WORLD

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook is rolling out a new video service offering professionally produced shows in a challenge to rivals such as YouTube, and potentially to streaming providers like Netflix. The Facebook service called Watch will include a range of shows, from reality to comedy to live …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Nuclear-armed North Korea announced a detailed plan Thursday to send a salvo of four missiles over Japan and towards the US territory of Guam, raising the stakes in a stand-off with President Donald Trump and mocking him as “bereft of reason”. The scheme to target …

Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump has vented his anger against any number of political opponents on Twitter, but the latest target of US presidential scorn is the Senate leader of his own Republican Party, Mitch McConnell. The president took to Twitter early Thursday to denounce the Senate majority …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | At least 56 people have drowned over the past 24 hours, and dozens remain missing, after human traffickers forced 300 African migrants off two Yemen-bound boats and into the sea. Survivors — all Ethiopian and Somali migrants — managed to make their way to …

Paris, France | AFP | An asteroid the size of a house will shave past Earth at a distance of some 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) in October, inside the Moon’s orbit, astronomers said Thursday. The space rock will zoom by at an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Europe faces a growing scandal over the contamination of millions of eggs with the insecticide fipronil, which can be potentially harmful to humans. Here is what we know about a scare which has seen eggs pulled from supermarket shelves in eight countries and involves multiple criminal …

Washington, United States | AFP | A US warship on Thursday sailed close to an artificial island China has built up in the South China Sea, as part of a “freedom of navigation” operation, a US official said. The USS John S. McCain destroyer sailed within six nautical miles of Mischief …

Doha, Qatar | AFP | Lebanon is the only Arab country in the list published at the end of the news conference, although the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council of which Qatar is a member already allows freedom of movement by its nationals. Nationals of 33 countries will now be authorised to …

Rome, Italy | AFP | A top cardinal due to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow this month says he will be seeking to clear the way for Pope Francis to make a historic visit to Russia. Pietro Parolin, the number two in the Vatican hierarchy and its de-facto foreign minister, …

Tehran, Iran | AFP | Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appointed two female vice presidents on Wednesday but continued to take flak from reformists for nominating no women ministers. The appointments came a day after the moderate president announced his all-male list of ministers to parliament, seen as a betrayal by reformists …