WORLD

San Francisco, United States | AFP |  Mark Zuckerberg and his wife on Wednesday pledged $3 billion over the next decade to efforts to prevent, cure or manage disease, aiming to use the Facebook founder’s fortune for innovative research. “This is a big goal,” Zuckerberg said at a San Francisco …

United Nations, United States | AFP | Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday demanded that the world find a new way to halt the threat from North Korea after the long-sanctioned regime’s nuclear and missile tests. Abe, addressing the UN General Assembly, said that calculations about North Korea needed …

United Nations, United States | AFP | US President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged countries to “welcome the stranger in our midst” at a summit that drew pledges from 50 countries to take in 360,000 refugees. Speaking at a US-led refugee summit at the United Nations, Obama praised Germany and …

Miami, United States | AFP | Last month was the hottest August in modern times and marked the 16th month in a row when global records for heat were shattered planet-wide, US authorities said Tuesday. The string of unusual heat across land and sea surfaces is “the longest such streak …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Former president George H.W. Bush plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November, the niece of president John F. Kennedy wrote in a Facebook posting. “The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!” read the caption of a picture Kathleen Kennedy Townsend posted on …

United Nations, United States | AFP | Barack Obama used his farewell UN address Tuesday to castigate strongmen and populists, taking aim at Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s rise at home. Obama told the UN General Assembly that democracy was a better path toward prosperity than the “crude populism” …

United Nations, United States | AFP |  French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday appealed for an end to the carnage in Syria, telling the United Nations: “Enough is enough”. “The Syrian tragedy will be seen by history as a disgrace for the international community if we do not end it …

New York, United States | AFP | Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met Egypt’s president in New York on Monday as the two US presidential candidates tried to bolster their diplomatic credentials at the United Nations. Democratic standard-bearer Clinton said last week that she would meet Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along …

Shanghai, China | AFP | Two of China’s top steelmakers announced plans Tuesday to merge,creating the world’s second-largest manufacturer of the commodity as markets struggle with a glut caused by Chinese overcapacity. The world’s second largest economy is trying to overhaul its lumbering state sector and especially its steel industry, …

Aleppo, Syria | AFP |  A convoy delivering aid to Syrians in Aleppo province was hit by a deadly air strike hours after the Syrian military declared an end to a week-long ceasefire, with an outraged UN warning it could amount to a war crime. The UN said at least …