NewsAFP NewsJapan PM heads to Washington with China topping agenda
Japan's prime minister heads to Washington on Thursday to become the first foreign leader to hold face-to-face talks with US President Joe Biden, with concerns about China topping the agenda.
NewsAFP NewsUS envoy assures Taiwan relations are 'stronger than ever'
Relations between Taiwan and the United States are "stronger than ever", an envoy for President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to the democratic island as it faces increasingly hostile moves by China.
NewsAFP NewsTunisia 'sandy' farms resist drought, development
Farmers near a seaside lagoon in northern Tunisia are fighting to preserve a unique, traditional irrigation system that has sparked renewed interest as North Africa's water shortages intensify.
NewsAFP NewsIndia's desert salt farmers feel the heat from climate change
Roshni Thakor left school to harvest salt from a sun-baked Indian desert, a backbreaking trade practised by her ancestors for centuries but now threatened by climate change.
NewsReutersMyanmar security forces fire on protesting medical workers, some hurt: media
Opponents of a Feb. 1 coup that ousted an elected government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi have kept up their campaign against the military this traditional New Year week with a series of actions and marches. Medical workers, some of whom have been at the forefront of the campaign against the coup, gathered in the second city of Mandalay early but troops soon arrived to disperse them, opening fire and detained some people, the Mizzima news agency said. The agency said it did not have details of casualties or arrests.
NewsAFP NewsCrunch time: Indian snack spins feminist success story
The fairytale success of Lijjat Papad -- a multi-million-dollar venture founded by seven women in a crowded Mumbai tenement in 1959 with seed capital of 80 rupees ($1.10) -- belies its revolutionary feminist aspirations.
NewsAFP NewsAnniversary highlights Aboriginal deaths in custody crisis
Thirty years after sweeping reforms were recommended to end the injustice of Indigenous deaths in Australian custody, a spate of recent fatalities and soaring rates of Aboriginal incarceration have highlighted failures to act.
NewsAFP News'Lost paradise' as Mediterranean edges ever closer to home
After fleeing to France to escape the Spanish Civil War, Amalia Romero's family eventually managed to build a home on the south coast directly looking out over the Mediterranean.
BusinessAFP NewsAsian markets mixed as traders stuggle to build on rally
Markets were mixed in Asia on Thursday as investors applied the brakes to a recent rally that has some worried valuations may have run a little too high.
NewsAFP NewsLibyan capital's neglected Old City gets facelift
In alleys criss-crossing the Libyan capital's Old City, construction crews are hard at work restoring former glory to architectural treasures neglected under ex-dictator Moamer Kadhafi and in the decade since.
NewsReutersChina must halve power sector emissions by 2030 to meet climate goals: study
China needs to halve carbon dioxide emissions from its coal-fired power plants by the end of the decade if it is to remain on course to become carbon neutral by 2060, according to research published on Thursday. To half emissions, the world's biggest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gas must shut, retrofit or put into reserve capacity as much as 364 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power by 2030 - around a third of its current total, according to London-based climate data provider TransitionZero. The research used satellite imagery and machine learning to estimate carbon emissions from China's coal-fired plants.
HealthAFP NewsDrug-resistant malaria gaining foothold in Africa: study
Researchers on Thursday reported the first clinical evidence that drug-resistant mutations of the parasite responsible for malaria are gaining ground in Africa.
BusinessReutersJudge in Texas lawsuit against Google issues protective order
The judge hearing the Texas antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's Google put limits on what the search giant's in-house lawyers can see in an order aimed at ensuring that confidential information used in an upcoming trial remains secure. The issue is a key one for companies that have not been identified but that gave information to the Texas attorney general's office for its investigation and fear that their confidential data, like strategic business plans or discussions about negotiations, could be disclosed to Google executives. The order issued by Judge Sean Jordan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas allows Google's in-house counsel to see information deemed "confidential" but they are then limited in advising on some competitive and other decision-making for two years regarding the companies whose data they see.
PoliticsReutersU.S. lawmakers to 'review' UAE arms sale after Biden opts to go ahead
The Democratic chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said on Wednesday he and other lawmakers were concerned about the Biden administration's decision to go ahead with a weapons sale to the United Arab Emirates and would review the transactions. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Democratic president's administration had told Congress it was proceeding with more than $23 billion in weapons sales https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2M6319 to the UAE, including advanced F-35 aircraft, armed drones and other equipment. The sale was reached in the last weeks of former Republican President Donald Trump's administration and finalized only about an hour before Biden took office on Jan. 20, and the Democrat's administration had "paused" it in order to conduct a review.
NewsAFP NewsUN warns that impact of Caribbean volcano could affect other islands
The humanitarian and economic crisis unleashed by the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent will last months and could extend to nearby islands, a UN official warned Wednesday.
BusinessReutersDell spins off VMware stake, generating up to $9.7 billion to pay down debt
VMware will distribute a special cash dividend of between $11.5 billion and $12 billion to all its shareholders, including Dell, which will receive between $9.3 billion and $9.7 billion, in the transaction that is expected to be tax-free. The spinoff, first proposed in a filing last July, will help Dell lower its long-term debt of $41.62 billion, much of which was taken on during its 2016 acquisition of data management firm EMC. Dell hopes doing so will help it achieve an investment grade rating and simplify its capital structure.
NewsReutersVenezuela's seeking of specific vaccines will slow inoculation, Guaido says
Venezuela is risking further delays to an already stalled COVID-19 vaccination campaign by seeking to use specific brands of vaccines while shunning readily available ones, opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Wednesday. The COVAX global vaccine program has offered to sell doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Venezuela, pending a payment arrangement, but the government of President Nicolas Maduro blocked its use following concerns about blood clotting. Guaido told a news conference that Maduro allies had internally discussed the idea of seeking out the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but that they had not mentioned it in talks with the opposition or formally requested access to the vaccine.
NewsAFP NewsThe Brazil variant: what we know
The "Brazil variant" -- a more contagious mutation of the coronavirus that emerged in the Amazon late last year -- is fueling fears the pandemic could flare anew, leading several countries to suspend flights from Brazil.
NewsAFP NewsDefense medical expert says Floyd cause of death 'undetermined'
George Floyd died from cardiac arrest brought on by heart disease, illegal drug use and other factors, a retired forensic pathologist testified on Wednesday at the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
NewsReutersFrance's COVID-19 infection cases accelerate, hospital pressure eases slightly
France saw a decline in the number of COVID patients in intensive care units on Wednesday, and the daily death toll fell, but the number of new infections continued to grow. Health ministry data showed ICU numbers dropped by 50 to 5,902, the first fall in nearly a week. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said earlier on Wednesday that peak hospitalisation levels have not yet been reached and that difficult times are still ahead.
HealthAFP NewsUS J&J Covid vaccine pause continues after experts defer vote
A pause on all US vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson Covid shot will continue for at least another week after members of a government-convened expert panel said Wednesday they needed more time to assess its possible links to a clotting disorder.
NewsAFP NewsBillboard apology to mum highlights Rome's burial crisis
An Italian has posted a message to his late mother on giant billboards around Rome in a bid to shame the authorities, still battling with the coronavirus, into providing burial plots for the city's dead.
NewsAFP NewsUS House panel studies slavery reparations ahead of key vote
A US congressional panel debates Wednesday whether to consider federal slavery reparation payments to African Americans, ahead of a historic first vote on an issue gaining momentum during the nation's racial reckoning.
ScienceAFP NewsHow the world's largest flying animals supported their giant necks
Azhdarchid pterosaurs were massive flying reptiles that soared across the skies in the age of the dinosaurs, using their long bills to pick out their prey of fish and other river animals.
BusinessReutersCoinbase boss Armstrong poised to reap fruits of listing
As Coinbase Global Inc's multi-billion dollar stock market listing accelerates cryptocurrency's leap to the top table of finance, its founder and CEO Brian Armstrong is poised to reap the benefits of the company's nine-year journey. Armstrong owns 21.7% of the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, filings show - a stake worth around $20 billion given Coinbase's projected value. Such a paper fortune might have been hard to imagine when Armstrong founded Coinbase in 2012, just four years after bitcoin was invented by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.
