News in Brief-(2023-09-26)

Nine killed in Taiwan golf ball factory fire

TAIPEI, Sept 25: At least nine people were killed in a fire at a golf ball factory in southern Taiwan over the weekend, including four firefighters who died in an explosion, officials said Monday. The fire, which began Friday evening and raged all night, also injured more than 100 people, mostly workers in the factory in Pingtung county, according to the local government. President Tsai Ing-wen and other top officials visited the scene Saturday to express condolences to the victims' families and vowed to investigate the cause of the fire. — AFP

Cuban embassy in US attacked with Molotov cocktails

HAVANA, Sept 25: Cuba's embassy in Washington was attacked by a man using two Molotov cocktails on Sunday night, the country's foreign minister said, describing the incident as a "terrorist attack". "The Cuban embassy in the US was the target of a terrorist attack by an individual who launched 2 Molotov cocktails. The staff suffered no harm," said Bruno Rodriguez in a post on social media platform X. — AFP

France withdrawing ambassador, troops from Niger

PARIS, Sept 25: President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced that France would withdraw its ambassador from Niger, followed by the French military contingent in the coming months, a move welcomed by Niger's military leaders as a "step towards sovereignty". Macron's announcement comes two months after a coup in the west African country that ousted the pro-Paris president. "France has decided to withdraw its ambassador. In the next hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France," Macron told French television in an interview, without giving details over how this would be organised. — AFP