Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia has detained a general who heads a branch of Russia’s federal guard service after he allegedly took a large bribe, Interfax news agency reported Friday. The Federal Guard Service (FSO) is Moscow’s version of the US Secret Service and is responsible for ensuring the …
Read More »Ivanka Trump separates personal, business social media
New York, United States | AFP | Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, accused of a potential conflict of interest as she helms her own brand while making frequent appearances with her president-elect father, is separating her business and personal social media accounts. In a “letter” that appeared Tuesday on her Twitter …
Read More »Tracksuited Thai junta chief leads workout for bureaucrats
Bangkok, Thailand | AFP | He’s a mercurial army general known for penning saccharine ballads and angry tirades against his critics. Now Thailand’s junta chief has launched a new eye-catching project: trimming the waistlines of the kingdom’s civil servants. Former army chief turned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha ditched his fatigues …
Read More »Putin jokes that Russian borders ‘don’t end’
Moscow, Russia | AFP | President Vladimir Putin on Thursday joked with a schoolboy that Russia’s borders “don’t end anywhere”. Putin was speaking at a televised awards ceremony held by the Russian Geographical Society. On stage Putin questioned Miroslav Oskirko, a nine-year-old prodigy who said he knew the borders of …
Read More »New Yorkers still coping with post-Trump shock
New York, United States | AFP | Donald Trump’s election jolted liberal America, but perhaps nowhere more than in his native New York, where city-dwellers are processing their woe with everything from yoga to body art to demonstrations. Many residents of the cosmopolitan cultural mosaic — where 79 percent of …
Read More »Trump declining intelligence briefings
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump has received just two classified intelligence briefings since winning the presidency earlier this month, far less than his immediate predecessors, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The Republican’s limited engagement with his team of intelligence analysts has some officials questioning the real estate …
Read More »Trumps picks women, including a critic, for cabinet
Palm Beach, United States | AFP | Donald Trump began to broaden the base of his future cabinet Wednesday, nominating two conservative women including a critic, after his earlier picks rewarded campaign loyalists. Trump’s nomination of South Carolina’s 44-year-old governor, Nikki Haley, as US ambassador to the United Nations will …
Read More »Angola: 37 ex-opposition fighters face coup charges
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Thirty-seven former fighters from Angola’s main UNITA opposition party go on trial Friday accused of attempting to stage a coup earlier this year, the state news agency Angop reported on Thursday. Members of the group face charges of planning an armed assault against the presidential …
Read More »COSATU: It is Ramaphosa, not Zuma, for president
South Africa union federation backs Ramaphosa for power Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday won the support of Cosatu, the biggest union federation, to be the ANC party’s next leader, boosting his chances of taking national power. The African National Congress (ANC), …
Read More »EU Parliament backs freeze of Turkish membership talks
Strasbourg, France | AFP | The European Parliament on Thursday voted in favour of a freeze of membership talks with Turkey over its post-coup crackdown, further escalating tensions with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has already dismissed the vote as having “no value” as it is non-binding, and as most …
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