their clocks were set forward to save power on President Nicolas Maduro’s orders. At 2:30 am local time, the oil-dependent South American nation shifted its time ahead by 30 minutes — to four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. The move, announced in mid-April, is part of a package of measures […]

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Trump hits out at Clinton and Cruz ahead of Indiana primary

by Gregory FEIFER WASHINGTON , United States (AFP) — Donald Trump hit out hard at Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz Sunday, sounding unapologetic two days before a key primary in Indiana he says will decide the Republican presidential race. A new poll ahead of the winner-take-all vote Tuesday put the Republican frontrunner far in front of Cruz, who is hoping the Midwestern state will act as a Trump firewall. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump […]

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Workers around Asia take part in Labor Day rallies

  (REUTERS) — Workers across Asia were on the streets on Sunday (May 1) observing May Day with rallies calling for higher wages and better working conditions. In South Korea, tens of thousands carrying banners and chanting slogans gathered in Seoul’s City Hall Square, protesting the government’s labour reform plans. “Just as workers of previous generations fought for the right to an eight-hour day at the risk of their lives 120 years ago, we are […]

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China says Japan ties should be based on cooperation, not confrontation

(Reuters) China’s relations with Japan should be based on cooperation not confrontation, China’s foreign minister told his Japanese counterpart on Saturday, adding that China would judge Japan’s desire to improve ties depending on its actions. China, the world’s second-largest economy, and Japan, the third-largest, have a difficult political history, with ties strained by the legacy of Japan’s World War Two aggression and conflicting claims over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets. Ties have […]

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Search for survivors after Kenya building collapse

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Rescue teams were searching for survivors after a seven-storey building collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi Friday due to flooding, the Red Cross said, with 44 people already pulled alive from the rubble. A spokeswoman for the Kenya Red Cross could not confirm local media reports that at least three people were killed. “It is too early to speak about dead people, we don’t have that information,” Arnolda Shiundu told AFP. […]

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China rejects Hong Kong port call by US carrier: Pentagon

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — China has denied the US aircraft carrier USS Stennis and accompanying naval vessels permission to make a port call in Hong Kong, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday, April 29. It was not immediately known what prompted the Chinese action, but it comes amid growing tension between the two countries over Beijing’s moves to assert its claims to much of the South China Sea. “We were recently informed that a request […]

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China, Russia rap US missile defence plan in S. Korea

BEIJING , China (AFP) — China and Russia on Friday rapped US plans to put a missile defense system on the Korean peninsula, less than 24 hours after Pyongyang twice tested projectiles thought to be capable of reaching American territory. A series of missile tests and nuclear blasts by North Korea have pushed Seoul into talks with Washington about deploying the US’s sophisticated Theater High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD), which fires projectiles to smash […]

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