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by Park Chan-Kyong SEOUL, South Korea | AFP | — Pressure mounted Saturday on beleaguered South Korean President Park Geun-Hye over a personal and political scandal, as prosecutors raided the homes of senior aides and thousands joined a protest in central Seoul demanding her resignation. With just over a year left to run, Park’s presidency has suddenly unravelled over shocking revelations of how she allowed a close personal friend, with no official position, to […]
(Reuters) — Japanese Youtube star and singer of the recent hit Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP), Pikotaro, performed and unveiled the track’s long version on Friday (October 28) in Tokyo. Pikotaro, whose real name is Kazuhiko Kosaka, is known for a quirky music video featuring him miming the joining of an imaginary apple and pineapple with an imaginary pen. The video uploaded in early September quickly went viral, racking up over 600 million views (as of October […]
by Sammy Ketz BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Russia Thursday denied any involvement in deadly air strikes on a Syrian school and rejected a UN-led investigation showing its ally Damascus had carried out chemical attacks, as Moscow’s relations with the West took another hit. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate probe into Wednesday’s attack on the school in rebel-held Idlib province that he said “may amount to a war crime”. The tensions mounted a day […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AFP) – by Masroor GILANI A Pakistan opposition party planning a major anti-government protest was raided by police Thursday as authorities banned all public gatherings in Islamabad for two months. Police raided a youth convention for opposition leader Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) party, charging activists with batons and arresting dozens of people. Khan, a former Pakistan cricket star, is due to lead the protest on November 2 to demand Prime Minister Nawaz […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — A US general told AFP on Thursday that between 800 and 900 Islamic State group fighters have been killed since the Iraqi-led operation to recapture Mosul from the jihadists began. “Just in the operations over the last week and a half associated with Mosul, we estimate they’ve probably killed about 800-900 Islamic State fighters,” General Joseph Votel, who heads the US military’s Central Command, said in an interview with AFP, speaking […]
(Reuters)- The 100-year-old uncle of Japanese Emperor Akihito, Prince Mikasa, died on Thursday, leaving only four heirs to the Chrysanthemum throne, the Imperial Household Agency said. Mikasa’s death coincides with renewed attention to the future of the aging and shrinking imperial family and whether women should be allowed to inherit the throne, breaking a males-only succession tradition that conservatives say is central to an imperial tradition stretching back 2,600 years. Mikasa was the youngest […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Air strikes that hit a school in rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria killed 22 children and six teachers, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Wednesday. “This is a tragedy. It is an outrage. And if deliberate, it is a war crime,” said UNICEF director Anthony Lake. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “warplanes — either Russia or Syrian — carried out six strikes” in the village of Hass, including on a […]
by Thomas WATKINS QAYYARAH, Iraq (AFP) — A top US Army general on Tuesday flew in to an airbase south of Mosul that will prove vital in Iraqi forces’ offensive on the Islamic State-held city. US Army General Joseph Votel, who heads the military’s Central Command, arrived at the base, which boasts a newly repaired runway, on a cargo plane to see the facility and receive an update on the battle for Mosul, now in […]
by Maaz Khan QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) — Heavily-armed Islamist militants wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police academy, killing at least 58 people and wounding dozens more, officials said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year. Three gunmen from a Pakistani Taliban-linked group burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters that are home to some 700 recruits, sending terrified young men fleeing. “I saw three men in camouflage whose faces were […]
by Maaz Khan QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) — At least 44 people were killed and more than a hundred wounded in an overnight raid by militants on a police academy in southwest Pakistan, officials said Tuesday, after declaring a military counter-operation was finished. The attack on the Balochistan Police College, located 20 kilometres east of provincial capital Quetta, began at around 11:10 pm (1810 GMT) Monday, with gunfire continuing to ring out from the site hours […]
Hundreds of thousands of black-clad mourners continued to flock to the Grand Palace on Monday (October 24) the last day of a long weekend, to pay their respects to Thailand’s late king. Many people who had lined up since dawn to get into the grand palace said they were determined to pay their last respects to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. “It’s all similar for all Thais, even though we were not close to him but we […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Monday called for constitutional reform that could allow future presidents to serve two terms — a sensitive issue for a country tainted by memories of long-term, autocratic rule. While its constitution grants enormous power to the executive, South Korea is one of the only economically advanced liberal democracies to restrict the presidency to a single five-year term, with no possibility of re-election. The limit […]
