Putin warms to Trump, flexes muscles on Syria Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday appeared to cosy up to US President-elect Donald Trump while asserting his authority as the key powerbroker in Syria. At his annual end-of-year press conference, the confident Kremlin strongman praised Trump …
Read More »UN Security Council rejects arms embargo on South Sudan
United Nations, United States | AFP | The UN Security Council on Friday rejected a US-drafted resolution on imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on South Sudan amid divisions over how to pressure leaders to end the three-year war. The measure presented by the United States garnered only seven votes …
Read More »Next on Trump’s radar is the UN
After Israel vote, Trump promises change at UN Palm Beach, United States | AFP | US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday vowed that the country’s policies at the United Nations will change after he takes office. “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan 20th,” he said on …
Read More »Golf’s Tiger Woods hits the links with Donald Trump
Miami, United States | AFP | Tiger Woods, who played golf three years ago with Barack Obama, teed off Friday with White House successor Donald Trump at the real estate mogul’s swank Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Woods, who will celebrate his 41st birthday on December 30, …
Read More »Reports says Snowden a ‘fabricator’ in contact with Russian intel
Washington, United States | AFP | A scathing US Congressional report released Thursday branded intelligence leaker Edward Snowden a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” and said he has had continual contact with Russian intelligence services. The partially redacted report, released by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, portrays Snowden as …
Read More »Passenger ejected from NY flight after confronting Ivanka Trump
New York, United States | AFP | A passenger who verbally accosted Ivanka Trump about her father’s policies was removed Thursday from a JetBlue flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, US media reported. TMZ, in a story picked up and widely circulated by US media, wrote that the …
Read More »UN expected to vote Friday on South Sudan arms embargo
United Nations, United States | AFP | The UN Security Council is expected to vote on Friday on a US-drafted resolution to impose an arms embargo and sanctions on South Sudan, now in its fourth year of war. It remained unclear however whether the measure would be adopted, with diplomats saying …
Read More »Families of Orlando victims sue Facebook, Google, Twitter
Chicago, United States | AFP | The families of three Orlando nightclub shooting victims have filed suit against Facebook, Twitter and Google accusing them of providing “material support” to the Islamic State group by allowing the spread of extremist propaganda that inspired the attack. The assault by gunman Omar Mateen, …
Read More »Coca-Cola secures African stake from ABInbev
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has agreed to pay more than three billion dollars to recently-merged AB InBev for control of Africa’s biggest soft drinks bottling company, both companies said Wednesday. On merging with SABMiller in September, Belgian-Brazilian giant AB InBev found itself with 54.5 percent …
Read More »Why ‘Surreal’ was named 2016 ‘Word of the Year’
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump’s upset win in the US presidential election astonished people so much that they rushed to the dictionary to look up the word everyone was using to describe the event: surreal. Indeed, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary on Monday named surreal its Word of the Year …
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