Other News

Do something now:’ mourners demand action after US school shooting

by Michael Mathes A distraught Texas grandmother of a girl killed in the massacre in Uvalde pleaded Thursday for urgent action by US authorities to prevent future school shootings, as the country plunges again into the roiling debate over guns. Ten-year-old Amerie Garza — a fourth-grader who loved her classes, drawing, and playing with clay — was one of 19 children murdered by a teen gunman at Robb Elementary School in an act of evil […]

6.1-magnitude quake strikes off East Timor, tsunami advisory issued

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of East Timor on Friday, the US Geological Survey said. A tsunami advisory group said the earthquake “may be capable of generating a tsunami affecting the Indian Ocean region”. The quake struck at a depth of 51.4 kilometres (32 miles) off the eastern tip of Timor Island, USGS said, which is split between East Timor and Indonesia. The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) issued the […]

New ‘Star Wars’ series with Jude Law in works as Disney targets streaming

by Andrew Marszal © Agence France-Presse  Anaheim, UNITED STATES (AFP) — Disney announced a new live-action “Star Wars” series featuring Jude Law at a major fan convention Thursday — but any mention of upcoming films in the beloved sci-fi franchise was conspicuously absent, as the company focuses on its streaming service. Harrison Ford and Ewan McGregor were among the stars who appeared on stage before a raucous and outlandishly dressed crowd in Anaheim, California for […]

The Arctic’s tricky quest for sustainable tourism

  by Pierre-Henry Deshayes © Agence France-Presse  Longyearbyen, NORWAY (AFP) — Home to polar bears, the midnight sun and the northern lights, a Norwegian archipelago perched high in the Arctic is trying to find a way to profit from its pristine wilderness without ruining it. The Svalbard archipelago, located 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the North Pole and reachable by commercial airline flights, offers visitors vast expanses of untouched nature, with majestic mountains, glaciers and […]

Putin ready to help overcome food crisis if West lifts sanctions

Moscow is ready to make a “significant contribution” to averting a looming food crisis if the West lifts sanctions over Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin told Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday. Russia was slapped with unprecedented sanctions after Putin ordered troops into neighbouring Ukraine on February 24. The sanctions and military action have disrupted supplies of fertiliser, wheat and other commodities from both Russia and Ukraine. The two countries produce 30 percent of the […]

Left hopes for historic win in Colombia’s ‘change election’

by Mariëtte Le Roux and Lina Vanegas © Agence France-Presse Bogota, COLOMBIA (AFP) — Colombians go to the polls Sunday in a deeply polarized election that could see a leftist — and ex-guerrilla — become president for the first time in the history of the violence- and inequality-plagued country. A year after a brutal security crackdown on street protests fueled by deepening socio-economic woes, many voters are pinning their hopes on former Bogota mayor Gustavo […]

EU working on joint purchase of monkeypox vaccines

The EU is working on centralising purchases of vaccines and treatments for monkeypox, with details to be agreed in the “coming days,” the European Commission told AFP on Thursday. The push, through the commission’s Health Emergency and Preparedness Authority (HERA), comes as the EU’s disease agency said the number of monkeypox cases in humans worldwide in the current spread had reached 219. Former EU member Britain has the highest number of cases, at 71, followed […]

Twitter shareholder lawsuit accuses Musk of ‘market manipulation’

San Francisco, UNITED STATES (AFP) — Elon Musk faces a lawsuit accusing him of pushing down Twitter’s stock price in order to either give himself an escape hatch from his $44 billion buyout bid, or room to negotiate a discount. The suit alleges the billionaire Tesla boss tweeted and made statements intended to create doubt about the deal, which has roiled the social media platform for weeks. Filed Wednesday by a shareholder, the claim seeks […]

Maker of rifle used in Texas massacre to skip NRA convention

Uvalde, UNITED STATES (AFP) — Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the assault rifle used in the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, said Thursday it will not attend a convention this week in the state of the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby. “Daniel Defense is not attending the National Rifle Association (“NRA”) meeting due to the horrifying tragedy in Uvalde, Texas where one of our products was criminally misused,” the company told AFP. “We believe […]

‘Goodfellas’ actor Ray Liotta dead at 67

Actor Ray Liotta, who starred in Martin Scorsese’s gangster classic “Goodfellas,” has died suddenly in the Dominican Republic, officials and police said Thursday. He was 67. Liotta, whose blistering turn as real-life mobster Henry Hill in Scorsese’s crime masterpiece won universal admiration, was shooting a new film in the country when he died in his sleep. Police said emergency services were called early Thursday morning to a hotel in Santo Domingo where they found Liotta […]

Zelensky accuses Russia of ‘genocide’ in Donbas region

Kyiv, UKRAINE (AFP) — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Russia of carrying out “an obvious policy of genocide” in his country’s eastern Donbas region. Moscow’s offensive in Donbas could end up leaving the region “uninhabited,” he said, accusing the Russians of wanting to reduce its cities to ashes. “All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia,” he said […]

China, Russia veto US bid at UN to punish North Korea

by Philippe Rater with Shaun Tandon in Washington © Agence France-Presse United Nations, UNITED STATES (AFP) — China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a US-led bid at the United Nations to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its missile launches, laying bare divisions that Western envoys fear would be exploited by Pyongyang. The Security Council resolution put forward by the United States would have reduced the amount of oil North Korea could legally import as […]