Miami, United States | AFP | Ancient species of elephants and mammoths interbred, swapping genes that helped them adapt to new habitats and climates, a practice that is lost among modern-day elephants, researchers said Monday. Today, the two kinds of living elephants in Africa — savanna and forest elephants — are …
Read More »US should lower ‘threshold for talks’ with N. Korea: Seoul
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged the United States to “lower the threshold for talks” with North Korea on Monday as his aides held rare talks with a Pyongyang general on ways to defuse tensions. Moon has sought to use the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that …
Read More »Lebanon PM to visit Saudi for first time since ‘resignation’
Beirut, Lebanon | AFP | Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he has accepted an invitation Monday to visit Saudi Arabia, returning for the first time to the kingdom where he announced a shock resignation that he later rescinded. The November 4 resignation and his prolonged stay in Saudi Arabia stirred …
Read More »Monica Lewinsky says Clinton relationship was ‘abuse of power’
Washington, United States | AFP | Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky says she has been reexamining her affair with president Bill Clinton through the “new lens” of the #MeToo movement and has concluded it constituted a “gross abuse of power.” Lewinsky, 44, in an essay published in the latest issue …
Read More »Trump on Florida shooting: ‘I’d run in there’ even without gun
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump said Monday he would have rushed inside the Florida high school where 17 people were shot dead earlier this month, whether or not he was armed at the time. “I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a …
Read More »Erdogan starts new Africa tour to push Turkey’s influence
Algiers, Algeria | AFP | President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Algeria on Monday as he embarked a new tour of Africa in a bid to ramp up Turkey’s growing influence throughout the continent. The Turkish strongman touched down in Algiers, the first leg of the trip that he described as …
Read More »S. Korea’s Moon supports #MeToo, urges ‘stern punishment’ for abusers
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in on Monday threw his support behind the #MeToo campaign spreading across the country, urging measures to combat the widespread abuse of women and punish offenders. The remarks came as a growing number of South Korean women accused prominent figures …
Read More »EU calls for immediate Syria ceasefire
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The EU’s diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Monday demanded that a UN-backed ceasefire in Syria be implemented “immediately”, as fresh government strikes on rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta killed 10 civilians. Mogherini said a UN Security Council resolution passed Saturday calling for a 30-day ceasefire …
Read More »Merkel to appoint key party critic to cabinet
Berlin, Germany | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to give a cabinet role to an outspoken critic within her conservative party, as she looks to quell surging discontent in the right wing of the group, a senior party official said Sunday. Merkel is to name 37-year-old Jens Spahn …
Read More »Russia hacked Olympics computers, turned blame on N Korea: report
Washington, United States | AFP | Russian military spies hacked hundreds of computers used by Winter Olympics organizers and tried to make it look like the work of North Korea, the Washington Post reported Sunday, quoting US intelligence sources. South Korea had previously announced that it was investigating the failure of …
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