WORLD

Mae Sai, Thailand | AFP |  More than 100 chimneys are being drilled into the mountainside in a frantic bid to reach a Thai youth football team trapped in a cave complex below, the head of the rescue mission said Saturday. The unprecedented rescue effort is attempting to establish new …

  Paris, France | AFP |  President Emmanuel Macron will attend France’s World Cup semi-final in Russia, his office confirmed Friday, as ally Britain pursues a diplomatic boycott of the tournament over a nerve agent attack. Macron had promised to attend the match if France reached the semi-finals Tuesday in …

Uruguayans admit France gave ‘football lesson’ at World Cup Montevideo, Uruguay | AFP |  Uruguayans were gracious in defeat after France ended their World Cup hopes on Friday with a 2-0 quarter-final victory. “France crushed Uruguay!” admitted Observador, one of Uruguay’s main newspapers. “They handed out a football lesson, dominating …

Paris, France | AFP |  Almost six million people tweeted their thoughts on Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle, according to French social media monitoring firm Visibrain. Between 2200 GMT Friday and 1800 GMT Saturday, 5,958,379 tweets had been posted worldwide on the royal nuptials, 4.5 million bearing the hashtag …

  Havana, Cuba | AFP | Cuba begins two days of national mourning Saturday for victims of the crash of a state airways plane that killed all but three of its 110 passengers and crew. President Miguel Diaz-Canel said an investigation was under way into Friday’s crash of the nearly …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis said Wednesday he was “very worried” by escalating violence in the Middle East after 60 Gazans were shot dead by Israeli troops while protesting the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem. “I am very worried about the escalation of tensions in the …

Paris, France | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday dismissed the threat of new sanctions following an early election called for Sunday, which critics have denounced as a sham aimed at tightening his grip on power. “These are unacceptable threats toward any sovereign nation,” Maduro said in an …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It looks like a real heart. And this is the goal of the first entirely soft artificial heart: to mimic its natural model as closely as possible. The silicone heart has been developed by Nicholas Cohrs, a doctoral student in the group led by …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP |  The Islamic holy month of Ramadan will begin Thursday in Saudi Arabia, the land of the religion’s two holiest sites, authorities said. “The first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan falls on Thursday corresponding to May 17, 2018,” the Royal Court said …

Paris, France | AFP | Facebook axed 583 million fake accounts in the first three months of 2018, the social media giant said Tuesday, detailing how it enforces “community standards” against sexual or violent images, terrorist propaganda or hate speech. Responding to calls for transparency after the Cambridge Analytica data …