WORLD

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | The stunning announcement that US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold an unprecedented meeting is the latest and most astonishing step forward in a flurry of diplomacy. The two and their respective allies fought each other to a …

Washington, United States | AFP | The United States has approved a request from Qatar to upgrade the emirate’s air force operations center, officials said Thursday, despite the Gulf diplomatic crisis. Qatar has fallen out with fellow US allies in the Gulf, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Araba …

Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Colombia’s FARC said Thursday it is pulling out of the country’s presidential race after its candidate, 59-year-old ex-guerrilla leader Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono, suffered a heart attack. Ivan Marquez, a senate candidate and senior member of the political party formed by the former Revolutionary Armed Forces …

Hatzor Air Base, Israel | AFP | US and Israeli commanders overseeing a major joint air defence exercise spoke Thursday of preparing for evolving threats in the Middle East during the month-long drill. The Juniper Cobra exercise, held every two years since 2001, comes as Israel is increasingly concerned by …

Miami, United States | AFP | The US state of Florida, scene of America’s latest school shooting, on Wednesday passed bill that raises the minimum age to buy firearms to 21 while funding a program that allows some teachers and school employees to be armed. The “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High …

Santiago, Chile | AFP | Eleven Asia-Pacific nations on Thursday are to sign a slimmed-down trade pact to lower tariffs just as US President Donald Trump seeks to raise them after withdrawing from the deal last year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have represented 40 percent of the global economy …

Toulouse, France | AFP | Aircraft giant Airbus is to axe around 3,700 jobs in Europe as it cuts back production of its troubled A380 superjumbo and A400M military transporter, the company and union officials said Wednesday. The cuts come as France-based Airbus downscales deliveries of the under-selling A380 — the …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN labour agency warned Wednesday that gradual progress toward parity between the sexes in the workplace was expected to soon grind to a halt and could even reverse. “On average around the world, women remain much less likely to participate in the labour market than …

ROME, Italy | AFP | The Catholic Church is “an empire of misogyny”, Ireland’s former president said on Wednesday ahead of a conference calling for women to be included in Church decision-making. “The Catholic Church is one of the last great bastions of misogyny. It’s an empire of misogyny,” said Mary …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump denies allegations he had an affair with a porn star more than a decade ago and paid for her silence, the White House said Wednesday. “The president has denied the allegations against him,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. “The president …