Other News

Politics played no role in Huawei exec’s arrest: Trudeau

OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that politics played no part in the arrest of a top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei, who was detained on a US extradition request. “I can assure everyone that we are a country (with) an independent judiciary,” Trudeau told a tech conference in Montreal. “And they took this decision without any political involvement or interference.” The prime minister declined to comment further on […]

Paris shops, monuments to close as fears of protest violence mount

by Simon Valmary and Joseph Schmid Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre museum and scores of shops on the Champs-Elysees are set to close as authorities warned Thursday of fresh violence this weekend during protests which have ballooned into the biggest crisis of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. The government is scrambling to stave off another Saturday of burned cars and running street battles with police by “yellow vest” protesters furious […]

China furious at Huawei executive’s arrest in Canada

  by Eva Xiao with Jacques Lemieux in Ottawa Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China reacted furiously Thursday after a top executive and daughter of the founder of Chinese telecom giant Huawei was arrested in Canada following a US extradition request, threatening to rattle a trade war truce with the United States. The detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, comes after American authorities reportedly launched an investigation into suspected Iran sanctions […]

OPEC eyes output cuts to prop up plunging oil prices, defying Trump calls for boost

  by Joseph Sotinel and Simon Morgan Agence France Presse VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — OPEC members and other oil-producing countries mulled cuts in output Thursday to prop up plunging prices, defying repeated calls by US President Donald Trump that they keep the taps open. “We’re looking for a sufficient cut to balance the market, equally distributed between countries,” Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters ahead of an OPEC meeting in the Austrian capital. Oil […]

Trump asks OPEC not to cut production to keep global oil prices low

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged OPEC members not to slash production at their upcoming meeting, saying global oil prices should remain low. Trump’s comment came as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil-producing nations prepared to meet Thursday and Friday in Vienna to discuss lowering their output. “Hopefully OPEC will be keeping oil flows as is, not restricted. The World does not want […]

ICC to continue probe of President Duterte on EJKs in drug war; ICC prosecutor claims “jurisdiction” in case

  (Eagle News) – The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensourda, said that her office will continue to conduct its examination of the situation in the Philippines, even if the country had already initiated action to withdraw from the Rome Statute. In her annual report on preliminary examination activities for year 2018, the Philippines was listed as among the countries in which the ICC had opened preliminary examinations. The report covers the period […]

Five missing after two US military planes crash off Japan

  by Miwa Suzuki with Thomas Watkins in Washington Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Rescue operations were underway Thursday for five US marines missing after two American military aircraft crashed during a refuelling operation off the coast of Japan, the Japanese defence minister said. One crew member has already been rescued and is thought to be in a stable condition, Takeshi Iwaya told reporters. A spokesman for the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) said […]

US priest accused of sex abuse arrested in Philippines; BI says priest to be deported

  MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — An American Catholic priest wanted for allegedly sexually abusing Filipino altar boys as young as seven has been arrested in the Philippines and now faces deportation, officials said Thursday. Kenneth Bernard Hendricks, 77, was taken into custody Wednesday on the central island of Biliran after serving as a priest for 37 years in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. “We received information from US authorities regarding the alleged sexual exploitation of multiple […]

Hollywood awards season kicks off with Golden Globes noms

by Laurent BANGUET Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Hollywood’s annual carnival of awards shows begins Thursday with the nominations for the Golden Globes — the starting gun in the race for the Oscars. The announcements, which come a week before the influential Screen Actors Guild nominations, are the first major bellwether of momentum going into the Academy Awards, which take place in February. Awards analysis website Gold Derby predicts that music romance […]

Suicide bomber kills 4 in southeast Iran: state media

TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — A suicide bomber killed at least four people outside a police headquarters in the port city of Chabahar in restive southeastern Iran on Thursday, its governor said. Chabahar governor Rahmdel Bameri said many people were also wounded in the morning car bombing. “The explosion was very strong and broke the glass of many buildings close by,” Bameri told state television. Many nearby shop owners and civilian passers-by, including women and children, […]

President Duterte urges OFWS to be more assertive vs corruption

  (Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte urged Overseas Filipino Workers to be more assertive against corruption by not giving in to demands for money from corrupt government officials. “Learn to be assertive. Kung nasa tama ka, why give money?” the President said during his speech at the 85th anniversary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Duterte said he would never condone people in government extorting money from OFWs. “Pagka lumaban kayo lahat.. […]

Zuckerberg defends Facebook in new data breach controversy

by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg pushed back Wednesday against emails showing the social media giant offering Netflix and other popular apps preferential access to people’s data even after it had tightened its privacy rules. A British parliamentary committee investigating whether the social media behemoth was being used to manipulate the results of elections published 250 pages of internal Facebook documents earlier Wednesday. They show executives holding […]