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by Adam PLOWRIGHT and Sophie ESTIENNE Agence France-Presse DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) — NATO countries are set to announce new “heavier weapons” for Ukraine, the alliance’s chief said on Wednesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his backers to speed up their decision-making. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting of around 50 countries on Friday at the US-run Ramstein military base in Germany, including all 30 members of the NATO alliance. […]
by Alex PIGMAN Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Microsoft on Wednesday said it would lay off 10,000 employees in the coming months as the economic downturn continues to punish US tech giants. The job cuts will affect slightly less than five percent of employees and follow in the wake of similar moves by Facebook-owner Meta, Amazon and Twitter which have announced thousands of layoffs in the once-unassailable tech sector. The cuts were “in […]
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Wednesday 1/18/2023 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday likened Western policies on Russia to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution” plan of genocide against Jewish people. Moscow’s top diplomat — whose comments on Hitler and Jews led to President Vladimir Putin issuing a rare apology on his behalf last year — made the comparison at his annual press conference. “Just as Napoleon mobilised practically all of Europe against the […]
Washington, United States (AFP) Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Tuesday he intends to join German-US efforts to arm Ukraine with sophisticated Patriot air-defense systems, citing the “horrible” Russian missile strike on a Dnipro apartment building. Rutte told President Joe Biden at a White House meeting that “we have the intention to join what you’re doing with Germany on the Patriots project, the air-defense system. I think that is important and we joined that.” While […]
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) by Sergei SUPINSKY Eighteen people, including Ukraine´s interior minister and three children, were killed in a helicopter crash near a kindergarten outside Kyiv on Wednesday. The helicopter slammed down next to the kindergarten and a residential building in Brovary, a commuter town for the capital Kyiv that was the scene of fierce fighting early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Amateur footage circulating on social media showed what appeared to be the charred […]
Jakarta, Indonesia | AFP | An offshore earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit near eastern Indonesia’s Maluku islands on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported, triggering a tsunami warning that was later lifted. The epicentre of the tremor was located 150 kilometres (93 miles) northwest of the eastern Indonesian island of Halmahera, at a depth of 48 kilometres. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. The quake occurred around 13:06 pm local […]
Hanoi, Vietnam (AFP) Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has resigned, state media said Tuesday, after days of rumours he was about to be sacked as part of a major anti-corruption drive that has seen several ministers fired. The sudden departure is a highly unusual move in communist Vietnam, where political changes are normally carefully orchestrated, with an emphasis on cautious stability. Only one other Communist Party president has ever stepped down, and that was for […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s High Court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of three former executives from the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, again clearing them of professional negligence over the 2011 disaster. The decision was announced by activists supporting the prosecution of the three men, following the appeal hearing in the only criminal trial to arise from the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The court declined to comment on the verdict while […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Ambulance services scrambled at Sydney airport on Wednesday to meet an incoming Qantas plane that issued a mid-air mayday alert with engine trouble before landing safely. The flight — QF144 — was carrying 145 passengers from Auckland, New Zealand, a statement from Qantas said. The Boeing 737-800 plane landed without incident on the runway at Sydney airport, said an AFP reporter at the scene, and will now be inspected by engineers. […]
Davos, Switzerland (AFP) by Adam PLOWRIGHT German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faced rising pressure Tuesday from his European partners to authorise the export of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. The issue will be one of the most pressing in the in-tray of newly-named German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, a surprise choice for the vacant position who was unveiled on Tuesday. Leaders and ministers from Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Britain have added their voices to a growing clamour […]
by Ludovic EHRET Agence France Presse Beijing, China (AFP) — China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the birth rate slows in the face of mounting financial pressures and shifting social attitudes. The world’s most populous country is facing a looming demographic crisis as its workforce ages, which analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers. Analysts point […]
Davos, Switzerland (AFP) – US elder statesman Henry Kissinger said Tuesday that Russia’s invasion shows there is no longer a point to keeping Ukraine out of NATO, the long-held aspiration of Kyiv that he had opposed. The 99-year-old former secretary of state and apostle of realpolitik has for months advocated a ceasefire in the Ukraine war that would in effect accept some military gains by Russia. But speaking virtually to the World Economic Forum in […]
