WORLD

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | World leaders including US President Barack Obama and Prince Charles were bidding farewell to Israeli ex-prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres on Friday as his funeral began under massive security. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was among attendees at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl national …

Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | It’s serendipity: from America to Viagra, history is full of great discoveries helped along by chance, as more than a century of Nobel prizes can attest. Among the chance discoveries that have been honoured with the prestigious prize are X-rays (physics, 1901), penicillin (medicine, 1945), …

  Washington, United States | AFP | A new US law allows survivors of terror attacks and victims’ relatives to sue foreign governments, opening the way for Saudi Arabia to be targeted for its alleged role in the 9/11 attacks. The kingdom firmly denies it had anything to do with …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The United States warned Thursday that it is on the brink of ending talks with Russia over the assault on Aleppo, where the United Nations says a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding unlike any witnessed so far in Syria’s brutal five-year war. Air strikes pounded …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP |  When Shimon Peres is laid to rest on Friday, his funeral is likely to bring back memories of those of the other two men he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with: Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. But his burial is unlikely to be similar in …

Beijing, China | AFP | China’s richest man, real estate magnate Wang Jianlin, has warned the country’s property market is the “biggest bubble in history” — the latest alarm bell to be sounded on the world’s second largest economy. Wang, the owner of real estate and entertainment conglomerate Wanda, said …

Washington, United States | AFP | The US Congress voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to override Barack Obama’s veto of a bill allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia, the first such rebuke of his eight-year presidency. The Senate overrode the veto in a 97-1 vote, followed a short time later by …

Carhaix-Plouguer, France | AFP |  China’s third largest baby formula producer on Wednesday opened a vast plant in France’s Brittany region, whose prized dairy cows are set to contribute 100,000 tons of powdered milk a year to a growing Chinese market that mistrusts domestic production. Synutra’s 170 million euro ($190 …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | The shy, scale-covered pangolin is to receive the highest level of protection against illegal trade to try to save it from extinction, after a vote Wednesday by delegates at a global conference. The reclusive, gentle mammal is prized as an edible delicacy and ingredient …

Chicago, United States | AFP | The head of the IMF on Wednesday renewed warnings against protectionism and trade restrictions, saying that the global economy risked prolonged low growth and that advanced economies faced painful inequality. Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, said the current global recovery was …