Category: News

Homs (Syria) (AFP) – In Syria’s third city Homs, members of ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite community say they are terrified as new authorities comb their districts for “remnants of the regime”, arresting hundreds.

Adelaide (Australia) (AFP) – Felix Auger-Aliassime needed four match points and nearly three hours to beat Tommy Paul 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-4 and reach the Adelaide International final on Friday.

Paris (AFP) – Research published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.

Damascus (AFP) – Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani began his first official visit to post-Assad Syria on Friday with a tour of the landmark Umayyad mosque in Damascus.

Pacific Palisades (United States) (AFP) – Flying south through smoky skies down the famous Malibu coast, at first the burnt-out mansions are the exception — solitary wrecks, smoldering away between rows of intact, gleaming beachfront villas.

Islamabad (AFP) – Pakistan’s state-owned airline, plagued by a history of deadly crashes and a pilot licence scandal, resumed flights to Europe on Friday after a four-year ban was lifted by EU regulators.

Caracas (AFP) – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, due to be sworn in Friday for a third six-year term after elections he is widely accused of stealing, has been written off many times during a turbulent decade in power.

Undisclosed (Ukraine) (AFP) – With its soldiers trained in France and high-profile endorsements from the French and Ukrainian presidents, the “Anne of Kyiv” brigade was supposed to be a flagship unit for Ukraine’s army.

Sydney (AFP) – Australian police have released CCTV video of a bungling arsonist who set their own pants alight and had to hot-foot it from the scene without them.

Melbourne (AFP) – Red-hot Coco Gauff said Friday that keeping cool in tough moments was behind a scintillating run of form that has made her a major threat to Aryna Sabalenka at the Australian Open.