New York, United States | AFP | Lady Gaga urged US leaders Monday to act quickly to tighten gun laws following the carnage in Las Vegas as artists voiced shock at the deadliest shooting in modern US history. While most artists left their comments to general messages of sympathy after the …
Read More »Trump says Las Vegas massacre an ‘act of pure evil’
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump decried the massacre of at least 58 Las Vegas concert goers as an “act of pure evil” Monday, but refrained from addressing calls for gun control or an unproven claim of responsibility from the Islamic State group. Delivering televised remarks from …
Read More »Security tight in Cameroon anglophone region as toll rises
Buea, Cameroon | AFP | Police maintained a tight grip in English-speaking Cameroon on Monday a day after the anglophone minority declared symbolic independence, as the toll from weekend clashes rose to at least 17 dead, according to an unofficial tally. Highways in the anglophone Southwest Region remained blocked or filtered …
Read More »Facebook beefing up team to thwart election manipulation
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook on Monday said it will hire more than 1,000 people to thwart deceptive ads crafted to knock elections off course. The announcement came as the leading social network turned over to Congress some 3,000 Russia-linked ads that appeared to use hot-button issues to …
Read More »EU breaks cover to urge Catalonia crisis dialogue
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU leaders on Monday called for dialogue to solve the crisis over Catalonia’s banned independence referendum and urged an end to violence in a cautious first reaction to a thorny subject for the bloc. Breaking weeks of virtual silence on the subject after scores were …
Read More »Kenya police use tear gas to disperse opposition protesters
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Police tear-gassed opposition supporters in two of Kenya’s biggest cities on Monday as they protested at the country’s election watchdog, which is due to referee a re-run presidential poll this month. Hundreds of opposition protesters in the capital Nairobi, the western city of Kisumu and the …
Read More »Lukaku denies Beverly Hills party charge
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku entered a not guilty plea on Monday after being cited for holding a rowdy party at his rented Beverly Hills mansion in July. A lawyer for Lukaku, who was not required to be in court in Los Angeles, entered …
Read More »Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock: retired accountant, heavy gambler
Las Vegas, United States | AFP | Stephen Craig Paddock, the retired accountant who smuggled an armory’s worth of weapons into a swank Las Vegas hotel and mowed down concert-goers from a 32nd story window, was a high-stakes gambler whose bank-robber father was once on the FBI’s most wanted list. …
Read More »Trump defends Puerto Rico effort, but his tweets draw new criticism
San Juan, Puerto Rico | AFP | President Donald Trump on Sunday defended US efforts to bring relief to storm-battered Puerto Rico, even as one island official said Trump was trying to gloss over “things that are not going well.” A day after Trump launched a Twitter attack against San …
Read More »Egyptian officials in Gaza ahead of Palestinian unity talks
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories | AFP | Egyptian delegates arrived in Gaza Sunday on the eve of a fresh attempt at reconciliation between the strip’s Hamas rulers and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement, an official said. West Bank-based Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah is to make his first visit …
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