GE signs $15 bn of Saudi deals, MoUs during Trump visit Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Washington has agreed arms deals with Saudi Arabia worth almost $110 billion, a White House official said Saturday, the first day of President Donald Trump’s visit to the traditional US ally. “This package of …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a clenched fist salute Friday after Swedish prosecutors dropped a seven-year rape allegation against him, but he insisted the “proper war” over his future was just beginning. Assange stepped into the daylight on the balcony of Ecuador’s London embassy, …

Washington, United States | AFP | From Riyadh to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Rome, Brussels and Sicily, Donald Trump left a swirl of domestic woes behind Friday as he embarked on a first foreign trip that will be closely watched in capitals the world over. Trump’s extraordinarily dense first trip — six …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Dozens of prisoners escaped from a jail in Democratic Republic of Congo early Friday, less than 48 hours after rebels attacked Kinshasa’s main prison, freeing their leader and 50 others. “Among the 74 prisoners housed in the dilapidated prison in Kasangulu, 68 escaped,” local …

Stockholm, Sweden | AFP |  Swedish prosecutors said Friday that they had closed a seven-year rape investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. “Director of Public Prosecution, Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape by Julian Assange,” it said in a statement. BREAKING: Sweden has dropped …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP |  An 11-year-old “cyber ninja” stunned an audience of security experts Tuesday by hacking into a teddy bear via bluetooth to show how interconnected smart toys “can be weaponised”. American wunderkind Reuben Paul may be still only in 5th grade at his school in Austin, …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP |  The Japanese government on Friday approved a one-off bill allowing ageing Emperor Akihito to step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne, in the first such abdication in two centuries. The bill will now be sent to parliament for debate and likely receive swift final approval, Chief …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, will not join an Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia with US President Donald Trump, his office said Friday. “President Omar al-Bashir has apologised to King Salman of Saudi Arabia for being unable to …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP |  Thousands of men in their Sunday best and women in colourful traditional dress lined the streets of Pyongyang to give the scientists and workers behind North Korea’s latest missile test a hero’s welcome, state media reported Friday. “People’s enthusiastic welcome for defence science warriors,” …

New York, United States | AFP |  Roger Ailes, the US media mogul who co-founded Fox News and helped redraw conservative American politics, died Thursday less than a year after he was forced out by a sexual harassment scandal. He was 77. Ailes died of complications from bleeding on the …