UNITED STATES
Burundi to lose trade status
President Barack Obama said Burundi is not making enough progress toward establishing rule of law and is to be removed from a US trade preference program for African countries. The African Growth and Opportunity Act provides duty-free treatment to US imports of certain products from eligible sub-Saharan countries. In a letter to lawmakers, Obama cited a worsening crackdown on opposition members, including assassinations, by Burundi’s government as the basis for his decision to de-list the country on Jan. 1. The Burundian government has also blocked opposing parties from holding organizational meetings and campaigning. Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision in April to seek a controversial third term, which he won, has sparked killings and arrests.
ARGENTINA
Tonnes of marijuana seized
Twelve tonnes of marijuana being smuggled from Paraguay into Argentina aboard a tanker truck were seized on Friday in an affluent suburb of Buenos Aires, officials said. The driver, a Paraguayan national, was held for questioning. Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli called it the “largest seizure in the history” of his country. Scioli will face Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri in a run-off for the Argentine presidency on Nov. 22. The police operation on Friday took place in San Isidro, a northern suburb of the Argentine capital and one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the region. Police had seized a total of 15 tonnes of Paraguayan marijuana in three operations in northeastern Argentina in September and early last month. Investigators said they believe the drug was being taken to the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
UNITED NATIONS
Russia backs NZ on Israel
Russia said New Zealand should move forward with a draft UN resolution aimed at reviving long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but Israel said the draft is “destructive” and the Palestinians said it is not tough enough. The deeply divided Security Council has not adopted a resolution on the decades-old conflict in six years. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said Moscow has always maintained that the UN’s most powerful body “should get closer involved.” On Friday he told reporters: “I think we should seriously look at it ... I don’t see anything controversial about that text.” However, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon dismissed the draft resolution saying that the only way to peace is through direct negotiations.”
UNITED STATES
Clinton e-mails released
A new batch of Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton’s e-mails presents a glimpse into the breadth of her personal network, from pop star Lady Gaga to former president Jimmy Carter. The e-mails released on Friday involve several boldfaced names, including celebrities, CEOs, political advisers and politicians whom she’s now tapping for her presidential campaign. The names include actor Ben Affleck and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. About half of Clinton’s 30,000 work-related e-mails are now public, and the Department of State’s effort to release the rest is set to linger into next year. Most of the correspondence made public to date involves the mundane workings of government, scheduling meetings, organizing secure phone lines and booking flights.
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction