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BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — An 11-year-old child bride returned to Thailand this week following widespread outcry over her marriage to a Malaysian man 30 years her senior, an official told AFP on Saturday. Malaysian Muslims below the age of 16 are allowed to wed with the permission of religious courts but news of the union between the girl and the 41-year-old trader went viral on social media, reigniting calls to end child marriage. The ceremony […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Flash floods have claimed at least 27 lives in the southern Indian state of Kerala, officials said Friday, prompting the US to advise its citizens to stay away from the tourist hotspot. The coastal state, famed for its pristine palm-lined beaches and tea plantations, is battered by the annual monsoon every year but the rains have been particularly severe this season. Nationwide, more than 700 people have been killed in […]
by Zakeria Hashimi Agence France Presse GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) — US forces launched airstrikes Friday to counter a major Taliban assault on an Afghan provincial capital, where terrified residents cowered in their homes amid explosions and gunfire as security forces try to beat the insurgents back. Officials said Afghan special forces were also being deployed to the southeastern city of Ghazni after the latest attempt by the Taliban to capture an urban center, with the […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Three South Korean firms were caught importing coal and iron from the North last year, Seoul’s customs office said Friday, in an apparent violation of UN sanctions imposed in August 2017 on the nuclear-armed state. More than 35,000 tonnes of North Korean coal and iron were imported into the South via Russia between April and October last year, the Korea Customs Service said, warning that “any ships that are believed to […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — North Korea will preserve its nuclear know-how despite its promise of denuclearization to the United States, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said during a visit to Tehran, Iranian media reported on Thursday. Despite the agreement to denuclearize the Korean peninsula struck during a landmark summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald Trump, “we preserve our nuclear science as we know that the Americans will not abandon their […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — US chipmaking giant Qualcomm on Friday agreed a sharply reduced fine with Taiwan after officials said it had harmed market competition and manipulated prices, as it faces a number of probes worldwide. Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission last year fined the firm Tw$23.4 billion ($763 million) saying the world’s biggest handset chip supplier had violated fair trade rules for at least seven years. The authorities found that Qualcomm had refused to offer […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan Friday launched an unprecedented probe into gender discrimination at all the nation’s medical universities after a Tokyo medical school admitted altering the entrance test results of female applicants to exclude them. The education ministry has asked all 81 private and public medical schools to check their admission procedures for possible discrimination against female applicants. Authorities said they would also check the gender ratio of successful applicants for the past six […]
by Carole Landry Agence France Presse Russia and China on Thursday blocked a US request to add a Russian bank to a UN sanctions blacklist along with a North Korean official and two entities, diplomats said. The United States last week asked a UN sanctions committee to slap an assets freeze on Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank for allegedly helping North Korea evade UN-imposed restrictions on financial transactions. The request also targeted Ri Jong Won, the deputy […]
by Kiki Siregar Agence France Presse MATARAM, Indonesia (AFP) — The death toll from a devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok jumped to 319 Thursday, as strong aftershocks triggered panic among traumatized survivors waiting for aid in the worst-hit regions. The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake Sunday levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok, with relief agencies only just starting to reach survivors in some of the worst-hit areas four […]
MATARAM, Indonesia (AFP) — A strong aftershock struck Indonesia’s Lombok on Thursday, causing panic among evacuees sheltering after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier. The 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday struck at a shallow depth in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said, even as relief agencies raced to find survivors among wreckage from Sunday’s quake. “The quake was felt strongly. There have been 355 aftershocks […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A group of BMW owners in South Korea filed a criminal complaint against the German automaker Thursday over alleged delays in recalling more than 100,000 cars after a spate of engine fires, their lawyer said. The timing of the recall, which was issued last month, is already the subject of a government probe, after more than 30 BMW cars — mostly the 520d sedan model — caught fire this year […]
by Kiki Siregar Agence France-Presse MATARAM (West Nusa Tenggara), Indonesia (AFP) — The devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok was “exceptionally destructive” and wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions, relief agencies warned as the death toll jumped to more than 160 on Thursday. Relief efforts have yet to reach parts of the island four days after the quake hit, Indonesian authorities said, as hopes fade of finding further survivors among the […]
