RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The Maracana stadium erupted in jeers as Brazil’s unpopular interim president Michel Temer opened the Rio Olympics on Friday — and the hostility spread far beyond the sports venue. The colorful opening ceremony in the famous football stadium was meant to be Brazil’s moment of coming together as first host of the Olympics in South America. The booing in response to Temer’s less than 15 second statement put an […]
Other News
Yemen peace talks end in failure
Kuwait City, Kuwait—The United Nations special envoy for Yemen announced the end of peace talks Saturday without any major breakthrough, but also said a new round of negotiations would begin after one month. “We will be leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace talks are continuing,” Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told a press conference. He said he will be holding bilateral consultations with the two delegations in the coming few weeks to work out details […]
180,000 ink petition demanding Russia PM’s resignation
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) – by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber More than 180,000 Russians have signed an online petition to President Vladimir Putin calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over his recent comments on teachers’ pay. The petition first posted on the website Change.org on Thursday came after the premier advised a low-paid lecturer to go into business if he wanted to make money. Medvedev’s comments — seen as out-of-touch and uncaring — unleashed a […]
South Sudan army slams UN report alleging killings, rape
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – South Sudan’s army on Friday described a UN report alleging its troops carried out ethnically targeted killings and rapes as “baseless”, saying not one victim had lodged a complaint. The UN’s top human rights official on Thursday blamed Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) troops loyal to President Salva Kiir for deadly attacks on the Nuer people during a bout of unrest in the capital in early July. Kiir is from the Dinka […]
Scientists say hoped-for physics particle was just a blip
CHICAGO, United States (AFP) – Hopes for a new particle discovery that might have up-ended the standard model of physics were dashed on Friday, as scientists admitted that a “bump” in the data was actually just a “blip.” A great deal of excitement was generated by the December 2015 announcement that a fluctuation in the data had been found independently by two groups of scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a massive underground atom-smasher […]
Donald Trump’s week of campaign woe
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Donald Trump, the embattled Republican presidential nominee, has made a successful campaign out of incendiary rhetoric and defying political correctness. But the plain-talking political outsider has stepped in it repeatedly over the past week, so much so that members of his own party are begging him to stay on message in his battle against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Here are six of Trump’s biggest gaffes since last week. Russian hacks Trump […]
US finds GMO mosquitoes won’t harm environment
MIAMI, United States (AFP) – A type of genetically modified mosquito made by the British company Oxitec should pose no danger to the environment, US regulators said on Friday after considering thousands of public comments. The US Food and Drug Administration’s environmental review for the release of Oxitec’s genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes, known as OX513A, found “the proposed field trial will not have significant impacts on the environment.” The male mosquitoes are engineered so that their […]
Protests shake Rio hours before opening Olympics gala
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) – by Sebastian Smith with Laura Bonilla Cal Thousands of Brazilians angry at political upheaval, corruption and the cost of the Rio Olympics blocked traffic in protests Friday ahead of the gala opening ceremony. About 3,000 people occupied the busy avenue running along Copacabana beach, while a smaller crowd including radical leftists faced off with mounted police near the Maracana stadium where the opening was to be staged. Most […]
Japan summons Chinese ambassador over ships
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japan’s foreign ministry on Friday summoned China’s ambassador to protest what it said were intrusions into its territorial waters by Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels. The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing’s ambassador to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said in […]
US adds 255,000 jobs in July, surpassing expectations
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – by Douglas Gillison The US economy saw robust job creation in July, largely surpassing analyst expectations, while the unemployment rate remained stable at 4.9 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. The new numbers were also accompanied by upward revisions for the months of May and June in a sign that the job market in the world’s largest economy is healthier than previously thought. The strong figures also come in […]
PBA: Stalwarts slips past Greats in All-Star Friday; Guevarra slam dunk champ
By Diego de la Paz CUBAO, Philippines (Eagle News) – Raymond Almazan followed through the prodding of his legendary teammates to lead the Stalwarts five past the Greats, 99-94, in the opening night of the 2016 PBA All-Star Weekend at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday night. The Rain or Shine slotman, whose 23 points on a 10-for-18 clip from the field with 12 rebounds output led the way for the Stalwarts, was enough to […]
Exclusive interview with PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa
QUEZON City, Philippines – In an exclusive interview with Mata Ng Agila, Philippine National Police Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa talks about the extent of the illegal drug problem in the Philippines as well as what the current government is doing to stop the illegal drug trade.
