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Islamabad, Pakistan | AFP | Monday 1/23/2023 A massive power breakdown in Pakistan on Monday affected most of the country’s more than 220 million people, including in the mega cities of Karachi and Lahore. Local outages are common across Pakistan, and the national power system is a complex and delicate web where problems can quickly cascade. The hours-long outage, the second in two years, was caused by a fault in the national grid at around […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) – Eleven people, including two children, burned to death in a passenger van crash in central Thailand over the Lunar New Year holiday, police said Monday. Traffic accidents are common in the kingdom, which has a notorious road safety record, particularly during busy public holidays. The van carrying 12 people was travelling from northeastern Amnat Charoen province to Bangkok when it veered off the highway in central Nakhon Ratchasima province Saturday night, said […]
by Sébastien Ricci and Vivian Lin Agence France-Presse WUHAN, China (AFP) — Residents of China’s Wuhan said Monday they were hopeful for the future and no longer afraid of Covid-19, three years after the city was locked down over what was then a mysterious virus. Since Beijing ordered Wuhan sealed off in a bid to suffocate the outbreak in January 2020, Covid has devastated the planet, killing millions and plunging the global economy into turmoil. […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Sunday 1/22/2023 A fire at an apartment building in Kobe in western Japan killed four men and left four in critical condition on Sunday, an official said. The fire department was alerted to the blaze in the three-storey building by an emergency call at around 1:30 am (1630 GMT Saturday). Four bodies were found after it was extinguished. Four other men, aged between their 40s and 70s, “were taken to […]
Beijing, China | AFP | China reported nearly 13,000 Covid-related deaths in hospitals between January 13 and 19, after a top health official said the vast majority of the population had already been infected. The death toll came a week after China said nearly 60,000 people had died with Covid in hospitals in just over a month — but there has been widespread scepticism over official data since Beijing abruptly axed anti-virus controls last […]
Jakarta, Indonesia | AFP | An offshore earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit near eastern Indonesia’s Maluku islands on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported, triggering a tsunami warning that was later lifted. The epicentre of the tremor was located 150 kilometres (93 miles) northwest of the eastern Indonesian island of Halmahera, at a depth of 48 kilometres. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. The quake occurred around 13:06 pm local […]
Hanoi, Vietnam (AFP) Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has resigned, state media said Tuesday, after days of rumours he was about to be sacked as part of a major anti-corruption drive that has seen several ministers fired. The sudden departure is a highly unusual move in communist Vietnam, where political changes are normally carefully orchestrated, with an emphasis on cautious stability. Only one other Communist Party president has ever stepped down, and that was for […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s High Court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of three former executives from the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, again clearing them of professional negligence over the 2011 disaster. The decision was announced by activists supporting the prosecution of the three men, following the appeal hearing in the only criminal trial to arise from the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The court declined to comment on the verdict while […]
by Ludovic EHRET Agence France Presse Beijing, China (AFP) — China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the birth rate slows in the face of mounting financial pressures and shifting social attitudes. The world’s most populous country is facing a looming demographic crisis as its workforce ages, which analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers. Analysts point […]
by Sagar GHIMIRE Agence France-Presse POKHARA, Nepal (AFP) — Nepali hospital staff began the grim task of handing over bodies to grieving families on Tuesday after a plane with 72 people on board crashed, the country’s worst aviation disaster in three decades. The Yeti Airlines flight with 68 passengers and four crew plummeted into a steep gorge, smashed into pieces and burst into flames as it approached the central city of Pokhara on Sunday. All […]
by Ludovic EHRET Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the world’s most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis. The nation of 1.4 billion has seen birth rates plunge to record lows as its workforce ages, in a rapid decline that analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers. The population […]
Pokhara, Nepal (AFP) by Sagar Ghimire Nepali rescue workers scoured a debris-strewn ravine Monday for more bodies from the mangled wreckage of a plane with 72 people on board, with hopes of any survivors now “nil”, according to officials. The Yeti Airlines ATR 72 plummeted into the steep gorge, smashed into pieces and burst into flames as it approached the central city of Pokhara on Sunday morning, in Nepal’s worst aviation disaster since 1992. The […]
