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PARIS (AP) — France has long served as Africa's policeman, sending troops in regularly — and often meddling behind the scenes — to keep the peace and secure its interests on a continent where it was once a major colonial power. In more recent years, as it comes to terms with that colonial past, France has tried to forge a different, more equal relationship, focusing on trade.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean's is now easing at a slower pace, the UN's regional economic body said on Thursday, calling on governments to make policy changes that encourage growth while reducing the huge gap between the rich and poor.

But it was tense and largely empty on Thursday evening, a vehicle mounted with a machine gun sealing off its arched entrance after more than 20 people were killed nearby in one of Yemen's worst attacks for 18 months. A car bomber and gunmen dressed as Yemeni soldiers had assaulted a Defence Ministry compound near Bab al-Yemen, battling security forces and executing foreign medical staff, according to medical sources in the compound. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but analysts say it carries the hallmark of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which in July 2012 killed more than 90 people at a rehearsal for a military parade in Sanaa. "I have never seen anything like this in the Old City," said Ibrahim, who lives in the Bab Rajraj quarter, which opens out on to the large square next to Bab al Yemen.