WORLD

Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump on Friday praised an former aide accused of battery, amid a scandal that called into question the president’s judgment and tainted his chief of staff John Kelly and long-time aide Hope Hicks. Allegations against ousted staff secretary Rob Porter prompted a litany of …

Paris, France | AFP | Scientists have grown human egg cells to full maturity in the lab in a potential breakthrough for fertility treatment, they announced in a study published Friday. Researchers in New York and Edinburgh developed a new method to grow eggs from very early-stage cells obtained from …

Pyeongchang, South Korea | AFP | You had one job! Norwegian chefs hoping to buy 1,500 eggs to feed hungry Olympic athletes have had their dinner plans scrambled after a mix-up with a grocery order. Norway’s army of nutritional experts were left shell-shocked in Pyeongchang when a lorry delivered 15,000 …

Paris, France | AFP | Virtual reality-based therapy combined with standard treatment reduced paranoia and anxiety in people with psychotic disorders, scientists reported Friday. In clinical trials involving 116 patients in the Netherlands, virtual reality exercises led to less fraught social interactions, a team wrote in The Lancet Psychiatry. More …

Paris, France | AFP | France is planning a 37-billion-euro revamp of its nuclear arsenal over the next seven years, part of a sharp increase in defence spending aimed at allowing France to “hold its own” as a key power in Europe, the country’s defence chief said Thursday. The upgrades …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The UN Security Council on Thursday gave permission for a North Korean official under international sanctions to travel to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics along with Kim Jong Un’s sister, diplomats said. South Korea presented on Wednesday a request to the council’s sanctions committee …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | A senior British minister on Thursday accused the European Union of acting in bad faith over a plan to sanction London if it breaks the rules of the post-Brexit transition period. “What we’re about is building an implementation period, which is to build a …

Washington, United States | AFP | Reality TV star turned political operative turned reality TV star Omarosa Manigault has issued a cryptic warning that things are “bad” inside the White House and the public should be worried. The fiery former star who was pushed out of the White House appeared …

Baghdad, Iraq | AFP | The United Nations launched an appeal Wednesday for $17 million to rebuild essential health facilities for children in Iraq after a devastating three-year battle to expel the Islamic State group. The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, said next week’s reconstruction conference for Iraq to be staged …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization’s chief lamented Wednesday the “emotional” response to his short-lived appointment last year of Robert Mugabe as the WHO’s goodwill ambassador, insisting the decision had been “in good faith”. “There was no judgement problem,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, acknowledging …