NEW DELHI, July 21, 2023 (AFP) – Furious women set fire to the houses of two Indian men accused of parading two women naked in a state where months of ethnic clashes have left at least 120 dead, images showed Friday. A clip went viral Wednesday showing two women reported to be from the Kuki tribal group walking naked along a street while being jeered at and harassed by a mob reportedly from the Meitei […]
Asia
‘Get him!’: Witness recalls US soldier’s dash to North Korea
SEOUL, July 21, 2023 (AFP) – When a member of a tour group visiting the Demilitarized Zone on South Korea’s border suddenly sprinted away from the pack, a US soldier shouted: “Get him”. But it was too late. Private Second Class Travis King had crossed the border into nuclear-armed North Korea, where he is now believed to be in Pyongyang’s custody, with the United States saying it was “very concerned” about how he would be […]
Top rice supplier India bans some exports
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — The world’s biggest rice exporter India has banned some overseas sales of the grain “with immediate effect”, the government said, in a move that could drive international prices even higher. Rice is a major world food staple and prices on international markets have soared to decade highs as the world grappled with the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon on production levels. […]
Seoul says North Korean nuclear attack would mean ‘end’ of regime
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Seoul told North Korea Friday that using its nukes would mean the “end” of Kim Jong Un’s regime, after Pyongyang threatened nuclear retaliation over growing US military deployments on the peninsula. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points ever, with the North ramping up weapons testing as Seoul and Washington boost military cooperation. Pyongyang’s defense minister warned Thursday that this week’s port visit of a […]
Social media access in Ethiopia back after 5-month shutdown
ADDIS ABABA, July 19, 2023 (AFP) – Social media networks like Facebook and Instagram were back online in Ethiopia on Wednesday after being blocked for five months, according to an internet advocacy organisation and an AFP journalist. A service run by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), an association that tracks online censorship, showed that access to social networks in Africa’s second-most populous country was freely available after being shut down in early February. […]
Leaks, repairs, stress: how skeleton crew stopped Red Sea oil disaster
By Robbie COREY-BOULET Agence France-Presse ABOARD FSO SAFER, Yemen (AFP) — When an alarm sounded on the decaying oil tanker off Yemen’s coast, signaling a leak in its engine room, Hussein Nasser quickly sprang into action. Working around the clock for days, he and the half dozen other people on board the FSO Safer fashioned makeshift iron strips to patch a burst pipe, before divers arrived to install a permanent steel plate to keep seawater […]
North Korea fires two ballistic missiles into sea
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday, hours after an American nuclear-armed submarine made its first South Korean port call in decades. The launch was reported by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), according to Yonhap, who said they were fired early Wednesday from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, and flew some 550 kilometres (340 miles) before splashing into the […]
Extreme heat scorches Europe
ROME, July 18, 2023 (AFP) – Swathes of Europe baked Tuesday in a heatwave trailed by wildfires and health warnings, as parts of Asia and the United States also suffered under extreme weather. Firefighters battled blazes in parts of Greece and the Canary Islands, Spain issued heat alerts while some children in Italy’s Sardinia were warned away from sports for safety reasons. “You can’t be in the street, it’s horrible,” said Lidia Rodriguez, 27, in […]
World must prepare for more intense heatwaves: UN
GENEVA, July 18, 2023 (AFP) – The world should get ready to face increasingly intense heatwaves, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, as countries across the Northern Hemisphere reeled from soaring temperatures. Health authorities have sounded the alarm from North America to Europe and Asia, urging people to stay hydrated and shelter from the burning sun, in a stark reminder of the effects of global warming. “These events will continue to grow in intensity, and […]
American who entered N.Korea is a US soldier
WASHINGTON, July 18, 2023 (AFP) – An American national who entered North Korea “without authorization” during a tour of the heavily fortified border and is believed to be detained is a US soldier, officials said Tuesday. North and South Korea remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, with a Demilitarized Zone running along their border. “A US service member on a JSA orientation tour […]
Rich-poor split could tighten ‘grip of poverty’: World Bank chief
By Bhuvan BAGGA Agence France-Presse GANDHINAGAR, India (AFP) — The new head of the World Bank said Tuesday that growing divides between rich and poor nations risked deepening poverty in the developing world, at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in India. Many countries are still recovering from the double blow of the coronavirus pandemic and fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine — which hit global fuel and commodity prices. Climate change, meanwhile, is most […]
Weakened Typhoon Talim hits Vietnam after passing through China
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Typhoon Talim reached Vietnam Tuesday after passing through China less forcefully than feared, with no deaths reported in either country despite nearly 260,000 people relocating before the storm hit. Talim first made landfall in southern China late Monday evening, battering the coast of Guangdong province with maximum winds of 136.8 kilometers (85 miles) per hour. By Tuesday it had weakened to a tropical storm as it slowly made its way across […]