WORLD

Washington, United States | AFP | The White House on Monday said a decision that could see Chinese leader Xi Jinping rule for life was an internal matter for the authorities in Beijing. “I believe that’s a decision for China to make,” said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, after the country’s Communist …

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 …

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 …

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to visit Saudi Arabia, returning for the first time to the kingdom where he announced a shock resignation that he later rescinded.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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …