Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Thomas Urbain NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A New York police officer accused of placing a 43-year-old black man in a banned choke hold just before his death in 2014 will not face federal charges, the government said, in a decision slammed by the victim’s family as an “insult.” The move effectively closed the five-year-old case that fueled national “Black Lives Matter” protests calling for police to be held accountable […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian officials on Tuesday refused to register nearly 30 candidates for elections to Moscow’s local parliament, including prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin despite protests over the move. Opposition politicians have been fighting to get on the ballot for September’s elections to the Moscow city legislature as they seek to capitalize on growing public discontent over falling living standards and unchecked corruption. But many observers say authorities have used spurious […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Rio de Janeiro’s far-right governor Wilson Witzel on Tuesday compared drug dealers to the Shiite movement Hezbollah and warned police would respond like Israel by showing no leniency to “terrorists.” Defending his hardline security strategy that has fueled a surge in police killings this year, Witzel said criminals in Rio’s poorer neighborhoods known as favelas “raped children, killed innocent people and used the areas to sell drugs.” “What […]
by Elaine YU Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Riot police and protesters fought running battles in a Hong Kong shopping mall Sunday night as unrest caused by a widely loathed plan to allow extraditions to mainland China showed no sign of abating. Police used pepper spray and batons against small groups of protesters, who responded by hurling bottles and other projectiles, in a night of fresh violence in the international hub. […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump backed down Thursday on a push to force a controversial question on citizenship onto the 2020 census following a backlash by civil rights campaigners. Critics said the administration wanted to add the question to suppress participation by immigrant communities in the once-a-decade survey that helps officials determine where to allocate federal resources. “We are pursuing a new option to ensure a complete and timely count of […]
by John HADOULIS ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Greece’s conservative prime minister-elect Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowed that the country would “proudly” enter a post-bailout period of “jobs, security and growth” after winning a landslide victory in Sunday’s general election. Official results showed Mitsotakis on track to crush leftist premier Alexis Tsipras, who oversaw austerity meausures after Greece’s dramatic rescue by international creditors in the European debt crisis. “A painful cycle has closed,” Mitsotakis said in a televised […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s self-declared interim president Juan Guaido said Sunday a new dialogue between the opposition and President Nicolas Maduro’s government would be held in Barbados. He did not specify a date for resumption of talks at the new venue, in the Caribbean, after earlier discussions stalled in Norway. “In response to the mediation of the Kingdom of Norway (the opposition) will attend a meeting with representatives of the usurper regime in Barbados, […]
by Jerome TAYLOR / Elaine YU Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Thousands of anti-government protesters began a march in Hong Kong Sunday that will end outside a controversial train station linking the territory to the Chinese mainland, as activists try to keep pressure on the city’s pro-Beijing leaders. The rally is the first major large-scale protest since last Monday’s unprecedented storming of parliament by largely young, masked protesters — a move […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — China warned Britain on Wednesday that it must “refrain from further interference” in Hong Kong’s protests or risk “further damaging” its relationship with Beijing. China has appeared irked by Britain’s public rebukes over the unprecedented anti-Beijing demonstrations that have rocked Hong Kong in recent weeks. “I do hope that the British government will realize the consequences and… refrain from further interference, from further damaging the relationship,” China’s UK ambassador […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump has ordered border agents to begin a mass roundup as early as Sunday of some 2,000 migrant families that have received deportation orders, US media reported Friday. The news follows the president’s announcement on Twitter Monday that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials would begin deporting “millions of illegal aliens,” although he gave little detail. The tweet sped up operations that were already underway, […]
by Sebastien Berger with Poornima Weerasekara in Beijing BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a historic trip to Pyongyang on Thursday, rebooting a troubled alliance as he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un face their own challenges with US President Donald Trump. Xi will be the first Chinese president to visit North Korea in 14 years after relations between the Cold War era allies deteriorated over Pyongyang’s nuclear provocations and Beijing’s […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing reiterated its backing of Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam on Monday after a massive demonstration demanding her resignation over a controversial extradition bill. Protest organisers said some 2 million people choked Hong Kong’s streets on Sunday — despite Lam’s decision to indefinitely suspend passage of the bill a day earlier. Critics fear the Beijing-backed law will entangle people in China’s notoriously opaque and politicised courts and damage the […]
