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CESENA, Italy, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Floods caused by heavy rains in Italy’s northern Emilia Romagna region have killed two people, authorities said on Wednesday, as local mayors warned residents they were still in danger. “At the moment there are two dead… the emergency is still underway,” the region said in a statement, after desperate efforts overnight to save children and the elderly from rising waters. The victims were a man in Forli, near […]
GENEVA, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – The United Nations said Wednesday that $3.03 billion would be needed to provide urgent aid to people in conflict-ravaged Sudan and to over one million expected to flee into neighboring countries this year. Needs have soared since a bloody conflict erupted in Sudan on April 15, the UN said, revising up its response plan for the country. “Today, 25 million people — more than half the population of Sudan […]
By Amber WANG Agence France-Presse TAIPEI, May 17, 2023 (AFP) — Britain’s former prime minister Liz Truss on Wednesday urged her successor Rishi Sunak to get tough with China on Taiwan, describing the democratic island as “an enduring rebuke to totalitarianism”. China considers self-ruled Taiwan to be its territory, to be taken one day by force if necessary, and strongly opposes any formal engagement with the island, including by high-profile foreign political figures. Truss, who […]
By Ella IDE Agence France-Presse ROME, Italy (AFP) — When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets fellow G7 leaders this week, her allies will be looking for reassurances that Rome is ready to quit Beijing’s Belt and Road (BRI) initiative. Debt-ridden Italy in 2019 became the only one of the group of leading developed democracies to sign up to China’s trillion-dollar investment scheme, which critics denounce as a predatory “Trojan horse” aimed at buying political […]
By Daniel AVIS Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Joe Biden and opposition Republican leaders on Tuesday offered hope of a deal that could avoid a catastrophic US debt default, although the president was forced to shorten an upcoming Asia tour for further crisis talks. After the latest negotiations ended without a breakthrough, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters there was still “a lot of work to do” to break the high-stakes standoff […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – Leader Kim Jong Un has inspected North Korea’s first military spy satellite and gave the go-ahead for its “future action plan,” state media said Wednesday. Kim met with the Non-permanent Satellite Launch Preparatory Committee on Tuesday before viewing the satellite, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. A month ago, Kim said construction of the satellite was completed and gave the green light for its launch. That report on April […]
BRASÍLIA, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro spoke to police for several hours Tuesday as part of an investigation into the alleged forgery of Covid-19 vaccination certificates for himself and his inner circle. Bolsonaro, whose house was raided as part of the same investigation earlier this month, arrived at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia around 1:40 pm (1640 GMT) in a car with tinted windows, and left four hours later […]
By Victoria LUKOVENKO Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine said Tuesday it had pushed Russian forces from the flanks of Bakhmut but conceded that Moscow’s forces were pushing deeper inside the embattled town. The announcement came as European leaders meeting in Iceland agreed to create a “register of damages” to record the wartime harm and destruction wrought by Russia in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said. It would be an initial step towards […]
By Oliver HOTHAM Agence France-Presse BEIJING, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – China is renewing its push for massive infrastructure projects in Central Asia as Beijing aims to fill the vacuum left in former Soviet states by Russia, which is ensnared in a widening net of Western sanctions over the Ukraine war. Central Asia has become key to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, a defining geopolitical project for President Xi Jinping. Around 150 countries […]
By Marc BURLEIGH Agence France-Presse REYKJAVIK, Iceland, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – A year after kicking Russia out of the Council of Europe (CoE), the leaders of the 46-nation pan-continental rights body gather Tuesday in Iceland to show a united face against Moscow. Firming up ways to hold Russia legally responsible for the death and destruction it has wrought in Ukraine will dominate the summit in Reykjavik, only the fourth to be held in the […]
By Sara HUSSEIN Agence France-Presse HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – Japan hosts G7 leaders in Hiroshima this week hoping to drive home the dangers of nuclear weapons and push for progress on disarmament. But with North Korea and Russia making nuclear threats, and China growing its arsenal, there may be little appetite for bold action on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s stated goal of a “world free of nuclear weapons.” Here are […]
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Argentina’s central bank hiked its base interest rate Monday by six points to 97 percent as the government prepares to announce a spate of measures to tackle soaring inflation ahead of October’s general election. It is the second time in less than a month that the bank has ramped up interest rates as year-on-year inflation hit almost 109 percent in April. In a statement the central bank said the […]
