easing of interstate rules on concealed guns
AFP, Washington
US lawmakers voted Wednesday to allow gun owners to carry concealed firearms across state lines, a controversial bill that critics say is aimed at undermining national gun control efforts.
The move came two months after the worst mass shooting in modern US history, when a gunman who had taken a vast arsenal into a Las Vegas hotel fired down on concert-goers and killed 58.
Qatar buys French-made fighter jets
Reuters, Doha/Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron sealed multi-billion dollar military and transport contracts in Qatar on Thursday, including the sale of Rafale fighter jets and hundreds of armoured vehicles, amid mounting tensions in the Middle East. Macron is in Doha for talks with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on combatting the financing of terrorism at a time the Middle East is locked in a regional power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran.
Erdogan arrives in Athens for visit
AP, Athens
Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Athens Thursday for the first official visit to Greece by a Turkish president in decades, with Greece hoping the trip will help improve often frosty ties with its neighbor and NATO ally.
Erdogan was greeted by an honor guard at the airport and headed to central Athens, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other officials. On Friday, he travels to northeastern Greece to meet with members of the country’s Muslim minority.
9 killed as truck-van collide in India
Xinhua, New Delhi
At least nine people were killed and four others injured in a road accident in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, police said Thursday.
“The accident occurred when a van in which the victims were travelling collided with a stationary truck at Thuvarankurichi near Trichy district, more than 300 km from state capital Chennai,” a senior police official said.
