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Panama City (AFP) – Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martinez Acha welcomes Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia at the Presidential palace in Panama City. Gonzalez Urrutia is due to hold a meeting with Panama President Jose Raul Mulino. Venezuela is on tenterhooks as it braces for pro- and anti-government protests — the eve of President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term rejected by the opposition and much of the international community as illegitimate. Exiled Gonzalez Urrutia is on an international tour to drum up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step aside. IMAGES

Pacific Palisades (United States) (AFP) – A ferocious wildfire in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades burned buildings and sparked evacuations Tuesday, as hurricane-force winds tore through the region.

Caluire-et-Cuire (AFP) – To mark the tenth anniversary of the January 2015 attacks in France, cartoonist Lacombe talks to AFP about the “shock” of the deadly attack by Islamist gunmen on the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Twelve people died in the attacks, including eight editorial staff, while a separate but linked hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris by a third gunman on January 9, 2015, claimed another four lives.

Yarmuk (AFP) – Residents of Syria’s Yarmuk, located on the outskirts of Damascus, return home after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Yarmuk camp, established in the 1950s to house Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land after Israel’s creation, had become a key residential and commercial district over the decades. As Syria sank into civil war in 2011, around 140,000 residents fled the following year, and few have found their homes still standing in the eerie wasteland that used to be Yarmuk.

Pueblo Garzón (AFP) – A town in sleepy rural Uruguay may not be the most obvious location for an international art festival, but Pueblo Garzon has big ambitions to join the world’s cultural hotspots. More than 20 artists from countries including Brazil, Singapore, South Korea and the United States took part in the three-day CAMPO Artfest in late December. The 8th edition of the event, created by American photographer Heidi Lender, drew around 6,000 visitors to the town with fewer than 200 residents.

Jerusalem (AFP) – “We see a lot of airflights coming in to Damascus, and a lot of meetings with high officials,” says Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal during a press conference in Jerusalem as he warns the international community about Syria’s new authorities and their change in appearance that “disguise the real essence of this group.”

Washington (AFP) – A major winter storm covers Washington, DC, in snow. Residents of the US capital take part in a giant snowball fight and remove snow from sidewalks and cars. The storm blanketed a large swath of the central and eastern United States in snow and ice — disrupting travel for millions and contributing to at least five deaths — before heading offshore.

Kathmandu (AFP) – A devastating earthquake in China’s remote Tibet region killed at least 95 people and collapsed “many buildings”, state media reported, with tremors also felt in neighbouring Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and parts of India. The powerful quake struck Tingri county with a magnitude of 6.8 near the border with Nepal at 9:05 am, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The US Geological Survey reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.

Ankara (AFP) – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that it was “only a matter of time” before Syrian Kurdish fighters — seen by the West as essential in the fight against Islamic State jihadists — will be wiped out. Turkey sees the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — the main component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — as a terror group linked to its outlawed domestic foe the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Beverly Hills (AFP) – English actor Daniel Craig and actress Kate Winslet walk the red carpet with other celebrities ahead of the 82nd Golden Globes ceremony in California’s Beverly Hills.

Jakarta (AFP) – Indonesia has launched an ambitious $4.3 billion free-meal programme to combat stunted growth due to malnutrition, a key election promise of President Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo has pledged to provide nutritious meals free to tens of millions of schoolchildren and pregnant women, saying it would improve their quality of life and boost economic growth. 

Las Vegas (AFP) – Holograms for video calls, labrador robots that respond to petting and voice commands, and a spoon that enhances taste. These are just some of the developments on show at ‘CES Unveiled’, an event where start-ups present their innovations ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, offering a glimpse into an AI-centric world.