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More than 230 people have been killed in jihadist attacks in France since early 2015. Tourists were back on the Champs Elysees early Friday with a mixture of shock and defiance, a day after a jihadist shot dead a policeman on the world-famous avenue on the eve of France's election. "I needed to get out, to come back here and see the sunshine and that everything was OK,"  said Lebanese tourist  Zeina Bitar , 45, who was shopping on the boulevard with her children when the gunman struck. Nearby, a police officer laid a white rose at the site where the shooter felled his comrade with an automatic weapon, unleashing a firefight in which the assailant was killed and two other officers were wounded. "We heard the shots and people were running in every direction,"  said Bitar, adding that her children were in tears.  "But people were calm, we were well treated and they gave us hot chocolate." Under a cloudless spring sky, the dozens of emergency ...

A woman born in 1960 has died from serious injuries sustained in the April 3 blast which ripped through an underground train. A woman wounded in the Saint Petersburg metro bombing died in hospital Thursday, a local official said, taking the death toll from the attack to 15. Deputy regional governor  Anna Mityanina  said a woman born in 1960 had died from serious injuries sustained in the April 3 blast which ripped through an underground train. Another 23 people are still in hospital, four of them in serious condition, she said. Authorities say the attack was carried out by 22-year-old suicide bomber  Akbarjon Djalilov , a Russian national born in Kyrgyzstan. Ten men from Central Asia have been detained in connection with the bombing, including Kyrgyz-born  Abror Azimov , whom officials say was one of the organisers. Both he and his elder brother  Akram  -- whom the FSB says was allegedly in contact with global terror groups -- are in custody....

The US Defence Secretary made the comments during a one-day visit for talks with Israeli leaders. US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said in Israel on Friday that there can be "no doubt" Syria has retained some chemical weapons and warned President Bashar al-Assad's regime not to use them. Mattis made the comments during a one-day visit for talks with Israeli leaders, who strongly supported a recent US strike against a Syrian airbase in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town. "The bottom line is there can be no doubt in the international community's mind that Syria has retained chemical weapons in violation of its agreement and its statement that it had removed them all,"  Mattis said during a press conference with Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman. "It's a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, and it's going to have to be taken up diplomatically, and they'd be ill-advised to ...

The man was hoping to profit from a drop in the football team's share price as a result of the attack last week. Police commandos on Friday arrested a German-Russian suspect behind a bomb attack on Borussia Dortmund's team bus, prosecutors said, indicating the motive was financial and not terror-related. They said the man, identified only as 28-year-old  Sergej W. , was hoping to profit from a drop in the football team's share price as a result of the attack last week. Three explosive devices went off in a hedge alongside the team bus on April 11, minutes after it left the squad's hotel heading for a Champions League quarter-final match at home against  Monaco . The blast shattered the bus windows, and Spanish international  Marc Bartra , 26, was wounded, forcing him to undergo surgery for a broken wrist. A policeman on a motorcycle escorting the bus suffered trauma from the noise of the blast. "The accused is suspected of having carried out the atta...

The two reporters were arrested at the Caracas airport on April 11 as they were returning from preparing a documentary. Two French journalists who had been held in Venezuela since April 11 on drug charges have been freed, and returned to Paris on Friday, the Capa news agency said. "Capa's employees are delighted that Sebastian Perez and Didier Barral have been released and are back in France,"  the agency said. The two reporters were arrested at the Caracas airport on April 11 as they were returning from preparing a documentary on the economic and social crisis gripping the country. They were being held on what Capa denounced as  "the unjustified pretext that they were transporting drugs." The Venezuelan authorities had not disclosed why they were being held. The South American country is engulfed in violent protests over a deep economic crisis that has seen  President Nicolas Maduro  moving to tighten his grip on power, which have left several pe...

Protesters blame President Maduro for an economic crisis marked by severe shortages of food, medicine and basic goods. About 50 children were evacuated from a Caracas hospital Thursday which the Venezuelan government blamed on an attack by armed gangs but the opposition attributed to tear gas used to quell unrest. As protests and looting continued into the night following another day of clashes between police and demonstrators in the capital, the government and opposition traded blows over the events at the maternity hospital. "I denounce before the international community that armed gangs hired by the opposition attacked a maternity hospital with 54 children,"  Foreign Minister  Delcy Rodriguez  tweeted, noting that  President Nicolas Maduro  had ordered the hospital's evacuation. But  Freddy Guevara , an opposition leader, rejected the allegation, calling Rodriguez  "irresponsible"  and saying the evacuations were  "the fault of t...

Tajudeen Oyewale, a UNICEF representative for Congo, who recently visited the area said children are enduring “horrific ordeals”. UNICEF says no fewer than 1.5 million children are at risk due to violence in central Congo, including 600,000 who have been displaced from their homes. Violence has mounted between the army and the  Kamwina Nsapu  militia since its leader, who opposed central government influence in parts of the Kasai region, was killed in fighting in August. Tajudeen Oyewale, a UNICEF representative for Congo, who recently visited the area said children are enduring  “horrific ordeals”  in the Kasai region. “Hundreds of children have been injured in the violence, with reports of children detained, raped, and even executed,”  Oyewale added. He said that no fewer than 300 children have been seriously injured, while more than 4,000 have been separated from their families. The UN said about 2,000 children are being used by militias in the...

A female sergeant major on board the military aircraft was injured but is expected to recover. Four Greek army officers were killed on Wednesday when their helicopter crashed in a hilly area in the centre of the country, military authorities said. A female sergeant major on board the military aircraft was injured but is expected to recover. The dead include a major general, a colonel, a major and a lieutanant, the military high command said in a statement. The Huey UH-1H helicopter had left early Wednesday from Larissa, in the centre of the country, heading north toward Kozani, army spokesman  Colonel Nikolaos Fanios  earlier told AFP. State television ERT said the helicopter likely hit power cables. Multi-purpose helicopters, Hueys are among the oldest aircraft in Greece's arsenal. The model first saw action with the US armed forces during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. However, the high command on Wednesday said that the helicopter that crashed was fully oper...

The bomber also died in the explosion which left another four people injured. Three people were killed and four others wounded on Wednesday in a suicide attack in Cameroon's restive Far North, a local official said. "Just before 10:00 am, a suicide bomber who crossed from Nigeria entered Kolofata and blew himself up,"  a source from the town's vigilante committee said. "The blast killed three people -- a police officer and two civilians,"  he said. The bomber also died in the explosion which left another four people injured. The toll was confirmed to AFP by a source close to the security services. The local official said the bomber crossed into Cameroon through  Kerawa , a town which lies on the border with  Nigeria . Kolofata , which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) from the border with Nigeria, is located in a region of the same name which has been regularly targeted by Boko Haram extremists. In September 2015, between 20 and 40 people los...

The military did not give a date for the executions, but such orders in the past have usually been carried out within 2 4-48 hours. Pakistan's powerful army chief has confirmed the death sentences passed by military courts on 30 militants, some of whom were involved in the country's worst-ever extremist attack, authorities said Wednesday. The military did not give a date for the executions, but when the army chief has given such orders in the past the hangings have usually been carried out within 24-48 hours. "These terrorists were involved in committing heinous offences relating to terrorism,"  a military statement said. It listed a string of offences including a  Taliban  assault on a school in  Peshawar  in 2014 in which more than 150 people -- mostly children -- were killed in Pakistan's deadliest-ever such assault. The statement did not name the militants, specify what role they had played in the attacks, or say who was involved in which assaul...

The motion passed with 522 members of parliament in favour and 13 against -- well above the required two-thirds majority. British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to support Prime Minister Theresa May's call to hold a snap election on June 8, before the country enters two years of gruelling Brexit negotiations. The motion passed with 522 members of parliament in favour and 13 against -- well above the required two-thirds majority.

In addition to the dead, 332 people were injured in landslides that buried the Colombian town of Mocoa after flooding caused by days of torrential rains. The number of people killed in southern  Colombia 's massive mudslides climbed to 290 on Wednesday, as officials investigated how the horrific disaster might have been prevented. In addition to the dead, 332 people were injured in landslides that buried the Colombian town of Mocoa after flooding caused by days of torrential rains. The mudslides occurred Friday after heavy rains caused three rivers to overflow, strewing earth, rocks and tree debris over the area. Mocoa was home to 70,000 people, about 45,000 of whom were affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross. Hardest-hit by the tragedy are impoverished neighborhoods populated with residents uprooted during Colombia's five-decade-long civil war. Authorities have opened an investigation to determine what sort of "preventive and corrective action...

n late March, the White House announced that the 35-year-old First Daughter would be working in the White House. Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, an unpaid White House adviser to the American president, says she has her father's ear and can disagree with him with "total candor." In an interview broadcast Wednesday on "CBS This Morning," Ivanka Trump said she will continue the advocacy work she was doing in the private sector, which includes pushing for the economic empowerment of women and on issues involving education. "I'm still my father's daughter,"  she told CBS.  "But I'll weigh in with my father on the issues I feel strongly about." In late March, the White House announced that the 35-year-old First Daughter would be working in the  White House  along with her husband  Jared Kushner , an unpaid senior adviser to the president. Neither has any experience in elected office or public policy. Ivanka Trump was pre...

The dead were still being identified, and some humanitarian groups said as many as 100 had died. One of the worst chemical bombings in Syria turned a northern rebel-held area into a toxic kill zone Tuesday, inciting international outrage over the ever-increasing government impunity shown in the country’s six-year war. Western leaders including President  Donald Trump  blamed the  Syrian  government of President  Bashar Assad  and called on its patrons,  Russia  and  Iran , to prevent a recurrence of what many described as a war crime. Dozens of people, including children, died — some writhing, choking, gasping or foaming at the mouth — after breathing in poison that possibly contained a nerve agent or other banned chemicals, according to witnesses, doctors and rescue workers. They said the toxic substance spread after warplanes dropped bombs in the early morning hours. Some rescue workers grew ill and collapsed from proximity to the d...