WORLD

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories | AFP | Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Tuesday his country would not move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, official media reported, two weeks before the United States completes its controversial relocation. Meeting in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Abe told Abbas his …

Zurich, Switzerland | THE INDEPENDENT | More than 61 percent of the global workforce earns their livelihoods in the informal sector, with no social protection, rights at work and decent working conditions. Majority of these (85.8 percent) are in emerging and developing economies in Africa. The findings are revealed in …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | British MPs threatened Tuesday to issue a formal summons to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg for him to testify over a major privacy row, after he declined to appear. Zuckerberg was grilled by the US Congress last month but sent one of his executives to …

Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced Monday he was almost doubling the minimum wage in an effort to tackle the crisis-wracked Latin American country’s runaway inflation. Venezuela’s economic collapse ranks as one of the worst in modern history, with hyperinflation likely to see prices soaring 13,000 percent …

Melbourne, Australia | AFP | From country priest to trusted top Vatican aide, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric George Pell has seen his reputation plagued in the twilight of his career by controversy swirling around a 1970s paedophile scandal in the former gold rush town of Ballarat. To his admirers, …

Paris, France | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron launched a joint defence of the Iranian nuclear deal on Monday but expressed differences on how to move forward as US President Donald Trump weighs up whether to scrap it. The Kremlin said Putin and Macron were …

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories | AFP | President Mahmud Abbas called on Monday for Palestinians to keep their children from protests along the border between Israel and Gaza, warning of a “handicapped” generation. “Keep the young men from the border, move the children away, we do not want to become handicapped people,” …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address Monday he had new “proof” of an Iranian nuclear weapons plan that could be activated at any time, as the US considers whether to pull out of the atomic accord with Tehran. But while Netanyahu accused …

Washington, United States | AFP | Nigeria’s fight against the Boko Haram jihadist group was expected to top the agenda in talks Monday between President Donald Trump and Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, leader of Africa’s most populous and wealthiest country. Buhari became the first leader from sub-Saharan Africa to visit Trump when …

Top Trump aide denies calling president an ‘idiot’ Washington, United States | AFP | White House Chief of Staff John Kelly firmly denied a report Monday that he called President Donald Trump an “idiot” in front of other staff — the latest suggestion of possible tensions in Trump’s inner circle. …