Category: World News

Geneva (AFP) – A UN committee tasked with combatting racism has issued a formal “early warning” over conditions in the United States, a rare move often used to signal the potential of a looming civil conflict. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said it had invoked its “early warning and urgent action procedure” because of the proliferation of racist demonstrations in the US. It specifically noted the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a woman was killed after an avowed white supremacist ploughed his car into a group of anti-racism counterprotestors. The racism committee, part...

Caracas (AFP) – Crisis-hit Venezuela devalued its currency by 64 percent in a dollar auction that aimed to stabilize its foreign exchange market, officials said Wednesday. Under an overhauled official exchange system, the government let investors bid for the dollars at a new higher rate in what President Nicolas Maduro said was an effort to undermine the black market. It was the latest in a series of moves to ease a crisis in a country stricken by soaring inflation and shortages of food and medicine. The US bills sold at a rate of 2,010 bolivars per dollar, said Pedro...

NBC’s Megyn Kelly will sit down for a one-on-one interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin and will air the exchange during this weekend’s premiere of her newsmagazine show Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. The former Fox News star anchor, who moved to NBC in January, announced the exclusive interview during her first live on-air report for her new network Thursday morning.   WATCH: Vladimir Putin has agreed to sit for a one-on-one interview with @megynkelly following the International Economic Forum pic.twitter.com/e0gZaK5B1e — TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 1, 2017 “This will be the first time he’ll be taking questions from an American...

The UK, which recently said it could launch a preemptive nuclear strike “in the most extreme circumstances,” runs the risk of being “wiped off the face of the Earth,” the deputy head of a Russian upper house committee said. “The statement made by UK’s Defense Minister Michael Fallon calls for a harsh response and I’m not afraid of going too far. At best this statement may be seen as an element of a psychological war, which looks especially revolting in this context,” Frants Klintsevich wrote on Facebook. “There is a quite natural question then: what country could be primitively...

Police detained 29 people in Paris on Sunday after “anti-fascist” demonstrators became violent – hurling glass bottles and firecrackers and setting cars ablaze. Six officers and three demonstrators were injured during the protests at the Place de la Bastille. Several businesses sustained damage, Agence-France Presse reported. At least three people were arrested.   #France : Protests following the first round of presidential election. pic.twitter.com/3hg6wtLFEq — AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) April 23, 2017 Many of the left-wing protesters said they were angry at the first-round results of the presidential election in which centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen...