WORLD

Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | Mexico’s tourism minister Thursday proposed legalizing recreational marijuana use in Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo, two of the country’s most popular states for tourists. Enrique de la Madrid told journalists in Mexico City it is “absurd” that Mexico, which approved the scientific and medical …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump waded into the uproar over the US currency Thursday, saying he wants to see “a strong dollar,” after comments by his Treasury secretary appeared to signal the opposite and sent the dollar plunging to three-year lows. In comments to CNBC, Trump said …

Miami, United States | AFP | When coral reefs come in contact with plastic trash in the ocean, their risk of becoming diseased skyrockets, said an international study out Thursday. Researchers examined more than 120,000 corals on 159 reefs — some polluted with plastic, others not — from Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar …

Antakya, Turkey | AFP | President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday vowed Turkey’s campaign against a Kurdish militia in northern Syria would press on for as long as required, after telephone talks with Donald Trump failed to douse soaring tensions with Washington. The six-day campaign against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday unveiled a sweeping new immigration plan to Congress that offers 1.8 million young unauthorized immigrants known as “Dreamers” a path to citizenship over 10-12 years. In a comprehensive reform that will be formally presented next week, Trump …

Davos, Switzerland | AFP | Ebola, zika, SARS: a century after the “Spanish flu” killed 50 million people, humanity now risks a new wave of deadly diseases, and in today’s globalised world another such pandemic may be unavoidable, experts warned at the Davos summit this week. “Pandemics are becoming a …

Washington, United States | AFP |  US President Donald Trump ordered the firing of Russia investigation special prosecutor Robert Mueller last year but the White House counsel’s threatened resignation pushed him to reverse course, US media reported Thursday. Mueller is leading the probe into allegations of collusion between the US …

Washington, United States | AFP | Two decades ago this week US president Bill Clinton declared that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman.” As it turned out, he did — and he was impeached for lying about his trysts with Monica Lewinsky. Today, another US president is accused …

Hong Kong, China | AFP | The dollar took another beating on Thursday after two of Donald Trump’s top cabinet members talked down the currency and hinted at a more belligerent trade policy. The sell-off in the greenback especially hit exporters on Japan’s Nikkei index, which tumbled for a second straight …

Davos, Switzerland | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron told the world’s business elite in Davos on Wednesday that France was back as a European powerhouse under his reformist government. “France is back at the core of Europe,” Macron said in English in a highly anticipated speech, before switching to French …