WORLD

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron paid a pre-Christmas visit to French soldiers in Chad on Saturday, bringing enough champagne, foie gras and chocolate for 1,300 troops along with him. Macron landed at Kossei air base near N’Djamena, the nerve centre of Operation Barkhane, a four-year campaign …

Paris, France | AFP | A French court on Friday fined oil giant Total 500,000 euros ($575,000) for corruption over bribes it paid to secure a huge gas concession in Iran in 1997. The French company was accused of paying $30 million in bribes in return for help in securing …

New York, United States | AFP | Ford is recalling 874,000 of its best-selling F-series pickup trucks due to fire risk from the engine block heater system, the company announced Friday. The problem occurs when there is corrosion in a connector in the engine block heater, which is used in …

United Nations, United States | AFP | United Nations member states failed to come up with a deal Friday to make up for a $220 million budget black hole left by the United States downsizing its contribution to peacekeeping operations, diplomats said. The United States had paid around 28 percent …

Washington, United States | AFP | The US Justice Department announced Friday the arrest of a Chinese national who allegedly stole trade secrets from a US oil company he worked for. Tan Hongjin, 35, was arrested on Thursday in Oklahoma where he lived as a permanent resident. The Justice Department …

Washington, United States | AFP | A threatened shutdown of the US government would see hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and many more working without pay. President Donald Trump warned Friday that a shutdown could last a “very long time” unless Democrats in the Senate join Republicans and …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis vowed Friday that the Catholic Church will never again treat abuse allegations without “seriousness and promptness”, calling on abusers to hand themselves in to police. “The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case,” the pope …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The US House of Representatives adjourned Friday without Congress passing a spending deal, assuring a partial government shutdown at midnight as President Donald Trump and lawmakers remain at odds over border wall funding. Operations for several key agencies will cease in the early hours …

Washington, United States | AFP | US politicians and international allies scrambled Friday to make sense of President Donald Trump’s momentous foreign policy decisions for Syria and Afghanistan — epic reversals that prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to quit. Trump’s historic moves to pull out of Syria and slash troop …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The Supreme Court dealt President Donald Trump’s attempt to crack down on illegal immigration a blow Friday when it rejected a White House bid to implement his asylum ban on Central Americans. The high court declined to overturn a block placed by the San …