- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
France's Macron makes high-stakes visit to riot-struck New Caledonia
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday flew to France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia on a politically risky visit aiming to defuse a crisis after nine days of riots that have killed six people and injured hundreds.
Macron's sudden decision to fly to the southwest Pacific archipelago, some 17,000 kilometres (10,500 miles) from mainland France, is a sign of the gravity with which the government views the separatist strife.
New Caledonia, colonised in the second half of the 19th century, and other overseas territories spanning the globe are considered an integral part of France.
But there have long been tensions between the Paris government and pro-independence voices among New Caledonia's indigenous Kanak population.
France has also been concerned about foreign interference in the crisis -- accusing Azerbaijan of stirring trouble. New Caledonia's government said an internet provider for the territory had suffered an "unprecedented" cyberattack.
Macron is expected to spend aout 12 hours on the ground after upturning his programme for the rest of the week just ahead of June's European elections.
He last visited New Caledonia in on a trip boycotted by Kanak representatives in July 2023.
"It's double or quits. It's a bet," said a presidential advisor, asking not to be named, while an MP descried the trip as a "poker move".
Such was the last minute nature of the voyage, a schedule for Macron was being drawn up during the 24 hour flight, without knowing who would be willing to meet him.
"This is absolute improvisation," said a source close to Macron.
- 'Unprecedented cyberattack' -
The deadliest unrest in four decades was sparked by French plans to give voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous residents, which Kanaks say will dilute their votes.
French authorities sent more than 1,000 troops, police and other security reinforcements in a bid to quell the violence. But unrest has continued, though not on the scale of the early days.
A popular holiday destination, New Caledonia is now strewn with burned out vehicles, stores, businesses and schools.
Two primary schools and 300 cars in a dealership were torched in the territory's capital Noumea during the night, the mayor's office told AFP.
Police have arrested more than 280 "rioters" in the unrest gripping the French territory of 270,000, authorities said.
Kanak separatists, some masked and wielding homemade catapults, manned makeshift roadblocks including on the main route to the international airport, AFP correspondents said.
Armed locals, of French and other origins, have set up their own neighbourhood barricades.
"I don't know why our fate is being discussed by people who don't even live here," said 52-year-old Mike, a Kanak who gave only his first name, at an unofficial roadblock north of the capital Noumea.
The voice of local Kanaks "is not being listened to," he said.
New Caledonia's government said telecoms services had managed to stop an "unprecedented" mass email cyberattack on an internet provider for the territory.
"Millions of emails were sent simultaneously to an email address whose purpose was to saturate" the network and render it inoperative, government member Christopher Gyges told reporters.
- 'Terribly sad and dangerous' -
Trapped tourists have begun to flee.
Australia and New Zealand sent military planes to Noumea's small Magenta airport on Tuesday to repatriate about 100 people.
Many Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population, oppose the plan to extend voting rights to those who have lived in the territory for at least 10 years.
But anti-independence representatives want it pushed through.
One option open to Macron on his visit would be to delay the voting rights bill, which has been approved by the lower house but still needs to be ratified by a congress of both French houses of parliament.
"The situation is terribly sad and dangerous," former French prime minister Edouard Philippe said Tuesday. "France, which has a complicated relationship with its colonial history, has an opportunity to find an original solution."
bur-djw-as-sjw/tgb/tw
Y.Kobayashi--AMWN