International News

Portugal’s Guterres still leads race to be UN chief: diplomats

  • UNITED NATIONS, United States,(APP/AFP): Portugal’s former prime minister Antonio Guterres is still the frontrunner to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations following a third straw poll held Monday, diplomats said. Guterres, who served as UN refugee chief for 10 years, received 11 votes of encouragement, three “discourage” votes and one “no opinion” during […]

  • Swiss fighter jet missing, believed crashed: ministry

    GENEVA, (APP/AFP): A Swiss army fighter jet went missing over the Alps Monday and is believed to have crashed, the defence ministry said, adding that a large-scale search and rescue operation had been launched. The F/A-18 C single-seater had been taking part in a training exercise with a second plane when all radio contact with […]

  • Rousseff allies fight impeachment in Brazil turmoil

    BRASMLIA, (APP/AFP) – Angry quarrels erupted at suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment trial Friday, while her key ally, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, faced corruption charges on a day of turmoil for Latin America’s largest country. Day two of Rousseff’s Senate trial in the capital Brasilia began with shouting matches that forced Supreme Court […]

  • N. Korea submarine missiles not ready until 2018: experts

    SEOUL, (APP/AFP) – North Korea is making progress on a submarine-launched ballistic missile system but any deployment of the technology is years away, a US think tank said, as the UN Security Council promised action over Pyongyang’s latest test. The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said late Friday on its closely-watched website, 38 North, […]

  • Bangladesh police shoot dead three extremists near Dhaka

    DHAKA, (APP/AFP) – Bangladesh police stormed a militant hideout just outside Dhaka Saturday, shooting dead three extremists, including the suspected mastermind of an attack on a cafe that killed 22 hostages last month. “We can see three dead bodies here,” senior police officer Sanwar Hossain told AFP, adding that the dead “most probably” included Bangladeshi-Canadian […]

  • In Egypt, ecstatic pilgrims start journey to Mecca

    CAIRO, (APP/AFP) – Pilgrims have been saying their farewells at Cairo airport before leaving for Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj in the tradition, they believe, of the Prophet Mohammed and Abraham before him. Every year tens of thousands of Egyptians apply for visas to travel to Mecca to join more than a million Muslims […]