By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday that a major ground offensive in Gaza’s Rafah would be a “mistake,” as the two leaders spoke for the first time in a month amid growing tensions. Netanyahu had also agreed to Biden’s request to send a delegation of senior Israeli officials to Washington to discuss Israel’s Rafah plans and a possible “alternative approach,” the […]
Other News
Bodies found in Haitian suburb as gang violence rages for third week
PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Fourteen bodies were found in an affluent suburb of Haiti’s capital Monday, as international efforts accelerated to fill a political vacuum created by weeks of gang violence that has forced the impending departure of the prime minister. Local residents told AFP they did not know the circumstances of the deaths but said that the Laboule and Thomassin neighborhoods, in the suburb of Petion-Ville, had been under attack by what […]
Paris suburb beefs up security after police station attack
By Wafaa ESSALHI, Alexandre HIELARD PARIS, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Security forces deployed in numbers in a Paris suburb on Monday following an attack on a police station near major venues for this summer’s Paris Olympics. The Sunday evening attack in the northern suburb of La Courneuve came days after a teenager riding a moped was killed in a car chase with police, echoing a June killing that triggered days-long riots. “Around 50 people […]
ASEAN in Focus – Full broadcast: March 18, 2024
Record heat index of 62.3C scorches Rio de Janeiro
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – A heat wave stifling Brazil set new records on Sunday, with Rio de Janeiro’s heat index hitting 62.3 degrees Celsius, the highest in a decade, weather authorities said. The heat index measures what a temperature feels like, taking into account humidity. The actual maximum temperature in the city was 42 ºC on Monday, the Alerta Rio weather system said. The 62.3C record was notched in western Rio […]
Israeli military tells Gazans to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital
Israel’s military on Monday called on Gazans to evacuate the area in and around the territory’s largest hospital as battles raged at the complex crowded with patients and displaced people. “In order to maintain your security, you must immediately evacuate the area,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X, instructing “all those present” to head west and then south to a “humanitarian area”.
Cheap drones ‘cannot match’ artillery power in Ukraine: experts
By Mathieu RABECHAULT PARIS, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Ukraine is relying on the massive use of drones to compensate for an artillery shell shortage and undermine Russian military capabilities, but experts warned they cannot tip the balance. Both drones used for strikes hundreds of kilometres away and commercial drones are starting to dominate the battlefield. In particular, so-called First Person View (FPV) drones allow their pilots to see live images of the ground as […]
China congratulates Putin on election victory
By Matthew WALSH, James EDGAR BEIJING, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Key Russian ally China on Monday congratulated President Vladimir Putin on his election victory. With 99 percent of polling stations having submitted results, Putin had secured 87.33 percent of all votes cast, official election data showed Monday, according to state news agency RIA. “China expresses its congratulations on this,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said when asked about the poll at a regular press […]
Daughter of North Korea’s Kim might be heir apparent: Seoul
Seoul’s Unification Ministry on Monday added its voice to growing speculation around Kim Jong Un’s succession plans, saying they have not “ruled out” that his daughter could be next in line to lead North Korea. Pyongyang state media on Saturday referred to Kim’s teenage daughter as a “great person of guidance” — “hyangdo” in Korean — a term typically reserved exclusively for top leaders and their successors. Analysts said it was the first time Kim’s […]
How genetic therapies transformed the lives of sickle cell patients
By Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Their stories are divided into before and after. First, those long years of pain which flooded every moment — school, relationships, work. And then — after agonizing treatments — what felt like the miracle of life after sickle cell disease (SCD). Two Americans whose lives were turned around by newly approved treatments tell AFP they want others to benefit too. But the eye-watering cost — up […]
Israeli PM says civilians can leave crowded Rafah before invasion
By Adel Zaanoun with Robbie Corey-Boulet in Jerusalem GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, March 17, 2024 (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday that civilians crammed into the southern Gaza Strip would be able to leave before troops enter in pursuit of Hamas militants. His comments, alongside visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, follow international fears over the fate of the roughly 1.5 million people sheltering in Rafah, most of them displaced by Gaza’s war. […]
N. Korea fires ballistic missile as Blinken visits Seoul
North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Monday, Seoul’s military said, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea to meet top officials and attend a democracy summit. Blinken is in Seoul for the third Summit for Democracy, an initiative of US President Joe Biden, which the South is hosting this week, and is set to meet his Korean counterpart on the sidelines for talks. Key security allies Washington and Seoul wrapped up […]





