WORLD

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook is moving away from being a “digital town square” to meet growing demands for secure, private messaging on a smaller scale, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday as he outlined a broad vision for transforming the world’s biggest social network. Zuckerberg’s announcement signals a strategic shift for …

Rome, Italy | AFP |  Pope Francis denounced the deceptiveness of “the culture of appearance” in a ceremony marking Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter when Catholics traditionally fast. “Earthly realities fade away like dust in the wind,” said the pope at the Basilica …

Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Sanctions have worsened Venezuela’s crippling economic and political crisis, the UN human rights chief said Wednesday, as Washington warned it may expand measures targeting President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government. UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said sanctions had exacerbated the crisis but also slammed Maduro’s “violations of civil and political rights” …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Wednesday “no solution” has been found so far to break the deadlock over Brexit, a spokesman reported after the latest negotiations in Brussels. Briefing the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, Barnier said the talks “have been difficult”, spokesman Margaritis Schinas said following the …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump branded Democratic opponents “crazy” and guilty of overreach Tuesday in a fevered response to a huge new Democratic-led probe of his alleged crimes. In a searing burst of early morning tweets, the president said the House Judiciary Committee investigation launched Monday was “the greatest overreach in …

New York, United States | AFP | A documentary on pedophilia accusations against Michael Jackson has left some fans grappling with the late superstar’s tarnished legacy — but among his outraged superfans, protecting it is all that matters. Celebrity fandom has morphed into a vicious online tool, with superfan gangs — Beyonce’s Beyhive, Justin Bieber’s …

Paris, France | AFP | For just the second time ever a HIV patient is in sustained remission from the virus in what was hailed by experts Tuesday as proof that the AIDS-causing condition could one day be curable. Ten years almost to the day since the first confirmed case of an HIV-infected person being …

Paris, France | AFP | A nude drawing that bears a striking resemblance to the “Mona Lisa” was done in Leonardo da Vinci’s studio and may be the work of the master himself, a French museum said Monday. Experts at the Louvre in Paris, where the world’s biggest collection of Leonardo’s work is held, have …

Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Juan Guaido proudly calls himself a “survivor,” and he proved just that in defying the threat of arrest to make a triumphant return to Venezuela on Monday. Since stunning the world on January 23 when issuing a direct challenge to Nicolas Maduro’s authority by declaring himself acting president, Guaido has …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Internet giant Google on Monday urged the European Parliament to resist approving a planned overhaul of the bloc’s online copyright law that the company said would hurt Europe for “decades to come”. European lawmakers could vote as soon as next week on the landmark legislation that is intended to modernise …