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Vietnam's under-fire President Nguyen Xuan Phuc submits resignation

Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has submitted his resignation after the ruling Communist Party found him responsible for violations and wrongdoing of numerous officials under him, the country's official news agency said on Tuesday.

Phuc, 68, a former prime minister, has held the largely ceremonial position for less than two years. It was not immediately clear who would replace him.

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Far-right group militants go on trial for Macron assassination plot

A dozen people with links to a French far-right group go on trial Tuesday, accused of plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron and commit a string of other attacks.

Prosecutors say the 13 members of the group, Les Barjols, conspired to engineer a putsch, which involved a plan for an attack on Macron during a public appearance in 2018.

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Japan firm defends Van Gogh ownership after lawsuit

A Japanese company has defended its ownership of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", obtained at auction in 1987, after the family of its former owner filed a US lawsuit demanding its return.

The artwork -- one of five original versions of the famous still life -- was purchased by the predecessor of insurance firm Sompo Holdings at Christie's in London for $40 million, making it briefly the world's most expensive painting.

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Peru braces for new rally in Lima despite state of emergency

Lima was bracing for a new rally against President Dina Boluarte on Monday as thousands of demonstrators began mobilizing in Peru's capital following weeks of deadly unrest.

Protesters from all over the country began heading to Lima over the weekend in a bid to maintain the pressure on authorities.

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Davos founder says world suffering from 'deep societal fragmentation'

World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab speaks in the Global Collaboration Village session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos. Walter Duerst/World Economic Forum/dpa

One the greatest challenges facing humanity is the "deep societal fragmentation" tearing countries and peoples apart, said World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab on Tuesday.

"At the beginning of this year we are confronted with unprecedented and multiple challenges," Schwab warned in his opening address to the hundreds of business and government leaders assembled at the elite conclave he founded in Davos, Switzerland.

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Mexico bans smoking in public, one of world’s strictest anti-tobacco laws

Mexico now bans smoking in hotels, beaches, parks and all other public spaces — one of the world’s strictest laws of its kind. The General Law for Tobacco Control reform, which took effect on Sunday, also prohibits businesses from promoting, advertising or sponsoring tobacco products, including putting them on display for sale. The law expands a 2008 ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces. Similar restrictions will fall on e-cigarettes and vaping. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus applauded the policy. “Bravo Mexico!” he said on Twitter. “WHO wel...

Europe's royals to bid farewell to Greece's last king

The coffin of the former King of Greece, Constantine II, is carried in a procession to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens for the funeral service. Socrates Baltagiannis/dpa

Thousands of Greeks and almost all the royal houses of Europe and other members of the nobilty said farewell to Greece's deceased former king Constantine II in Athens on Monday.

Thousands of people gathered around the Orthodox cathedral in the centre of Athens to pay their last respects to the former king.

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Illness is what ultimately snared Italy's top Mafia fugitive

By Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) - Failing health, more than anything else, is what brought to an end 30 years of life as a fugitive for Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy's most wanted man until his arrest on Monday.

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UK's Boris Johnson bags lucrative deal for tell-all memoir

He's long been laboring to complete a promised biography of William Shakespeare, but now Boris Johnson is turning to a life story closer to home: his own.

Britain's former prime minister is set to write a memoir "like no other", according to Arabella Pike, publishing director at HarperCollins imprint William Collins, which has acquired the rights.

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Brooklyn trial set for Mexico’s former top cop charged with being on payroll of drug lord 'El Chapo'

NEW YORK — He was once Mexico’s top cop — and now a Brooklyn jury will decide if he was a lapdog for a drug lord's empire. Jury selection is slated to start this week in the federal trial of Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s former secretary of public security, who’s accused of taking briefcases of cash from the Sinaloa cartel while it was run by the notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Garcia Luna, 54, ran Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2006 and served as the country’s secretary of public security from 2006 to 2012, which put him in control of the federal police there...

Arrest of 'last godfather' deals new blow to ailing Sicilian mafia

By Angelo Amante ROME (Reuters) - The arrest of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro deals a powerful blow to the mythology of the Cosa Nostra, toppling a symbol of the group's resistance to police efforts to break up organised crime. Messina Denaro, 60, was Italy's most wanted mafia boss and had been on the run for three decades. He had been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. His arrest comes almost 30 years to the day after police caught Salvatore "Toto" Riina, Cosa Nostra's biggest figur...

Putin spokesman denies blame for deadly apartment bombings in Ukraine

People watch as rescuers search for survivors at an apartment block hit by Russian rockets during a massive missile attack on Dnipro. -/Ukrinform/dpa

The Kremlin has rejected blame for dozens of civilian deaths after missiles attacks destroyed an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

"Russia's armed forces are not attacking residential buildings or objects of civilian infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to the Russian state news agency.

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Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida dies at 95

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida has died at 95, ANSA news agency reported on Monday. Lollobrigida shot to fame in the 1950s as a sultry Mediterranean sex symbol and later became a photographer and sculptor after stepping away from the movie world. (writing by Cristina Carlevaro, editing by Keith Weir)