Category Archives: World News

France remembers De Gaulle’s close escape depicted in The Day of the Jackal

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Wartime leader survived most serious of many assassination attempts 60 years ago in Paris suburb

On 22 August 1962, France’s wartime leader Charles de Gaulle survived what would be the most serious of 30 attempts on his life. De Gaulle and his wife, Yvonne, were being driven through a Paris suburb for a flight from Villacoublay military airport, eight miles from the Élysée Palace.

The presidential couple were on their way back to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, their country home about halfway between the French capital and Strasbourg in the east. They were travelling in a black Citroën DS, followed by an escort vehicle and two motorcycle police officers on Triumph bikes.

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French justice ministry under pressure to explain jail go-karting

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Minister condemns ‘shocking’ games inspired by reality TV show at Fresnes prison, south of Paris

France’s justice ministry is under pressure to explain why it signed off on games inspired by reality TV at the country’s second largest prison.

The political row erupted after a 25-minute video of prisoners at Fresnes jail taking part in go-karting and other challenges in the prison courtyard appeared on YouTube. The prison games were called Kohlantess – a play on Les aventuriers de Koh-Lanta, a French reality TV show based on the Survivor format.

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Chinese censors alter ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru film

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Viewers mock addendum explaining Gru’s family values and arrest of thief Wild Knuckles

Censors in China have changed the ending of the animated film Minions: The Rise of Gru for its domestic release, according to viewers in the country, in yet another example of China altering a popular Hollywood film.

According to posts and screenshots of the film, shared on Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter, there is an addendum by censors showing that Wild Knuckles, a main character in the heist film, was caught by police and served 20 years in jail.

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Chinese firm Miniso apologises for Japanese branding after outcry

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Consumers complained the homeware and electronics company was not supporting its national roots

A Chinese retail company has apologised for styling itself as a Japanese store, saying it made “serious mistakes”.

Miniso, which sells homeware and electronics, used a logo and branding that appeared similar to that of the Japanese clothing firm Uniqlo. It has been under criticism from Chinese consumers who believed it was not supporting its Chinese roots.

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CIA unable to corroborate Israel’s ‘terror’ label for Palestinian rights groups

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Exclusive: sources say report shows CIA unable to find evidence to support Israeli claim, but finding does not prompt US rebuttal

A classified CIA report shows the agency was unable to find any evidence to support Israel’s decision to label six prominent Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organizations”.

In October, Israel labeled as terror groups Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International–Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

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Ford to appeal $1.7bn verdict against it in Georgia truck crash case

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Civil suit centering on what was argued to be defective roofs came after couple killed when vehicle rolled over

The American automaker Ford Motor Co has promised to appeal a $1.7bn verdict leveled against it in connection with a pickup truck crash that killed a Georgia couple, a manufacturer representative said Sunday.

Jurors in Gwinnett county, just north-east of Atlanta, returned the verdict late last week in a yearslong civil case centering on what the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued were dangerously defective roofs on the Ford pickup involved in the crash and other vehicles like it, lawyer James Butler Jr said Sunday.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin condemns ‘despicable, cruel’ killing of Darya Dugina as Russia blames Ukraine for car bombing – as it happened

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News agency AFP has posted a graphic showing the economic indicators impacted by Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.

The charts show the soaring cost of natural gas, a forecasted fall in global economic growth, the increased price of commodities and skyrocketing forecasted inflation.

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Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, one of Somalia’s greatest poets, dies aged 79

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Somali social media has been flooded with tributes to the man better known as ‘Hadraawi’

Messages of condolences continue to pour in from around the world following the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, regarded as one of Somalia’s greatest poets.

Warsame, better known as “Hadraawi”, died in Hargeisa, in Somaliland, on Thursday at the age of 79.

The snake sneaks in the castle:

although it’s carpeted with thorns

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Abortion rights at risk in region led by party of Italy’s possible next PM

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The Brothers of Italy has further impeded access to abortion in the Marche region – a policy it could replicate nationally if it wins power

When Giulia, 20, discovered she was pregnant she immediately decided that she wasn’t ready to have a baby. Supported by her boyfriend and family, she sought medical advice in her home town in Italy’s central Marche region on how to obtain an abortion. She faced obstacles at every turn, from telephones not being answered and surgeries being closed, to one doctor who tried to persuade her to change her mind.

Abortion in Italy was legalised via a referendum in 1978, overturning an outright ban enforced by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini who deemed it a crime against the Italian race, but the high number of gynaecologists who refuse to terminate pregnancies for moral reasons – 64.6%, according to 2020 data – has meant women still encounter huge difficulties in accessing safe procedures.

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Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan charged under anti-terror law

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Khan is reportedly accused of making threats to the country’s judiciary and police force

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been charged under anti-terrorism legislation after he gave a fiery speech to supporters at the weekend in which he vowed to sue police officers and a female judge and alleged a close aide had been tortured after his arrest.

Khan will have to “face the law for threatening and hurling abuses”, tweeted the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah.

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CEO of Israeli Pegasus spyware firm NSO to step down

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CEO Shalev Hulio is stepping down as part of NSO reorganisation that will see it focus on sales in Nato member countries

Israel’s NSO Group, which makes the globally controversial Pegasus spyware said on Sunday its CEO Shalev Hulio would step down as part of a reorganisation.

The indebted, privately owned company also said it would focus sales on countries belonging to the Nato alliance.

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Ukraine braces for intensified attacks after Moscow car bomb killing

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Kyiv denies any involvement in death of daughter of ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin

Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday in the aftermath of the car-bomb killing of the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue.

The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday.

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Dennis Rodman plans Russia visit to seek release of Brittney Griner

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  • NBA hall of famer has called himself a ‘basketball ambassador’
  • Griner currently serving nine-year sentence in Russia

NBA hall of famer Dennis Rodman says he has permission to travel to Russia as he attempts to secure the release of fellow basketball star Brittney Griner.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian jail for drug possession earlier this month. Her lawyers have filed an appeal and there are understood to be separate talks underway over a possible prisoner swap. But Rodman told NBC this weekend that he plans to make a trip of his own to negotiate the Olympic champion’s release.

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Ex-Russian MP claims Russian partisans responsible for Moscow car bomb

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Speaking in Kyiv, Ilya Ponomarev alleges bomb that killed daughter of Putin ally was work of underground group

A former member of Russia’s Duma who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind a car bomb which blew up the daughter of one of Vladimir Putin’s close political allies on the outskirts of Moscow.

Speaking in Kyiv, where he is based, Ilya Ponomarev alleged the explosion on Saturday evening was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime.

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Runner killed after lightning strikes athletes during Greek mountain race

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  • One other man seriously injured after strike on Mt Falakro
  • Fire crews attended scene of accident in early hours of Sunday

One runner was killed and another seriously injured on Sunday when they were struck by lightning during a nighttime trail race up a Greek mountain, local police said.

The two men were competing in the Six Peaks race, which takes place on Mount Falakro in northern Greece, when lightning struck the group of runners. The incident happened at 4am at an altitude of 1,340 metres (4,400 feet).

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Singapore to repeal law that criminalises sex between men

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Scrapping of colonial-era section 377A law hailed as ‘a win for humanity’ by LGBTQ+ rights groups

Singapore will repeal a colonial-era law that criminalises sex between men, a landmark decision described by LGBTQ+ groups as “a win for humanity”.

In a national address on Sunday, the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said that scrapping section 377A of the penal code would bring the law into line with current social attitudes and “provide some relief to gay Singaporeans”.

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‘Why does the school hate me?’: how former MI6 spy’s Scottish dream turned sour

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At security debriefings, Aimen Dean and his family fell in love with the Highlands. Three years later, they feel rejected

Aimen Dean remembers the moment he and his wife, Saadia, decided to make their home in Scotland. They had toured the Highlands and were standing on the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, looking out over the city’s skyline.

Dean already knew Scotland: as one of the UK’s key spies, operating in the highest levels of al-Qaida, he had visited the country in secret six times before, to be debriefed by MI6 officers at safe houses deep in the Highlands or, on one occasion, a hotel on the island of Iona.

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Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin killed in car bomb in Moscow

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Russian hawks without evidence blame Kyiv for death of Darya Dugina and demand Kremlin response

The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow.

Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.

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Workers at UK’s biggest container port Felixstowe strike over pay

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About 1,900 crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores involved in eight-day action

Workers at the UK’s biggest container port have gone on strike for the first time since 1989, with shipping companies and union leaders warning the action could impact supply chains and leave shoppers waiting for goods.

About 1,900 members of Unite at Felixstowe have walked out in a dispute over pay today, in the latest outbreak of industrial action to hit a growing number of sectors of the economy.

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