Washington, United States | AFP | The United States has approved a request from Qatar to upgrade the emirate’s air force operations center, officials said Thursday, despite the Gulf diplomatic crisis. Qatar has fallen out with fellow US allies in the Gulf, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Araba …
Read More »FARC withdrawing from Colombian presidential race
Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Colombia’s FARC said Thursday it is pulling out of the country’s presidential race after its candidate, 59-year-old ex-guerrilla leader Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono, suffered a heart attack. Ivan Marquez, a senate candidate and senior member of the political party formed by the former Revolutionary Armed Forces …
Read More »US, Israel forces ready for evolving threats with major drill
Hatzor Air Base, Israel | AFP | US and Israeli commanders overseeing a major joint air defence exercise spoke Thursday of preparing for evolving threats in the Middle East during the month-long drill. The Juniper Cobra exercise, held every two years since 2001, comes as Israel is increasingly concerned by …
Read More »Florida passes bill to restrict guns, arm some teachers
Miami, United States | AFP | The US state of Florida, scene of America’s latest school shooting, on Wednesday passed bill that raises the minimum age to buy firearms to 21 while funding a program that allows some teachers and school employees to be armed. The “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High …
Read More »Without US, 11 Asia-Pacific states to sign trade deal
Santiago, Chile | AFP | Eleven Asia-Pacific nations on Thursday are to sign a slimmed-down trade pact to lower tariffs just as US President Donald Trump seeks to raise them after withdrawing from the deal last year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have represented 40 percent of the global economy …
Read More »Airbus to axe 3,700 jobs on under-selling superjumbo, military transporter
Toulouse, France | AFP | Aircraft giant Airbus is to axe around 3,700 jobs in Europe as it cuts back production of its troubled A380 superjumbo and A400M military transporter, the company and union officials said Wednesday. The cuts come as France-based Airbus downscales deliveries of the under-selling A380 — the …
Read More »UN body warns gender parity progress could grind to a halt
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN labour agency warned Wednesday that gradual progress toward parity between the sexes in the workplace was expected to soon grind to a halt and could even reverse. “On average around the world, women remain much less likely to participate in the labour market than …
Read More »Catholic Church ‘an empire of misogyny’: Irish ex-president
ROME, Italy | AFP | The Catholic Church is “an empire of misogyny”, Ireland’s former president said on Wednesday ahead of a conference calling for women to be included in Church decision-making. “The Catholic Church is one of the last great bastions of misogyny. It’s an empire of misogyny,” said Mary …
Read More »Trump denies porn star affair allegation: White House
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump denies allegations he had an affair with a porn star more than a decade ago and paid for her silence, the White House said Wednesday. “The president has denied the allegations against him,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. “The president …
Read More »Netanyahu accuses police of pressuring witnesses in graft cases
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used a video posted online Wednesday to accuse police of pressuring witnesses to “smear” him as corruption investigations against him intensify. In his first direct reaction since the announcement that his ex-aide Nir Hefetz would testify against him, Netanyahu …
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