New York, UNITED STATES | AFP | US media group News Corp on Thursday reported a loss in the past quarter, hit by declines in advertising and writedowns at its global newspapers. The company controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his family reported a loss of $430 million in the …
Read More »Guam ‘well-equipped’ to handle North Korean threat: governor
Hagatna, UNITED STATES | AFP | Guam’s governor on Thursday said the US territory was “well-equipped” to handle any North Korean strike thanks to robust infrastructure that had survived earthquakes and typhoons, after Pyongyang released a detailed plan to launch missiles towards the island. A drumbeat of threats by North Korea …
Read More »North Korea: Trump fire talk singes Tillerson’s wings
Washington, UNITED STATES | AFP | Will the United States defeat the North Korean nuclear threat through “peaceful pressure” or “fire and fury”? This week US Secretary of State and diplomatic good cop Rex Tillerson was in southeast Asia, working with allies to isolate and cajole Kim Jong-Un’s regime. Meanwhile, back …
Read More »UN hits N. Korea with tough new sanctions – but will they work?
United Nations, United States | AFP | In slapping its seventh set of sanctions on North Korea, the United Nations has adopted its toughest measures yet against the regime — but how effective they will be in changing Pyongyang’s behavior is another matter. Days after the UN unanimously approved the US-drafted …
Read More »Facebook rolls out video shows, in new challenge
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook is rolling out a new video service offering professionally produced shows in a challenge to rivals such as YouTube, and potentially to streaming providers like Netflix. The Facebook service called Watch will include a range of shows, from reality to comedy to live …
Read More »North Korea hones Guam strike plans, mocks Trump
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Nuclear-armed North Korea announced a detailed plan Thursday to send a salvo of four missiles over Japan and towards the US territory of Guam, raising the stakes in a stand-off with President Donald Trump and mocking him as “bereft of reason”. The scheme to target …
Read More »Trump’s new Twitter target: the senate leader of his own party
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump has vented his anger against any number of political opponents on Twitter, but the latest target of US presidential scorn is the Senate leader of his own Republican Party, Mitch McConnell. The president took to Twitter early Thursday to denounce the Senate majority …
Read More »At least 56 dead as smugglers throw 300 African migrants into Yemen sea
Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | At least 56 people have drowned over the past 24 hours, and dozens remain missing, after human traffickers forced 300 African migrants off two Yemen-bound boats and into the sea. Survivors — all Ethiopian and Somali migrants — managed to make their way to …
Read More »Asteroid to shave past Earth inside Moon orbit: ESA
Paris, France | AFP | An asteroid the size of a house will shave past Earth at a distance of some 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) in October, inside the Moon’s orbit, astronomers said Thursday. The space rock will zoom by at an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the …
Read More »What we know about Europe’s contaminated eggs scare
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Europe faces a growing scandal over the contamination of millions of eggs with the insecticide fipronil, which can be potentially harmful to humans. Here is what we know about a scare which has seen eggs pulled from supermarket shelves in eight countries and involves multiple criminal …
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