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by Mauro PIMENTEL RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Tens of thousands of students and teachers held street protests across Brazil in “defense of education” on Wednesday in response to a raft of budget cuts announced by President Jair Bolsonaro’s government. Classes were suspended in federal universities and secondary schools in the first nationwide protests against the far-right president since he took office on January 1. Protesters flocked onto the streets in Brazil’s biggest cities, […]
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Amnesty International said Tuesday it believes the Venezuelan authorities have committed crimes against humanity in their crackdown on anti-government protests, and urged the International Criminal Court to investigate. The rights group said President Nicolas Maduro’s government responded with “a systematic and widespread policy of repression” in late January, when anti-government protests swept the country after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president. Maduro opponents were tortured and killed during […]
by Diego URDANETA CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Juan Guaido accused the Venezuelan government of trying to “gag” Congress after security forces prevented opposition lawmakers from entering the National Assembly on Tuesday, two weeks after the opposition leader’s failed uprising against President Nicolas Maduro. Deputies said members of the National Guard, who provide security for the building, along with police and SEBIN intelligence agents blocked access to the opposition-controlled National Assembly. The move came as Amnesty […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — A Venezuelan air force general has called on his country’s armed forces to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who remains in power with military support despite a sweeping economic crisis. “It’s time to rise up, it’s time to fight … it’s time that the armed forces became aware,” General Ramon Rangel said in a video appeal issued Sunday on social media. Rangel — who appeared in civilian clothes and whose […]
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Mexico City’s legislature voted Thursday to ban businesses from buying, selling or giving their customers disposable plastics, a major shift for a sprawling capital that is awash in them. The ban, set to come into force in December 2020 or January 2021, includes such articles as non-biodegradable plastic bags, straws, cutlery, cups and coffee capsules, the legislature said in a statement, calling them a “serious environmental problem.” It puts the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Two House Democrats on Thursday joined activists at the US Capitol who presented Congress with signatures of 10 million people calling on lawmakers to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. “We are holding in our hands 10 million reasons for being here today,” progressive congressman Al Green said, as he and first-term congresswoman Rashida Tlaib held up a flash drive. Dozens of cardboard boxes featuring the signatures, gathered on […]
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s government faced criticism Thursday for failing to repeal repressive laws and backtracking on promises to improve human rights a year after sweeping to power with a reformist agenda. A ramshackle coalition headed by veteran politician Mahathir Mohamad stormed to a shock election victory on May 9 last year, toppling a corruption-plagued regime that had led the country since independence from Britain in 1957. The Pact of Hope alliance had […]
by Hla-Hla HTAY and Richard SARGENT Agence France Presse YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Two Reuters journalists jailed for their reporting on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar walked out of prison on Tuesday, freed in a presidential amnesty after a vigorous global campaign for their release. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were mobbed by media as they stepped out of Yangon’s notorious Insein prison after more than 16 months in detention. Their December 2017 […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said two US warships sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea without permission on Monday in the latest US challenge to Beijing’s territorial claims in the region. The Chinese navy asked the US vessels to leave after they entered waters adjacent to Gaven and Chigua reefs in the Spratly Islands, which Beijing calls Nansha, the foreign ministry said. The move comes on top of trade tensions as […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Tiger Woods, fresh off his epic comeback victory in the Masters, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. Presenting the golfing great with the nation’s highest honor, Trump praised Woods’ “relentless will to win, win, win.” “These qualities embody the American spirit of pushing boundaries, defying limits and always striving for greatness,” the president said. Trump congratulated Woods on “your […]
by Sofia MISELEM / Sylvain ESTIBAL Agence France-Presse MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) – For a groundbreaking ceremony, there was suspiciously little ground broken as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador symbolically inaugurated work on a new Mexico City airport — a pet project analysts warn could go badly wrong. Smiling and waving an orange flag, the anti-establishment leftist stood before a line of heavy construction equipment last Monday, declaring work was officially under way to turn […]
by Guillaume DECAMME / Alexander MARTINEZ Agence France-Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said Monday that backers who had pledged support for his abortive uprising last week had “failed to follow through” to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro. But that “doesn’t mean that they won’t do it soon,” Guaido told AFP in an interview in Caracas. Guaido, recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries, said it was “obvious today, there […]
