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BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said it was on high alert to statements from countries “playing up” tension in the South China Sea after Britain said it planned to send a warship to the disputed waterway next year to conduct freedom of navigation exercises. Britain would increase its presence in the waters after it sent four British fighter planes for joint exercises with Japan in the region last year, Defense Minister Michael Fallon said on […]
by Khurram Shahzad Agence France Presse ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from public office over long-running corruption allegations, a decision that ousts him from the premiership for the third time in a chequered political career. “He is disqualified as a member of the parliament so he has ceased to be holding the office of Prime Minister,” Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan told the packed courtroom in Islamabad. […]
by Miwa Suzuki Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s hawkish defense minister on Friday said she had resigned over a long-brewing scandal involving the handling of military documents, in a political blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe, who has seen his popularity plummet in recent weeks over a series of controversies, immediately apologized to the nation over the saga. “I decided to resign as defense minister,” Tomomi Inada told a press conference. […]
by Sebastien Berger Agence France Presse PYONGYANG, North Korea (AFP) — In heavy rain, North Koreans put down their umbrellas to bow before the mausoleum of founder Kim Il Sung and his son on Thursday as the country marked the end of the Korean War, which it calls Victory Day. There had been widespread speculation in United States and South Korean intelligence circles that the North might choose to mark the anniversary with a fresh […]
YULIN, China (CCTV) — Rescue operations are still underway across rainstorm-hit Suide County near Yulin City of Shaanxi province, northwest China, on Thursday. More than 400 people have been relocated to three shelters, while other residents have asked for help from their relatives. While power is still down at the three shelters and rain is still expected throughout Thursday, traffic has begun to return to roads. Light rain started to fall on Tuesday evening and […]
AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) — Seventeen members of the same Indian family were found dead Wednesday as floodwaters receded from a village in Gujarat, officials said, and the death toll from the state-wide disaster climbed above 110. “They seem to have drowned in the floodwaters. The bodies were found buried in muck,” A B Parmar, a police inspector at the scene, told AFP. A senior Gujarati government official, Pankaj Kumar, confirmed the discovery of the bodies in Banaskantha district. […]
MEULABOH, Indonesia (AFP) — Young children lie in hospital in Aceh province, Indonesia, as thick smoke caused by forest fires forces dozens of people to be treated for lung infections. Some schoolchildren were still able to go to school in Meulaboh Wednesday wearing masks but several schools suspended classes so students could stay at home. In the past week, about 35 hotspots — concentrations of fires — have destroyed 70 hectares (0.27 square miles) of forests and other […]
SHANXI PROVINCE, China (Reuters) — In a country where anything from chopsticks to slippers can be designed to look like pandas, one Chinese energy company is going a step further by building 100 solar farms shaped like the bears along the route of the ambitious Belt and Road initiative. Panda Green Energy Group has already connected one such 50-megawatt (MW) plant to the grid in the northern province of Shanxi, the first step in a […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Rescuers were frantically searching for up to 40 people feared trapped in a four-storey building that collapsed Tuesday in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, officials said. The city’s chief fire officer, Prabhat Rahangdale, said nine people had been rescued but dozens more were believed missing under rubble after the structure gave way mid-morning in the northern suburb of Ghatkopar. “Entire ground and four floored residential building collapsed. About 30 to 40 […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — At least eight people including a toddler died and two German tourists were among those rescued after a speedboat capsized off the coast of Borneo Tuesday. Witnesses described passengers jumping into the water without life vests as the boat — carrying 51 people — capsized outside a busy Indonesian port, while others on board are feared to be trapped inside the boat, rescue officials said. “The boat had only been sailing for about 10 […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia has deployed military police to monitor two safe zones being established in Syria, it was announced on Monday, with officials touting it as a new era of United States cooperation. Senior commander Sergei Rudskoi said Russian forces had set up checkpoints and observation posts around a zone in the south-west and in another covering Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus. The two areas are part of a broader Moscow-backed plan to create […]
KABUL ,Afghanistan (AFP) — At least 24 people have been killed and 42 wounded after a car bomb struck a bus carrying government employees in western Kabul Monday, an official told AFP, the latest attack to strike the Afghan capital. “The car bomb hit a bus carrying employees of the ministry of mines during rush hour,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP. No militant group immediately claimed the blast, but it came as the […]
