Sulaimaniyah, Iraq | AFP | Ex-Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, a veteran leader of the struggle for Kurdish self-determination and a unifying elder statesman, died on Tuesday in Germany aged 83, Kurdish officials said. Talabani was Iraq’s president from 2005 to 2014 and a key figure in Iraqi Kurdistan, where voters …
Read More »Poorer countries’ remittances to grow again in 2017: World Bank
Washington, United States | AFP | Remittances, a major source of revenue for the world’s poorest countries, are due to grow again this year after falling two years in a row, the World Bank said Tuesday. Such cash transfers to low and middle-income countries are on course to rise by …
Read More »US body clock geneticists take 2017 Nobel Medicine Prize
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | US geneticists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for shedding light on the biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycles of most living things. The team’s work revealed the role of genes in setting …
Read More »Gaga urges gun control amid artist shock at Vegas carnage
New York, United States | AFP | Lady Gaga urged US leaders Monday to act quickly to tighten gun laws following the carnage in Las Vegas as artists voiced shock at the deadliest shooting in modern US history. While most artists left their comments to general messages of sympathy after the …
Read More »Weapons, explosives recovered from Las Vegas gunman
Las Vegas, United States | AFP | Police recovered a huge cache of guns and explosives Monday from the Las Vegas hotel room and home of the man accused of killing at least 59 people and injuring over 500 in the deadliest mass shooting in US history. US officials reacted …
Read More »Trump says Las Vegas massacre an ‘act of pure evil’
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump decried the massacre of at least 58 Las Vegas concert goers as an “act of pure evil” Monday, but refrained from addressing calls for gun control or an unproven claim of responsibility from the Islamic State group. Delivering televised remarks from …
Read More »Facebook beefing up team to thwart election manipulation
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook on Monday said it will hire more than 1,000 people to thwart deceptive ads crafted to knock elections off course. The announcement came as the leading social network turned over to Congress some 3,000 Russia-linked ads that appeared to use hot-button issues to …
Read More »EU breaks cover to urge Catalonia crisis dialogue
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU leaders on Monday called for dialogue to solve the crisis over Catalonia’s banned independence referendum and urged an end to violence in a cautious first reaction to a thorny subject for the bloc. Breaking weeks of virtual silence on the subject after scores were …
Read More »Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock: retired accountant, heavy gambler
Las Vegas, United States | AFP | Stephen Craig Paddock, the retired accountant who smuggled an armory’s worth of weapons into a swank Las Vegas hotel and mowed down concert-goers from a 32nd story window, was a high-stakes gambler whose bank-robber father was once on the FBI’s most wanted list. …
Read More »50 killed at Las Vegas concert in deadliest US shooting
Las Vegas, United States | AFP | A gunman killed 50 people and wounded hundreds more when he opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Police said Monday the gunman, a Nevada resident identified as Stephen Paddock, had …
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