Asia

Four held after failed heist in swanky Tokyo district

TOKYO, May 8, 2023 (AFP) – Four people were detained in Tokyo on Monday after they smashed their way into a luxury watch shop and stole items worth over $740,000, local media said. The robbery in the upscale Ginza district was an unusual attempted heist in a country with famously low levels of crime. Three people entered the shop with their faces covered and armed with crowbars which they used to destroy glass cases and […]

Two dead after MiG jet crashes in India: police

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Two people on the ground died after a Russian-made MiG-21 military aircraft crashed onto a house in India on Monday, police said. “Pilot has been rescued safely. The MiG crashed on a house. Two people have died. Three people have been injured,” police officer Sudhir Chaudhary told AFP after the crash in the western state of Rajasthan. The Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the crash and that the pilot ejected. […]

At least 22 dead after India boat capsizes

MALAPPURAM, India (AFP) — At least 22 people died when a double-decker tourist boat capsized in India’s southern state of Kerala, officials said Monday. The incident happened late Sunday in Tanur, a coastal town in Kerala’s Malappuram district. Rescue operations were ongoing. Dozens of people searched for survivors in and around the stricken vessel during the night, which was partially submerged. Some used ropes to stabilize the vessel while others were in the water, looking […]

Tokyo and Seoul try to bury historical hatchet, hailing ‘new future’ for ties

SEOUL, May 7, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday his “heart aches” for Koreans who suffered under colonialism, as Seoul and Tokyo seek a rapid reset of long-strained ties in the face of North Korean threats. Kishida was in Seoul on the first official bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to South Korea in over a decade. He met President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has made improving testy relations with Japan […]

Aftershocks shake Japan after quake kills one, destroys homes

TOKYO (AFP) – Aftershocks shook Japan a day after a powerful earthquake left at least one person dead, with officials assessing damage Saturday from the jolt that destroyed several buildings. The 6.5 magnitude quake hit the central Ishikawa region mid-afternoon on Friday at a depth of 12 kilometres (seven miles), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. More than 50 aftershocks, some of them strong, had occurred by Saturday morning, the agency said, as it warned […]

Vietnam posts record high temperature: officials

HANOI, May 7, 2023 (AFP) – Vietnam reported a record high temperature late Saturday with a north-central weather station measuring 44.1 degrees Celsius (111.38 degrees Fahrenheit), officials said, breaking a previous high set in 2019. South Asia has been sweltering under a heatwave for much of April, with neighbouring countries also registering record temperatures. Vietnam’s weather varies from north to south, but the entire country is now entering its hottest summer months. The record temperature […]

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake shakes central Japan

TOKYO, May 5, 2023 (AFP) – A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck central Japan on Friday, forcing the suspension of bullet train services, but no tsunami warning was issued, authorities said. The quake hit the central Ishikawa region at 2:42 pm (0542 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended between Nagano and Kanazawa, a popular tourist destination, according to Japan Railway. There were […]

Five teachers among seven killed in Pakistan school shooting: police

  PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 4, 2023 (AFP) – Five teachers and two labourers were gunned down Thursday at a school in northwest Pakistan, in an attack linked to Sunni-Shiite sectarian tensions, police and government officials said. “When the two attackers went inside (the school), they identified Shiite people and separated them before opening fire,” Muhammad Imran, police chief for Kurram district in Pakistan’s former tribal areas, told AFP. The attack came after a man from […]

China’s elders savor twilight years as the young toil

  By Peter CATTERALL Agence France-Presse RUDONG, China (AFP) — At the end of a back alley surrounded by dilapidated buildings, the pitter-patter of ping-pong balls echoes around a cavernous warehouse in a Chinese town north of Shanghai. The members of this table tennis club in Rudong, a sleepy seaside county with one of the highest proportions of elderly residents in China, gather to exercise and catch up. Rudong once played a pioneering role in […]

India’s growing population a burden for struggling mothers

By Bhuvan BAGGA Agence France-Presse DARBHANGA, India (AFP) — Married off by her parents at 14, Indian mother-of-seven Jaimala Devi kept having children because her husband insisted she could only stop once she had given birth to two sons. Devi’s story is common across Bihar, the poorest state in the world’s most populous country and also its fastest-growing: with around 127 million people, it already has roughly as many people as Mexico. India’s overall birthrate […]

Thai PM front-runner hails new baby as ‘secret power’

By Thanaporn PROMYAMYAI Agence France-Presse BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — One of the front-runners in Thailand’s general election hailed her newborn son as her “secret power” Wednesday as she presented the baby to the media after giving birth just two weeks before polling day. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, vowed to get back on the campaign trail for the May 14 vote after giving birth on Monday. The 36-year-old has been first or […]

Dead rivers, flaming lakes: India’s sewage failure

  By Simon STURDEE Agence France-Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Mohammed Azhar holds his baby niece next to a storm drain full of plastic and stinking black sludge, testament to India’s failure to treat nearly two-thirds of its urban sewage. “We stay inside our homes. We fall sick if we go out,” the 21-year-old told AFP in the Delhi neighborhood of Seelampur, where open gutters packed with plastic and sickly greyish water flow alongside […]