Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency Friday, overriding congressional opposition to secure emergency funds to build more walls on the US-Mexico border. Trump declared in the Oval Office that he was “proud” to sign the veto. It came after he suffered …
Read More »‘Why would you die?’ Bereaved seek answers at plane crash site
Tulu Fara, Ethiopia | AFP | From a quiet farmland at the base of rolling hills outside Ethiopia’s capital, the sound of wailing rang through the air. Devastated mourners flung themselves onto a ground littered with business cards, seat covers and shards of aluminium. They cried the names of loved …
Read More »US-backed Syria force pummels last IS bastion
Baghouz, Syria | AFP | Kurdish-led fighters backed by US warplanes tried Thursday to break the last defences of holdout Islamic State group jihadists making a suicidal last stand in a remote Syrian village. All that remains of a sprawling cross-border “caliphate” the jihadists declared in 2014 is a battered riverside …
Read More »More nations ban Boeing 737 MAX jets after Ethiopia crash
Paris, France | AFP | The EU closed its airspace to Boeing 737 MAX planes on Tuesday, joining similar action by nations across the globe following a second deadly accident in just five months. Fleets of the best-selling workhorse plane were also grounded by airlines as safety concerns swirled, sending …
Read More »Will artificial intelligence be the future of music?
Austin, United States | AFP | They may never be able to fill a stadium for a rock concert, but computers are making inroads in the music industry, capable of producing songs — and convincingly so — as illustrated at the South by Southwest festival in Texas. Already, an album …
Read More »‘Trump just not worth impeaching’
Washington, United States | AFP | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, America’s most powerful Democrat, said in remarks published Monday that she does not support impeaching Donald Trump, arguing the Republican president is “just not worth it.” “I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in a wide-ranging interview, the …
Read More »Boeing 737 MAX in spotlight after two tragedies
Washington, United States | AFP | For the second time in less than six months, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 has crashed minutes after takeoff and killed everyone on board, raising fresh questions about the safety of a model that is crucial to the US giant’s future plans. On Sunday, …
Read More »Chimps’ cultural diversity threatened by humans, study says
Washington, United States | AFP | Like humans, chimpanzees are culturally diverse but those differences are being eroded by human incursion, international researchers say in a groundbreaking study published Thursday. The striking results, published in the American journal “Science,” show that the behavioral diversity of chimpanzees was reduced by an …
Read More »China’s Huawei sues US over federal ban on its products
Shenzhen, China | AFP | Tech giant Huawei on Thursday opened a legal front in its counter-offensive against US warnings that it could aid Chinese intelligence services, filing suit to overturn a US law that bars federal agencies from buying its products. Huawei said the case was filed in a US …
Read More »Four US tourists and their pilot killed in Kenya chopper crash
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Four American tourists and a Kenyan pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed on an island in a lake in northwest Kenya, police said Monday. The accident occurred in the Central Island National Park in Lake Turkana at around 8pm (1700 GMT) on Sunday, police …
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