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by Mushtaq MOJADDIDI Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — More than 40 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide blast targeting Shiites in Kabul Thursday, officials said, with chaotic scenes at the city’s hospitals as anguished families sought loved ones. The Sunni Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility for the gruesome assault on the pro-Iranian Tabayan cultural centre, the third deadly attack it has claimed in the Afghan capital this month. Up […]
by Natsuko FUKUE Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Once asked on Twitter about his receding hairline, Masayoshi Son, founder of Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank, retorted: “My hair is not receding. I’m advancing.” It was a typically bullish remark from the 60-year-old tycoon, listed by Forbes as Japan’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $22.2 billion, who has embarked on a furious spree of purchases culminating in Thursday’s deal to take a hefty […]
by John BIERS Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The Dow drifted to a fresh record Thursday in sleepy holiday trading, while bitcoin prices tumbled after South Korea announced new restrictions on cryptocurrencies. Most of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced in a quiet session, the latest record on the heels of dozens of earlier all-time highs in US equities this year. US stocks have been boosted all […]
by Anna SMOLCHENKO with Marina KORENEVA in Saint Petersburg Agence France Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday that armed criminals could be “liquidated on the spot,” calling the blast that tore through a Saint Petersburg supermarket and wounded 14 people an “act of terror.” On Wednesday evening, a homemade bomb placed in a locker at the supermarket in northwestern Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second city and Putin’s hometown, went off sowing […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump — who has often hailed China’s efforts to put pressure on North Korea — hit out at Beijing Thursday for failing to cut off Pyongyang’s oil supply, saying such moves prevented a “friendly solution” of the crisis. “Caught RED HANDED – very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea,” Trump said on Twitter. “There will never be a friendly solution to the […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Former international football star George Weah, who has won Liberia’s presidential run-off, follows several celebrities who have achieved the top job in their countries. However, only one sportsman — Hungary’s double Olympic fencing champion Pal Schmitt — has previously become president. Here are some precedents: US: Reagan and Trump B movie actor Ronald Reagan, who played in Hollywood for more than two decades, was the first cinema star to enter the […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Apple on Thursday apologized to its customers for slowing down the performance of older iPhone models and said it would discount replacement batteries for some of its handsets. The move by Apple responded to an uproar from iPhone users — and a series of lawsuits — after news of the battery problems stoked concerns the company was unfairly nudging consumers to upgrade. “We know that some of you feel […]
by Chris Lefkow Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Democrat Doug Jones was formally declared the winner of the bitterly contested US Senate race in the southern state of Alabama on Thursday, whittling down the Republican majority in the chamber by a crucial seat. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill certified the results of the December 12 special election and dismissed claims of voter fraud by the campaign of the defeated Republican candidate, Roy […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Top Italian chef Massimo Bottura, whose Osteria Francescana was named the world’s best restaurant last year, is in talks to open a community kitchen in Paris that would serve the homeless and other people in need. “Discussions are underway to set up a canteen in the basement of the Madeleine Church,” Jean-Francois Rial, chief executive of the group Voyageurs du Monde, told AFP Thursday. “It is still just a project, nothing […]
by Philippe RATER Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Thursday denied international port access to four North Korean ships suspected of carrying or having transported goods banned by international sanctions targeting Pyongyang, diplomats told AFP. The ban of the four vessels — the Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Sam Jong 2 and Rye Song Gang 1 — brings the UN’s total number of blocked ships to […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Two years after he was sensationally acquitted of murder and the 1978 Lufthansa heist, New York mobster Vincent Asaro finally got his comeuppance Thursday, sentenced to eight years for arson. Asaro, 82 — a capo from the Bonanno organized crime family — now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars for ordering an arson attack on a car in 2012. In June, Asaro, whose […]
by Anne LEC’HVIEN and Adam PLOWRIGHT Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — French prosecutors have launched a probe into Japanese printer maker Epson for alleged planned obsolescence in its products, using landmark consumer legislation that campaigners hope to turn against Apple as well. The investigation, confirmed to AFP by a legal source on Thursday, was opened in November and is being led by anti-trust and consumer protection specialists in the French economy ministry under the […]
