NEW YORK (AFP) -- At least four people died and three were wounded in a shooting at an unlicensed private social club in New York early Saturday, police said.No one has been arrested over the early morning shooting in Brooklyn, and the motive and exact circumstances are not known, a New York police official told AFP.The shooting on the borough's major artery Utica Avenue took place at the Triple A Aces Private & Social Rental Place, what NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea called "an i

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- An anti-Semitic attack that killed at least two people in the German city of Halle Wednesday was streamed live for 35 minutes, and eventually seen by some 2,200 people, the online platform Twitch said."The account owner streamed this horrific act live on Twitch for 35 minutes, during which time it was viewed by approximately five people," the livestream gaming platform posted on Twitter."A recording of the stream, which was automatically generated based

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A bipartisan set of US lawmakers urged the NBA on Wednesday to suspend all activities in China until Chinese firms and broadcasters end their boycott of the league and the Houston Rockets.The open letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver came from eight US lawmakers as politically diverse as Ted Cruz of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, both from states with multiple NBA teams."You have more power to take a stand than most of the Chinese government's targets

SHANGHAI (AFP) -- China on Wednesday slammed NBA commissioner Adam Silver's defence of free speech, cancelling a basketball fan event and lashing him in the state-run press, as Apple was warned it could be the next Western firm punished for supporting democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The NBA had been looking to cement its already huge popularity in the lucrative China market this week with a pair of annual pre-season exhibition games, but those plans were thrown into disarray by a tweet from H

RAS AL-AIN (AFP) -- Turkey launched a broad assault on Kurdish-controlled areas in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, with intensive bombardment followed by a ground offensive made possible by the withdrawal of US troops.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the attack on Twitter and soon after jets and artillery targeted Kurdish positions along the full width of the border, sending thousands of civilians fleeing their homes.That was followed late in the evening by the beginning of

STOCKHOLM (AFP) -- Three researchers from the United States and Britain on Monday shared the Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how human cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen levels, opening up new strategies to fight such diseases as cancer and anaemia.Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe, split the nine million Swedish kronor ($914,000, 833,000 euros) award.While the fact that humans need oxygen to survive has been understood for centuries, how

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- President Donald Trump said Monday he would prefer to strike a comprehensive trade bargain with China, in comments days before top US and Chinese officials are due to resume trade talks in Washington.But with little sign the two sides have made progress in bridging the distance between them, speculation has mounted in recent months they may reach a deal which addresses only some of Washington's extensive grievances."I think it's not what we prefer at all. My inclination

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- North Korea warned Monday it would not "sit idle" if any attempt is made at the UN Security Council to raise the subject of its "self-defensive measures," an apparent reference to its recent missile tests.Three European countries -- Britain, France and Germany -- called for a closed door Security Council meeting Tuesday to discuss North Korea's test last week of a sea-launched missile, saying it was a "serious violation" of UN resolutions.Nor

TOKYO (AFP) -- Around 60 members of a North Korean fishing boat were rescued Monday after it sank following a collision with a Japanese patrol vessel, local media said.The North Korean ship -- believed to illegally fishing in Japanese waters -- capsized after the collision, the coast guard said.Satoshi Kuwahara, a Japanese fisheries agency official, told reporters the patrol boat Okuni had earlier warned the North Korean vessel to leave the area.All of the estimated 60 crew members aboard the No

STOCKHOLM (AFP) -- Three researchers from the US and Britain on Monday shared the Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how human cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen levels, opening up new strategies to fight common diseases such as cancer and anaemia.   William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza of the US and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe split the nine million Swedish kronor ($914,000) award.While the fact that humans need oxygen to survive has been understood for centuries, how the body reg

BUSAN -- A new film about the Sewol ferry sinking, a disaster that killed more than 300 people -- most of them children, will premiere at Asia's biggest film festival, five years after director Lee Sang-ho caused controversy with his first documentary on the topic."Diving Bell", which screened at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), criticised then leader Park Geun-hye's administration on its handling of the sinking.In response, angry officials cut BIFF's $1.3 million fun

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- Facebook on Thursday launched Threads, an image-centric messaging app designed to weave tight circles of Instagram friends together, while ramping up its challenge to rival Snapchat.Threads is its own separate smartphone app, but ties into lists of "close friends" that Instagram began letting users create late last year, according to director of product Robby Stein."Threads is the fastest way to share a photo or video with your close friends on Instagram,&qu

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The EU is "unconvinced" by Britain's new Brexit proposals but has not immediately dismissed them, with officials and diplomats saying Thursday there were positive points alongside the many problematic ones.The question is: are they the basis for negotiations?British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he hopes so, as he moves to execute his vow to take his country out of the EU on October 31, deal or no deal.His government submitted legal proposals on Wednesday to the E

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Less than a month ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo triumphed over rivals to emerge as the dominant force in Donald Trump's foreign policy.Pompeo's ascendancy was confirmed in a very public manner when Trump sacked his chief adversary, John Bolton, as national security advisor on September 10.But Pompeo's fortunes have suddenly darkened over his role in the Ukraine scandal that has triggered an impeachment probe into the president.After prevaricating for days, Pompeo fin

BUSAN (AFP) -- Organisers of Asia's top film festival, which opens in Busan this week, warn that a surge of global interest in the critically acclaimed South Korean movie "Parasite" masks a damaging underinvestment in local independent cinema.Bong Joon-ho's darkly comic tale of class war in the Seoul suburbs won the Palme D'or for best film at Cannes and is firming as an Oscar favourite next year, in what would be the first ever win for a Korean film.It has been sold to 192 internation