Paris, France | AFP | Ten international rights groups called on French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to pressure Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over his country’s bombing campaign in Yemen. Macron is expected to host Prince Mohammed for a three-day trip to France starting Sunday, the latest stop in …
Read More »America remembers Martin Luther King Jr, 50 years on
Memphis, United States | AFP | Americans on Wednesday marked 50 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, a day seared into the national consciousness that transformed the civil rights leader into a symbol of the fight for racial equality. In a country still torn over issues of race …
Read More »YouTube shooting shows how fake news spirals on social media
Paris, France | AFP | Within minutes of the shooting at YouTube offices in California, social media was awash with conspiracy theories and images of the supposed “shooter” wearing a Muslim headscarf. Some Facebook videos were quick to claim that it was a “false flag” attack, carried out to discredit the …
Read More »Rouhani angers Israel with ‘support for terrorists’ jibe
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit out at Iran on Wednesday after President Hassan Rouhani accused Israel of supporting “terrorists” in Syria. “Absurdity has no limits: Iran’s terrorist regime that sends tentacles of terror across the region accuses Israel of terrorism,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter. “If …
Read More »Facebook says 87 million may be affected by data breach
Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook said Wednesday personal data on as many as 87 million users was improperly shared with British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The new figure eclipses a previous estimate of 50 million in a further embarrassment to the social network roiled by a privacy scandal. The …
Read More »Female suspect dead, several hurt in YouTube shooting
San Bruno, United States | AFP | Gunfire erupted at YouTube’s offices in California Tuesday, leaving three people wounded and sparking a panicked escape before the suspected shooter — a woman — apparently committed suicide. California news outlets late Tuesday said she appeared to be a vegan-themed content creator who has …
Read More »Trump wants US troops to ‘get out’ of Syria
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants American troops to “get out” of Syria, even as some of his top officials stressed the need to stay for the long term. Trump’s remarks follow comments last week when he vowed US forces would soon quit …
Read More »NASA hires Lockheed Martin to build quiet, supersonic plane
Washington, United States | AFP | NASA has inked a deal with Lockheed Martin to develop a supersonic “X-plane” that could break the sound barrier without a sonic boom, officials said Tuesday. The $247.5 million contract allows for the design, building and testing of a plane that would make its …
Read More »Putin launches Turkey nuclear project, vows faster arms delivery
Ankara, Turkey | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday launched the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power station and vowed to accelerate the delivery of air defence systems to Ankara, in a new tightening of an increasingly close alliance that has alarmed NATO. Putin held several hours of talks with …
Read More »Trump vows to deploy military to Mexican border
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to deploy the military to secure America’s southern border, as a caravan of Central American migrants heads north through Mexico toward the United States. The US leader has spent three days attacking the Mexican government for failing to block …
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