Cambodge et Thaïlande continuent à se battre à leur frontière

La Thaïlande et le Cambodge continuent à se battre dimanche à leur frontière, le conflit entrant dans sa deuxième semaine après le démenti par Bangkok qu’un cessez-le-feu ait été conclu comme l’affirmait Donald Trump.Les hostilités qui ont éclaté le 7 décembre ont fait au moins 25 morts –14 soldats thaïlandais et 11 civils cambodgiens–, selon des sources officielles, et quelque 800.000 déplacés de part et d’autre de la frontière.”Cela fait six jours que je suis là et je suis triste que les combats continuent. Je m’inquiète pour ma maison et mon bétail”, a déclaré dimanche à l’AFP Sean Leap, 63 ans, dans un camp pour personnes évacuées dans la province cambodgienne frontalière de Banteay Meanchey. “Je veux que ça s’arrête”.Les deux pays s’accusent mutuellement d’avoir déclenché les hostilités et de s’en prendre aux civils. Vendredi, le président américain Donald Trump avait affirmé que leurs dirigeants avaient accepté une trêve après un coup de téléphone de sa part, mais le gouvernement thaïlandais a démenti et les combats se sont poursuivis samedi et dimanche.Selon le porte-parole du ministère thaïlandais de la Défense, Surasant Kongsiri, le Cambodge a bombardé plusieurs provinces frontalières samedi soir et dimanche. Son homologue cambodgienne Maly Socheata a pour sa part affirmé que les forces thaïlandaises continuaient à bombarder et à tirer au mortier dans les zones près de la frontière depuis dimanche minuit.- Migrants bloqués -Samedi, le Cambodge a fermé tous ses postes-frontière avec la Thaïlande, et des travailleurs migrants se sont retrouvés bloqués d’un côté ou de l’autre.Sous une tente de fortune dans un camp de déplacés à Banteay Meanchey, Cheav Sokun, 38 ans, a raconté à l’AFP qu’elle et son fils avaient quitté la Thaïlande en même temps que des dizaines de milliers d’autres immigrés cambodgiens quand les combats ont éclaté, mais que son mari, jardinier, était resté pour travailler auprès de son “bon patron thaïlandais”.”Il m’a demandé de rentrer la première. Après quoi, la frontière a été fermée et il ne peut plus revenir”, a-t-elle expliqué. “Je m’inquiète pour lui, et je lui dis de ne pas se promener… On a peur que s’ils savent qu’il est cambodgien, il se fasse attaquer”.De l’autre côté de la frontière, dans la province thaïlandaise de Surin, Watthanachai Kamngam a dit à l’AFP avoir vu les trainées de plusieurs fusées dans le ciel noir dimanche à l’aube et entendu des explosions au loin.Depuis une première vague d’affrontements en juillet dernier, ce professeur de musique de 38 ans s’emploie à peindre sur les murs des bunkers des scènes colorées de tanks, de drapeaux thaïlandais et de soldats portant des blessés.”Je vis les combats et je veux juste enregistrer ces moments, montrer que c’est vraiment notre réalité”, a-t-il déclaré à l’AFP.L’armée thaïlandaise a imposé un couvre-feu dans certaines parties des provinces de Sa Kaeo et Trat entre 19H00 et 05H00.La Thaïlande et le Cambodge se disputent la souveraineté de territoires où se trouvent des temples de l’Empire khmer le long de leur frontière longue d’environ 800 km, tracée au début du XXe siècle durant la période coloniale française.En juillet, un premier épisode de violences avait fait 43 morts en cinq jours et poussé quelque 300.000 personnes à évacuer, avant un cessez-le-feu sous l’égide des Etats-Unis, de la Chine et de la Malaisie.Les deux pays avaient conclu le 26 octobre un accord de cessez-le-feu sous l’égide de Donald Trump. Mais Bangkok l’a suspendu quelques semaines plus tard après l’explosion d’une mine ayant blessé plusieurs de ses soldats.

Gunman kills two, wounds nine at US university

A gunman killed two people and wounded nine others on Saturday at Brown University, plunging the eastern US campus into lockdown as hundreds of police hunted the suspect late into the night.The streets around the university in the state of Rhode Island were filled with emergency vehicles hours after the gunfire at a building where exams were taking place. The shooting is the latest in a long line of school attacks in the United States, where attempts to restrict access to firearms face political deadlock.Witness Katie Sun told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper she was studying in a nearby building when she heard gunfire. She ran to her dorm, leaving all her belongings behind.”It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from… where the classrooms are,” she said.Six hours after the shooting, the gunman was still at large, and some 400 police ranging from FBI agents to campus cops swarmed the quaint New England campus. “I can confirm that there are two individuals who have died this afternoon, and there are another eight in critical status, though stable,” Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference. A ninth person who “received fragments from the shooting” was later taken to the hospital, authorities said.Police released ten seconds of footage of the suspect walking briskly down a deserted street, seen from behind after opening fire inside a first-floor classroom.University officials stressed that the campus was still in lockdown as midnight approached.Ten of the 11 victims were students, Brown University President Christina Paxson said in a late night briefing.”My heart breaks for the students who were looking forward to a holiday break and instead are dealing with another horrifying mass shooting,” Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse posted on X.  – Exams -The shooting took place at the Barus and Holley building, home to the engineering and physics departments, on the campus of the Ivy League university.  Two exams had been scheduled to take place in the building at the time of the shooting, the university said.Law enforcement described the suspect as a man dressed all in black.”We’re utilizing every resource possible to find this suspect. The shelter in place is still in order and I urge people to take that very seriously. Please do not come to the area,” Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said.The gunman was last seen leaving the building, and no weapon had been recovered, authorities said.Brown sent an emergency alert at 4:22 pm (2122 GMT) reporting “an active shooter near Barus and Holley Engineering.””Lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice,” it said.Law enforcement and first responders swarmed the scene, with local news station WPRI reporting clothing and blood on the sidewalk.The FBI was providing “all capabilities necessary,” Director Kash Patel said on X.Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also responding.US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting.”What a terrible thing it is,” he said. “All we can do right now is pray for the victims.”Brown University in Providence, near Boston, has about 11,000 students.The deadliest school shooting in US history took place at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when South Korean student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.

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Irrespirable en hiver, Islamabad se met à contrôler les automobilistes

Au volant de son camion à Islamabad, Muhammad Afzal ne s’attendait pas à être contrôlé par la police, et encore moins à recevoir une amende à cause de l’épaisse fumée de son pot d’échappement.”C’est injuste”, se plaint-il, après avoir été prié de payer 1.000 roupies pakistanaises (3 euros), et menacé de voir son véhicule confisqué s’il ne trouvait pas de solution au problème.”Je venais de Lahore après avoir fait réparer mon véhicule. Ils ont appuyé sur l’accélérateur pour libérer de la fumée. C’est une injustice”, dit-il à l’AFP.Des postes de contrôle ont été mis en place par les autorités face à l’augmentation de la pollution atmosphérique ces dernières années à Islamabad. Les mois d’hiver sont particulièrement irrespirables, les polluants étant piégés à basse altitude en raison d’un phénomène météorologique appelé inversion.”Nous avons déjà averti les propriétaires (de véhicules) qu’il y aurait des mesures strictes et nous empêcherons leur entrée dans la ville s’ils ne respectent pas les règles”, promet le Dr Zaigham Abbas de l’Agence de protection environnementale du Pakistan (EPA), posté à un des points de contrôle dans le sud-est de la capitale.”Tout comme un être humain, un véhicule compte un cycle de vie. Ceux qui le dépassent émettent de la fumée qui est dangereuse pour la santé humaine”, décrit Waleed Ahmed, un technicien inspectant les véhicules.- “Crise” -Islamabad ne présente pas des niveaux de pollution de l’air aussi extrêmes que Lahore (est) ou la grande ville du sud, Karachi, où industrie lourde et briqueteries rejettent des tonnes de polluants chaque année. Mais la capitale pakistanaise les rattrape progressivement.Pour l’heure, en décembre, Islamabad a déjà connu sept journées avec des niveaux “très mauvais pour la santé” de particules fines PM2,5, selon IQAir, une entreprise suisse spécialisée dans le suivi de la qualité de l’air.Construite ex nihilo dans les années 1960, la ville a été érigée en modèle urbanistique dans un Pakistan en pleine croissance, avec de larges avenues et de vastes espaces verts au pied de l’Himalaya.Mais les distances découragent la marche, tandis que les transports en commun restent limités. Les voitures, essentiellement des modèles anciens, sont ainsi essentielles pour se déplacer.”La région de la capitale est complètement étouffée par son secteur des transports” qui produit 53% des PM2,5 qui y polluent son air, indique dans son dernier rapport l’Initiative pour la qualité de l’air au Pakistan, un groupe de recherche.”La brume qui recouvre Islamabad (…) n’est pas faite de la fumée de l’industrie, mais des gaz d’échappement d’un million de trajets”, c’est “une crise que l’on s’inflige à soi-même”, ajoute-t-il.Les niveaux intrajournaliers de PM2,5 à Islamabad dépassent souvent ceux de Karachi et Lahore. En 2024, la moyenne dans la capitale se situait à 52,3 microgrammes, contre 46,2 pour Lahore. Des chiffres annuels bien supérieurs au seuil maximal recommandé par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, à 5 microgrammes.- “Droit fondamental” -Après avoir annoncé des mesures contre la pollution le 7 décembre, la cheffe de l’Agence de protection environnementale du Pakistan, Nazia Zaib Ali, a déclaré que plus de 300 amendes avaient été infligées aux postes de contrôle en une semaine, et que 80 véhicules avaient été confisqués.”Nous ne pouvons en aucun cas permettre à des véhicules non conformes de polluer l’air de la ville et mettre en danger la santé publique”, a-t-elle écrit dans un communiqué.La ville a aussi commencé à installer des zones dans lesquelles les automobilistes peuvent s’arrêter pour faire inspecter leurs émissions. En cas de validation, ils reçoivent un autocollant vert à apposer sur le pare-brise.”Nous étions inquiets pour Lahore, mais maintenant il s’agit d’Islamabad. Et tout ça à cause des véhicules qui dégagent de la pollution”, dit Iftikhar Sarwar, 51 ans, après avoir fait contrôler sa voiture sur une route très fréquentée près d’un parc de la capitale.D’autres habitants s’inquiètent, se demandant si les mesures du gouvernement iront assez loin pour lutter contre le smog hivernal qui s’aggrave.”Ce n’est pas l’Islamabad que j’ai connu il y a 20 ans”, regrette Sulaman Ijaz, un anthropologue. “Je me sens mal en pensant à ce que je devrais répondre si ma fille demande à respirer un air pur. C’est son droit fondamental.”

Islamabad puts drivers on notice as smog crisis worsens

Truck driver Muhammad Afzal was not expecting to be stopped by police, let alone fined, as he drove into Islamabad this week because of the thick diesel fumes emanating from his exhaust pipe.”This is unfair,” he said after being told to pay 1,000 rupees ($3.60), with the threat of having his truck impounded if he did not “fix” the problem.”I was coming from Lahore after getting my vehicle repaired. They pressed the accelerator to make it release smoke. It’s an injustice,” he told AFP.Checkpoints set up this month are part of a crackdown by authorities to combat the city’s soaring smog levels, with winter months the worst due to atmospheric inversions that trap pollutants at ground level.”We have already warned the owners of stern action, and we will stop their entry into the city if they don’t comply with the orders,” said Dr Zaigham Abbas of Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as he surveyed the checkpoint at the southeast edge of the capital.For Waleed Ahmed, a technician inspecting the vehicles at the site, “just like a human being, a vehicle has a life cycle. Those that cross it release smoke that is dangerous to human health”.- ‘Self-inflicted crisis’ -While not yet at the extreme winter levels of Lahore or the megacity Karachi, where heavy industry and brick kilns spew tons of pollutants each year, Islamabad is steadily closing the gap.So far in December it has already registered seven “very unhealthy” days for PM2.5 particulates of more than 150 microgrammes per cubic meter, according to the Swiss-based monitoring firm IQAir.Intraday PM2.5 levels in Islamabad often exceed those in Karachi and Lahore, and in 2024 the city’s average PM2.5 reading for the year was 52.3 microgrammes — surpassing the 46.2 for Lahore.Those annual readings are far beyond the safe level of five microgrammes recommended by the World Health Organization.Built from scratch as Pakistan’s capital in the 1960s, the city was envisioned as an urban model for the rapidly growing nation, with wide avenues and ample green spaces abutting the Himalayan foothills.But the expansive layout discourages walking and public transport remains limited, meaning cars — mostly older models — are essential for residents to get around.”The capital region is choked overwhelmingly by its transport sector,” which produces 53 percent of its toxic PM2.5 particles, the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, a research group, said in a recent report.”The haze over Islamabad… is not the smoke of industry, but the exhaust of a million private journeys — a self-inflicted crisis,” it said.- ‘Her basic right’ -Announcing the crackdown on December 7, EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali said over 300 fines were issued at checkpoints in the first week, with 80 vehicles impounded.”We cannot allow non-compliant vehicles at any cost to poison the city’s air and endanger public health,” she said in a statement.The city has also begun setting up stations where drivers can have their emissions inspected, with those passing receiving a green sticker on their windshield.”We were worried for Lahore, but now it’s Islamabad. And that’s all because of vehicles emitting pollution,” said Iftikhar Sarwar, 51, as he had his car checked on a busy road near an Islamabad park.”I never needed medicine before but now I get allergies if I don’t take a tablet in the morning. The same is happening with my family,” he added.Other residents say they worry the government’s measures will not be enough to counter the worsening winter smog. “This is not the Islamabad I came to 20 years ago,” said Sulaman Ijaz, an anthropologist.”I feel uneasy when I think about what I will say if my daughter asks for clean air — that is her basic right.”

Tokyo-bound United plane returns to Washington after engine fails

A United Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Tokyo had to turn back to Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Saturday after an engine failed during takeoff, igniting a brush fire near the runway, officials said.No injuries were reported among the 275 passengers and 15 crew members aboard the wide-bodied jet, which had to make an emergency landing.”Shortly after takeoff, United Flight 803 returned to Washington Dulles and landed safely to address a power loss issue with one of its engines,” the airline said.The engine failed as the 777-200ER departed for Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at around 12:20 pm (1720 GMT) Saturday, sources told AFP. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that a piece of the engine cover “separated and caught fire, sparking a brush fire on the ground.””The fire was extinguished and the flight returned to Dulles, landing safely at about 1:30 pm, when it was checked by airport fire responders,” an airport spokesperson said.According to the official, the affected runway had to be closed for a short time, “but Dulles has multiple runways and other flight operations were not impacted.”The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would investigate the incident.Aircraft manufacturer Boeing referred questions to United Airlines. According to specialist site AirLive, the plane dumped its fuel over the city of Fredericksburg in Virginia, “a critical safety procedure used to reduce the plane’s weight to a safe level before attempting an emergency landing.”According to registration information provided by the site, the 777 in Saturday’s incident was delivered in November 1998 to Continental Airlines, which was later absorbed in a corporate takeover by United Airlines. The plane is equipped with two General Electric engines — now known as GE Aerospace.United Flight 803 took off in a different plane later Saturday, six-and-a-half hours after its original departure time, bound for Haneda.

Deja vu? Trump accused of economic denial and physical decline

An aging president faces poor poll numbers and suspicions about his health but insists that America is thriving. Joe Biden? No, it’s Donald Trump.The Republican, back in power for nearly a year, continues to compare himself to his predecessor.Biden would be senile, while Trump brims with energy; the Democrat would have driven the country into bankruptcy, but the Republican presides over an economic “golden age” – so Trump says.At a Pennsylvania rally on Tuesday, Trump uttered his rival’s name more than 20 times and even called him a “sleepy son of a bitch.” Yet for the past few weeks, a strong sense of deja vu has colored the billionaire’s presidency. Some of his statements, in the unabashed style that is his hallmark, echo remarks made by Biden. “America has the best economy in the world,” the Democratic president declared in April 2024, a statement running counter to voters’ perceptions.The US economy deserves “A+++++”, Trump declared in an interview with Politico published on Tuesday.He repeated that prices are falling, even though Americans still complain about the high cost of living. “There will always be a portion of his supporters that are going to be with him regardless. If he says the sky is not blue, then they will agree that the sky is not blue,” said Alex Keena, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. But “that’s not the majority of the American public,” the researcher told AFP. “At the end of the day, people will go out and they will buy things and their experiences are undeniable.”- 31 percent -According to a poll by the University of Chicago for the Associated Press, published Thursday, only 31 percent of Americans are satisfied with Trump’s economic policy.”When will people understand what is happening? When will Polls reflect the Greatness of America at this point in time, and how bad it was just one year ago?” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. While campaigning, Trump accused Biden of ignoring the struggles of low-income households. Like his predecessor, Trump today is trying to steer some of consumers’ discontent toward big corporations suspected of inflating prices.Like Biden, he is also struggling to generate enthusiasm for his plans to bolster purchasing power. And like the former president, Trump is dogged by questions about his health, though not as intensely as concerns about his rival’s decline — which Trump himself has fueled.- Blue on the hand – By portraying Biden as an old man unfit to govern, Trump is “tapping into a very real frustration” over the aging of America’s political class, Keena noted. But this strategy could backfire on Trump, the oldest president ever elected in the United States.The 79-year-old is now the one whose every public appearance is scrutinized, and who is being attacked on social media. On Thursday, for example, a fake photo showing him with a walker circulated. Was that Trump nodding off during this cabinet meeting, or was he resting his eyes for a moment? And was that bandaged bruise on the back of his hand really the result of countless handshakes, as the White House keeps saying?Biden’s team had furiously denied allegations of declining health, but also increasingly shielded the octogenarian president from public view and journalists’ questions.Trump, for his part, remains much more accessible than his predecessor ever was and frequently engages in lengthy impromptu exchanges with the press. But beware, anyone who dares — as the New York Times recently did — to investigate his work pace and vitality.”I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,'” he wrote on Truth Social.