Tehran, Iran | AFP | Monday 4/17/2023 Iran said Monday it has formally invited Saudi King Salman to visit Tehran, following a reconciliation agreement reached last month between the two sides. Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran in 2016, after its embassy in Tehran and consulate in the northwestern city of Mashhad were attacked during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The two Middle East powerhouses had held several rounds of dialogue […]
Other News
Russia jails Putin critic Kara-Murza for 25 years
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Monday 4/17/2023 Russia on Monday sentenced Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in a “strict regime” penal colony on treason and other charges for criticising the Ukraine offensive. International leaders and supporters immediately condemned the verdict, the longest against an opposition figure in recent years, and called for his release. A Moscow court found the 41-year-old guilty of treason, of spreading “false” information about the Russian army and of […]
SpaceX postpones test flight of Starship, world’s biggest rocket
by Patrick Fallon with Chris Lefkow in Washington SpaceX on Monday postponed the first test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars and beyond. Liftoff of the gigantic rocket was called off just minutes ahead of the scheduled launch time because of a pressurization issue in the booster stage, SpaceX said. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said a pressure valve appeared to be frozen, forcing […]
French court acquits Air France, Airbus over 2009 Rio-Paris crash
Paris, France | AFP | Monday 4/17/2023 by Anne LEC’HVIEN Air France and plane manufacturer Airbus were acquitted Monday over the 2009 crash of a Rio-Paris flight after a French court ruled their errors could not be proven as the disaster’s cause. While the ruling was expected after prosecutors recommended to the Paris court not to seek a conviction, it is still a huge blow for families of victims who have waged a 14-year campaign […]
‘Gunpowder’ found at home of Japan PM blast suspect: media
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Monday 4/17/2023 Suspected gunpowder has been found at the home of a man accused of throwing an explosive at Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a campaign event, local media said Monday. Kishida was unharmed in the attack, in which a suspected pipe bomb was tossed towards him at a port in western Japan’s Wakayama, shortly before he gave a speech. Police spent over eight hours on Sunday searching the […]
‘United’: G7 diplomats offer common front on China
Karuizawa, Japan | AFP | Monday 4/17/2023 by Sara HUSSEIN / Tomohiro OSAKI For G7 diplomats meeting in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa, unity was the name of the game on Monday, with ministers lining up to insist there is no daylight between them on China policy. The two days of talks are taking place under the long shadow cast by controversial remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week suggested Europe should […]
Pres. Putin praises Pacific drills as China minister visits
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday praised the “very high level” of military drills in the Pacific as Moscow seeks closer ties with China amid a stand-off with the West. The surprise drills announced last week come as Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu is in Russia on a visit which will last until Wednesday. Putin received Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month in Moscow for a summit showing the nations’ united front against the West. During […]
Sega to buy Angry Birds maker Rovio
Helsinki, Finland | AFP | by Elias HUUHTANEN Japanese gaming group Sega has offered to buy the creator of the popular Angry Birds franchise, Finland’s Rovio, in a deal worth more than 700 million euros ($770 million), the companies said Monday. The deal would mark the end the independence of Finnish mobile game makers, which burst into the scene when Rovio launched its slingshot-bird game more than a decade ago. The bid by Sega, famous […]
‘Time doesn’t heal’: Ukraine’s war widows count the cost
by Jonathan BROWN and Elizabeth STRIY in Warsaw Agence France-Presse Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) — Olga Slyshyk began to fear the worst in January this year when her husband, Mykhailo, a military engineer serving on the front line in eastern Ukraine, didn’t contact her on her birthday. It wasn’t unusual for the 40-year-old trained lawyer to be offline for days at a time, but Slyshyk knew he would reach out — one way or another — […]
‘I am Taiwanese’: China threat toughens island’s identity
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — At a barbed-wire museum where political prisoners were once held, visitors lauded Taiwan’s modern-day democracy shaped by its own national identity on the island across from authoritarian China. Taipei’s Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park is a stark reminder of the island’s history as a one-party state under the Kuomintang nationalists who fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Secretive courts tried those accused of assisting […]
G7 top diplomats seek unity on China after Macron remarks
by Sara HUSSEIN / Mathias CENA Agence France-Presse KARUIZAWA, Japan (AFP) — The G7’s top diplomats began talks in Japan on Monday, looking to project a unified message on concerns about China after controversial remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron. The foreign ministers are keen to move past the firestorm created by Macron’s assertion, following a trip to Beijing, that Europe should avoid “crises that aren’t ours”, and China was on the agenda even before […]
SpaceX Starship, world’s biggest rocket, set for first test flight
by Patrick Fallon with Chris Lefkow in Washington Agence France Presse Starbase, United States (AFP) SpaceX is counting down to the first test flight on Monday of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars and beyond. The giant rocket is scheduled to blast off from Starbase, the SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas, at 8:00 am Central Time (1300 GMT). Fallback times are scheduled for later […]





