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BUAN, South Korea, Aug 5, 2023 (AFP) – American and British scouts pulled out of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea Saturday citing scorching temperatures, as organisers vowed the event would continue despite criticism of dire campsite conditions. About 43,000 people have joined the jamboree in North Jeolla province, but an extreme heatwave has seen hundreds of scouts fall ill, forcing Seoul to deploy military doctors, offer air-conditioned buses and vow an all-out effort […]
BEIJING, Aug 5, 2023 (AFP) – At least 10 people were killed in floods in a city near Beijing, officials said Saturday, bringing the death toll from recent torrential rains in northern China to at least 30. Officials reported the deaths in Baoding, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Beijing, adding that 18 people were missing. Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon that hit mainland China last Friday, has brought the most severe rains to […]
BANGKOK, Aug 5, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday he would delay by two weeks his return to the kingdom after 15 years of self-exile. The 74-year-old billionaire, who won two elections but was ousted in a 2006 military coup, has long said that he wished to return home — but faces multiple criminal charges that he says are politically motivated. On Saturday, Thaksin said that he would delay his […]
The Philippines’ Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro visits the Lal-lo airport in the north of the country, which is being used as a base by both Filipino and US military aircraft carrying aid as part of a joint disaster response to Typhoon Doksuri. Lal-lo is one of the sites open for use by US troops as part of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement — a deal that allows US forces to rotate through and […]
NEW DELHI, Aug 4, 2023 (AFP) – India’s top court on Friday suspended the defamation conviction of Rahul Gandhi, a decision that could pave the way for the senior opposition politician to return to parliament after his disqualification. Gandhi, 53, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in March in a case that critics have said showed threats to the rule of law in the world’s largest democracy. He was turfed out of the legislature as […]
SEOUL, Aug 4, 2023 (AFP) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called on Friday for mobilising all possible forces and police announced they “won’t hesitate” to use their firearms after a series of stabbings shook the typically low-crime country. The second mass stabbing in two weeks took place Thursday in Bundang, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Seoul, when an attacker drove a car into a pedestrian walkway before attacking people at a […]
BANGKOK, Aug 4, 2023 (AFP) – Eight people were killed on Friday when a freight train hit a pick-up truck trying to cross the tracks in central Thailand, the kingdom’s railway agency said. The crash took place around 2:20 am (1920 GMT Thursday) at an unauthorised crossing in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, the State Railway of Thailand said in a statement. The train driver had sounded his warning horn as he approached the crossing […]
SEOUL, Aug 3, 2023 (AFP) – A man went on a “stabbing rampage” near a South Korean subway station, police said Thursday, with as many as 14 people reported wounded two weeks after a similar attack killed one person. The attack took place near the Seohyeon subway station in Bundang, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Seoul, an official at the National Police Agency told AFP. The suspect “had been arrested at the scene”, […]
TAIPEI, Aug 2, 2023 (AFP) – A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would have “disastrous results” for the world, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told AFP in an interview Wednesday, citing the island’s strategic importance for the semiconductor industry and global shipping lanes. Wu’s warning comes as democratically ruled Taiwan heads towards a presidential election next year, while facing increased military and political pressure from China across the Taiwan Strait. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory […]
MANILA, Aug 2, 2023 (AFP) – US diplomats have raised security and environmental concerns with the Philippines over the involvement of a Chinese company in a land reclamation project in Manila Bay, a US embassy spokesman said Wednesday. A subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co, which was blacklisted by Washington in 2020, has been contracted to reclaim 318 hectares (786 acres) in waters fronting the US embassy and Philippine Navy headquarters, the Philippine Reclamation Authority […]
BANGKOK, Aug 2, 2023 (AFP) – The reformist party that won Thailand’s general election was excluded Wednesday from a coalition trying to form the next government, as lawmakers seek to overcome resistance from military and pro-royalist senators. The Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in May’s election, riding a wave of support from young and urban Thais weary of almost a decade of army-backed rule, but it fell well short of a majority. […]
TOKYO, Aug 2, 2023 (AFP) – One person was reportedly killed and hundreds of thousands were without electricity in southern Japan on Wednesday as a typhoon appproached packing powerful winds and lashing rain. Hundreds of flights to Okinawa and other islands in the area were cancelled, stranding thousands of tourists holidaying in the region’s tropical beach resorts. Typhoon Khanun, described as “very strong” by the Japanese weather agency, brought maximum sustained wind speeds of 180 […]
