WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump will travel next week to the Midwestern city where African American Jacob Blake was shot multiple times in the back by a white policeman, sparking a nationwide wave of protest. Trump will meet police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday and "survey damage from recent riots" triggered by Blake's shooting last weekend, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Saturday. Blake took at least half a dozen shots in front of his small children as he tr

Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Friday he intends to step down because a chronic health problem has resurfaced. He told reporters that it was "gut wrenching" to leave so many of his goals unfinished. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. Concerns about Abe's health began this summer and grew this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups

CHARIKAR (AFP) -- Rescue workers were searching Thursday for bodies in the debris of collapsed houses after flash floods fuelled by torrential rains killed at least 162 people in Afghanistan. At least 100 people died in the city of Charikar north of Kabul when flooding overnight on Tuesday caused hundreds of buildings to collapse. Abdul Ghayor, a labourer who was working in the capital, said he had rushed back to Charikar to look for his family only to find his house had been swept away. &q

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian police announced on Thursday they had begun a preliminary examination of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's illness after the Kremlin dismissed German doctors' findings that he was apparently poisoned. Transport police in Siberia said they have started "a pre-investigation check" into what led to Navalny's hospitalisation in the city of Omsk to establish "all the circumstances" and decide whether to open a criminal probe. The 44-year-old polit

　Samsung Electronics maintained its dominant status in the global DRAM market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed, as the pandemic drove demand for server chips. 　The South Korean tech giant’s market share in the global DRAM market stood at 43.5 percent in the April-June period, down 0.6 percentage point from three months earlier, while its revenue increased 13.8 percent to $7.4 billion over the cited period, according to data from market researcher TrendForce. 　Its

ROME (AFP) -- China's foreign minister on Tuesday kicked off a tour of a Europe still reeling from coronavirus, as he seeks to shore up economic and diplomatic relations in light of tensions with the US. Donald Trump's administration has stepped up anti-China rhetoric in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 3, despite ongoing trade talks. On his first European stop in Rome, Wang Yi shied away from naming Washington explicitly, but lamented "provocation and damage from e

　More than one-third of children and adolescents across the United States eat fast-food each day, according to new figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 　In 2018, 36 percent of young people ate fast food every day, an increase from 34 percent of in 2011, researchers said. 　Up to 14 percent of young people obtained 25 percent to 45 percent of their daily calories from fast-food - up from just over 12 percent in 2011, agency researchers said. 　The percentage is hig

　Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received the lowest approval rating in a recent survey covering six countries and their response to the global coronavirus pandemic. 　The poll conducted by US-German communications consultancy Kekst CNC shows Abe is under fire for his handling of the health crisis as speculation grows in Japan that Abe could leave office before the end of his term in September 2021. 　The survey, which polled 1,000 respondents from the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden, France

       DUBLIN (AFP) -- Ryanair will cut its September and October timetable by "20 percent" on weaker-than-expected demand following renewed virus-linked travel restrictions in some European countries, the Irish airline said Monday. "These capacity cuts and frequency reductions for the months of September and October are unavoidable given the recent weakness in forward bookings due to COVID restrictions in a number of EU countries," the no-frill

     PARIS (AFP) -- Amazon France has withdrawn advertisements for child-like sex dolls from its website after an online outcry, the French government said Monday. The French AIVI anti-paedophilia movement alerted authorities on Twitter over the weekend, prompting widespread outrage on social media. Screengrabs of some of the dolls, shared in an online campaign accusing Amazon of facilitating paedophilia, show some of the dolls on offer: likenesses  of pre-pu

Facebook deleted about 7 million posts in the second quarter that were deemed to contain misinformation about the novel coronavirus, the social media company said. Content considered to contain false information on virus prevention and treatment made up a big portion of the deleted posts. Facebook explained that its artificial intelligence monitoring technology greatly contributed to the massive deletions from April to June as the company moved to remote working amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

　Employees are logging longer hours, attending more meetings with more people and sending more emails. 　From New York City to Tel Aviv, the telecommuting revolution has meant a lot more work, according to a study of 3.1 million people at more than 21,000 companies across 16 cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East. 　The researchers compared employee behavior over two 8 week periods before and after COVID-19 lockdowns. Looking at email and meeting meta-data, the group calculated

　South Korea placed 28th and received a grade of C minus on Asher & Lyric’s Best Countries for Raising a Family in 2020. 　The best country to raise a family was once again a Nordic country, Iceland, which got an A plus and a 1093.07 index score. 　Norway ranked second, followed by Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg. 　The study ranks 35 OECD nations in six categories: safety, happiness, cost, health, education and time. 

HONG KONG (AP) -- Hong Kong authorities broadened their enforcement of a new national security law on Monday, arresting media tycoon Jimmy Lai, searching the headquarters of his Next Digital group and carting away boxes of what they said was evidence. Two days after Chinese and Hong Kong officials shrugged off sanctions imposed on them by the US, the moves showed China's determination to enforce the new law and curb dissent in the semi-autonomous city after months of massive pro-democracy demo

  GENEVA -- The World Health Organization insisted Monday there was still hope of conquering the coronavirus pandemic despite the pain and suffering behind the looming 750,000 death toll and 20 million cases. With both landmarks expected to be reached within days, the WHO said it was never too late to take action to suppress the COVID-19 crisis that has gripped the planet. "This week we'll reach 20 million registered cases of COVID-19 and 750,000 deaths," WHO chief Tedros Adhan