Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis issued a warning to US bishops on Thursday, saying in a letter that using marketing tricks or flow charts would not restore trust in the Catholic church following the sex abuse crisis. “Loss of credibility calls for a specific approach, since …
Read More »Arrest of French ‘yellow vest’ leader sparks outrage
Paris, France | AFP | One of the leaders of the “yellow vest” demonstrations in France was detained by police in Paris, signalling a harder line from the government that sparked a wave of criticism from opponents on Thursday. Eric Drouet — who already faces a trial for carrying a …
Read More »Apple rival paves way for ban on some iPhones in Germany
Berlin, Germany | AFP | US chipmaker Qualcomm said Thursday it had fulfilled the requirements set out by a court in a patent dispute case against Apple to ban the sale of older iPhone models in Germany. The court in the German city of Munich had ruled in favour of …
Read More »Apple’s bombshell raises trillion-dollar question
Washington, United States | AFP | Apple’s bombshell news — a sharply weaker revenue outlook and lower iPhone sales — has raised questions over the future of the California giant, which until recently had been seen as the undisputed innovation leader in the tech sector. Apple’s rare admission on Wednesday …
Read More »372,000 German drivers join legal action against Volkswagen
Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Some 372,000 German owners of Volkswagen cars fitted with motors that cheated emissions tests have joined a collective legal action against the auto giant, official figures showed Thursday. Hundreds of thousands of people signed up to the collective action between late November and …
Read More »Deaths highlight children’s plight in migrant surge to US
Nentón, Guatemala | AFP | The death of two Guatemalan children in the United States within weeks of each other has highlighted why there are so many children among Central American migrants heading north: smugglers tell them families have a better chance of being allowed in by US border guards, …
Read More »Eyeing China, US to hold missile drill in Japan’s Okinawa: report
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The US military will this year conduct its first ever missile drill around the Japanese island of Okinawa, according to a report Thursday, as Washington seeks to counter an increasingly assertive China. The US military has told its Japanese counterpart it plans to deploy surface-to-ship …
Read More »Apple cuts outlook, sees ‘challenges’ in China, emerging markets
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Apple cut its revenue outlook for the latest quarter Wednesday, citing steeper-than-expected “economic deceleration” in China and emerging markets. The rare revenue warnings from Apple suggested weaker-than-anticipated sales of iPhones and other gadgetry, in part because of trade frictions between Washington and Beijing. …
Read More »Trump warns US government shutdown could last a ‘long time’
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump met top Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday, but they failed to hammer out an agreement that would end a partial government shutdown over his demand for billions of dollars to build a border wall with Mexico. One day before Democrats take …
Read More »France arrests ‘Yellow vest’ leader Eric Drouet
Paris, France | AFP | One of the leaders of the “yellow vest” anti-government demonstrations, Eric Drouet, was detained by French police and placed in custody on Wednesday for organising a central Paris protest without declaring it, according to a source at the prosecutors office. Drouet — who already faces …
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