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by Kang Jin-kyu Agence France-Presse PYEONGSAN, South Korea (AFP) — After five years running South Korea, former president Moon Jae-in moved to a peaceful village far away from Seoul, in search of a quiet retirement. Then the protests began. Every day since his arrival in May, demonstrators in Pyeongsan village have used megaphones to shower him with vitriol over his efforts at engagement with North Korea, livestreaming their protests to hundreds of viewers. “Moon is […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A survivor of the 2002 Bali bombings on Thursday said it was “laughable” to see one of the bomb makers released from an Indonesian prison after serving half his 20-year sentence. Umar Patek was a member of an Al Qaeda-linked group that detonated two bombs outside a Bali bar and nightclub in October 2002, killing 202 people — including 88 Australians. Patek was released on parole Wednesday, Indonesian authorities confirmed, despite […]
Beijing, China (AFP) China announced Wednesday a nationwide loosening of its hardline Covid restrictions that had hammered the world’s second biggest economy and ignited rare protests against the ruling Communist Party. The new rules are a major relaxation of President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-Covid policy, three years into the pandemic and long after the rest of the world had largely learnt to live with the virus. However, with vaccination rates remaining low among China’s elderly […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) – Asian investors extended a sell-off across global markets Wednesday while oil held losses on growing fears Federal Reserve monetary tightening will tip the US economy into recession. The drop followed another day deep in the red for New York’s three main indexes after the heads of Wall Street’s leading banks warned of tough times ahead in 2023. JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon tipped a “mild to hard recession” and Goldman Sachs’ […]
by Robbie Corey-Boulet Agence France-Presse RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for three days of meetings with regional leaders likely focused on energy. The overseas trip is only Xi’s third since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, and his first to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, since 2016. It will feature bilateral meetings with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Sirens will wail across China as the country comes to a standstill Tuesday during a public memorial service for former leader Jiang Zemin, who died last week at the age of 96. Jiang oversaw a transformational era from the late 1980s into the new millennium, taking power in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and leading China towards its emergence as a powerhouse on the global stage. But […]
Tokyo, Japan (AFP) Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed ministers on Monday to boost the country’s defence budget by 56 percent over the next five years to $318 billion. The government is overhauling its defence and security strategies in response to regional threats from nuclear-armed North Korea and an increasingly assertive China. Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Kishida told him that “the size of the medium-term defence programme for the next five years, which is […]
Lumajang, Indonesia (AFP) Rescuers evacuated more people Monday from nearby villages after the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Semeru, with officials warning of danger from cooling lava despite less activity from the volcano. More than 2,400 villagers have now fled their homes and taken shelter in 11 evacuation centres after the highest mountain on the country’s main island of Java erupted early morning Sunday. “The military, police, local disaster and village officials keep evacuating people […]
Seoul, South Korea (AFP) North Korea fired a barrage of artillery shells into a maritime buffer zone on Monday, Seoul’s military said, the latest in a series of launches by an increasingly belligerent Pyongyang. About 130 artillery rounds were simultaneously fired at 14:59 pm (0559 GMT) from two separate sites, one on North Korea’s east coast and one on the west coasts, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Seoul’s military said the […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Businesses reopened and testing requirements were relaxed in Beijing and other Chinese cities on Monday as the country tentatively eases out of a strict zero-Covid policy that sparked nationwide protests. Local authorities across China have begun a slow rollback of the restrictions that have governed daily life for years, encouraged by the central government’s orders for a new approach to fighting the coronavirus. In the capital Beijing, where many businesses have […]
Seoul, South Korea (AFP) South Korea on Saturday arrested a former national security chief on suspicion of covering up events surrounding the 2020 murder of a fisheries official by Pyongyang. President Yoon Suk-yeol is expanding an inquiry into the highly politicised case following accusations that his predecessor mishandled the probe to curry favour with North Korea. Suh Hoon is the first top official from the presidential office of former leader Moon Jae-in to be arrested over […]
Jakarta, Indonesia (AFP) A strong earthquake hit Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, injuring at least one person and shaking the same town devastated by a tremor last month that left more than 330 people dead. The 5.7-magnitude quake struck on land at a depth of 112 kilometres (70 miles), with the epicentre located 18 kilometres southeast of the West Java city of Banjar, according to the United States Geological Survey. Indonesia’s meteorological agency, […]
