#security fears

TOKYO | Asian shares down after Wall Street holiday, trade worries

TOKYO — Asian stock prices fell Thursday amid growing uncertainty about the global economy, President Donald Trump’s tariff policies on China and a holiday on Wall Street. Markets in New York were closed overnight for the national day of mourning for former President George H. W. Bush.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.8 percent to 21,525.48. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.6…

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/caracas-venezuela-venezuelas-maduro-may-skip-un-meeting-over-security-fears/172070/

CARACAS, Venezuela | Venezuela's Maduro may skip UN meeting over security fears

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday he may have to suspend a planned trip to the United Nations next week because of concerns his opponents would try to kill him if he travels abroad.

Maduro said he had hoped to attend to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, which he hasn’t since 2015, to combat what he called a hate campaign directed against his socialist government from the U.S.

But he said opponents backed by the U.S. continue to look for ways to remove him and that security concerns would be paramount in his decision.

“I’m still evaluating whether to go to the U.N. General Assembly because you know they’re looking to kill me,” Maduro said.

While Maduro didn’t provide evidence of any assassination plots afoot he pointed to last month’s attack by two explosives-laden drones as he was delivering a speech to troops as evidence that plots against his life are ongoing.

“It’s a permanent conspiracy,” he said.

As Venezuela’s economy has fallen deeper into crisis, calls for Maduro’s removal from opposition groups, one-time aides and foreign leaders have grown louder. Last week, the head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, in a visit to Colombia joined U.S. President Donald Trump in warning that a military intervention to remove Maduro shouldn’t be ruled out.

But Maduro insisted that his military was unwaveringly loyal and helped detect two coup plots, one of them set to coincide with presidential elections last May. But he named and showed pictures of three retired officers authorities are seeking to arrest for allegedly conspiring from bases in Colombia, Miami and the Dominican Republic.

New Post has been published on http://www.therakyatpost.com/world/2014/11/21/media-take-photos-hollande-actress-palace/

How did media take photos of Hollande, actress in palace?

PARIS, Nov 21, 2014:

Their relationship has been the subject of endless rumours in Parisian society but photos published on Friday of French President Francois Hollande and actress Julie Gayet have triggered a new mystery of how they were taken.

The photos in the celebrity-focused magazine Voici are the first to be published of the couple together since news of their secret liaison broke earlier this year.

Voici editor-in-chief Marion Alombert said the pictures of Hollande and Gayet inside the walled and guarded Elysee presidential residence in the centre of Paris were taken in October.

They are seen sitting on the terrace of one of the palace suites, and appear to have been taken with a very long zoom lens.

Voici described the photos as a “tender moment of complicity as they experience often behind the walls of the Elysee,” where Gayet spends “several nights a week”.

Hollande and Gayet’s relationship was broken by a rival French magazine, Closer, in January.

It triggered a very public break-up between Hollande and his long-term partner Valerie Trierweiler, who retaliated with a tell-all book that savaged the president’s personal and political reputation.

The latest snaps have raised questions about security measures at the palace.

Alombert confirmed that Hollande is “someone who sometimes has holes in his security”.

She told French TV station BFM that the three published photos of the couple were “not taken from inside” the palace “nor by a drone”.

“They were taken from above but not at all by a drone — we absolutely don’t use this kind of method,” she said, also dismissing the use of a helicopter.

She did not, however, reveal how the pictures were taken.

The Elysee refused to comment on the latest photos when contacted by AFP.

Trierweiler’s book, Merci pour ce moment (Thank you for this moment), published in early September, portrayed Hollande as a champagne socialist who actually “despises the poor”.

An English-language translation of the book is to be released next week.

Although some critics have perceived a rather unhinged tone to the book, its assertions has done little to improve the image of Hollande, already the least popular president in French history for his failure to revive the country’s flatlining economy.

Trierweiler, who has refused to speak publicly on the subject in France, is heading to Britain for a promotional tour and a series of interviews.

She will no doubt face questions about the latest photos, whose provenance looks set to remain a mystery.