Washington, United States The Chinese government should use its tax-and-spend policies to help boost flagging economic growth, a senior IMF official told AFP ahead of key meetings this week in Washington. The IMF has raised concern about the levels of global public debt, which it estimates will reach a record $100 trillion this year, with...
Manila, Philippines Philippine rescuers waded through chest-deep floodwaters Wednesday to reach residents trapped by Tropical Storm Trami, which has forced thousands to evacuate as it barrels towards the country’s east coast. Torrential rains driven by the storm have turned streets into rivers, submerged entire villages and buried some vehicles up to their door handles in volcanic...
Caracas, Venezuela Relatives of Venezuelan minors detained in connection with protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed reelection on Monday appealed to the United Nations children’s agency to seek their release. “We respectfully request the intervention of UNICEF to guarantee the immediate release of these children and adolescents who are arbitrarily detained in conditions that violate their human...
Jakarta, Indonesia Prabowo Subianto will be sworn in Sunday as president of the world’s third-largest democracy, Indonesia, with the wealthy ex-general accused of rights abuses taking over eight months after a landslide election win. The 73-year-old fiery nationalist will take an oath at parliament before heading to the presidential palace where Joko Widodo will hand over...
Sensuntepeque, El Salvador A court in El Salvador on Friday acquitted six former guerrillas, including five anti-mining campaigners, whose trial for a civil war era murder was criticized by fellow environmentalists as politicized. Prosecutors had sought up to 36 years in prison for the former rebels of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. But the...
Geneva, Switzerland The one million children in Gaza are living a “hell on Earth”, the UN said Friday, with around 40 children having been killed there every day over the past year. More than a year into Israel’s war against Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory “children continue to suffer unspeakable daily harm”, said James Elder,...
New York, United States Mexico’s former top security official Genaro Garcia Luna was sentenced to more than 38 years in a US prison on Wednesday for aiding the very drug cartels he was tasked with dismantling. Garcia Luna, 56, was convicted at a high-profile trial in New York last year of taking millions of dollars in...
New Delhi, India India’s Bishnoi crime gang has a grim reputation for assassinations and extortion on its home soil, but now its reach appears to stretch much further after it was accused of involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist in Canada. Its alleged chief — 31-year-old law graduate Lawrence Bishnoi — has been behind bars...
Washington, United States The United States warned Israel on Tuesday that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to the war-battered Gaza Strip within 30 days. The warning comes a year into the Israel-Hamas war in which President Joe Biden has repeatedly pleaded with Israel to...
United Nations, United States UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday denounced attacks that have injured several peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, his spokesman said, as Israeli forces move against Hezbollah militants. “UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted,” Stephane Dujarric said, referring to the blue-helmeted international force. “Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international...