WORLD

Miami, United States | AFP | Celebrities including Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and Stevie Wonder are set to appear Saturday night at a telethon for those affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Appearing from both Miami and Los Angeles, performers will raise funds to provide food, shelter, medicine, electricity and …

Washington, United States | AFP | The US House of Representatives on Thursday easily approved a $36.5 billion disaster relief package for hurricane-affected communities like Puerto Rico, and for areas devastated by wildfires including those in California. The measure outlining “supplemental” disaster spending passed 353 to 69, with all votes in …

Washington, United States | AFP | Finance chiefs from around the world were warned Thursday to get their houses in order while the global economy is strong and to be ready for possible shocks in the future. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Britain and the EU are stuck in a “disturbing” deadlock over the Brexit divorce bill, though a breakthrough remains possible in the next two months, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said Thursday. In a gesture to London, EU leaders are set at a summit next week …

Paris, France | AFP | The United States and its ally Israel said Thursday they were pulling out of the UN’s culture and education body, in a move that underlined Washington’s drift away from international institutions. The US decision, announced in Washington, follows years of tension at the organisation which it …

Santa Rosa, United States | AFP | The death toll from raging California wildfires rose to 31 Thursday as body recovery teams used cadaver dogs to locate victims, making it the deadliest series of blazes in the state’s history. The fires, which began on Sunday, have swept through California’s wine country, …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | A shallow 2.9-magnitude earthquake struck near North Korea’s nuclear test site before dawn on Friday, weeks after Pyongyang’s biggest detonation, but South Korean experts said the tremor did not appear to be man-made. The tremor hit at 01:41 am (1641 GMT Thursday) with a depth …

Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis will push for peace during his visit to mainly-Buddhist Myanmar, a church official said Thursday, a trip that plunges the pontiff into the centre of a simmering religious conflict which has sparked an exodus of Muslim Rohingya. Myanmar’s western Rakhine state has been torn …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Spain celebrated its national day Thursday with a show of unity in the face of Catalan independence efforts, a day after the central government gave the region’s separatist leader a deadline to abandon his secession bid. The country is suffering its worst political crisis in a …

Dhaka, Bangladesh | AFP | Bangladesh has banned three Islamic charities from working with Rohingya refugees, a lawmaker said Thursday, amid concerns displaced Muslims in camps along its border could be radicalized. Mahjabeen Khaled, an MP from the ruling Awami League, said the international charities Muslim Aid and Islamic Relief, and …