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by Paul HANDLEY Agence France Presse Mikhail Gorbachev stepped onto a Washington street and began shaking hands to cheers and applause in 1990 — a bit of unaccustomed political showmanship worthy of his friend Ronald Reagan. Ana Maria Guzman was in the park on her lunch break that May when she saw the Soviet leader, who died on Tuesday at 91. “We knew he was in town and we saw his motorcade. Then he […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Malaysia’s ex-premier Najib Razak, was found guilty of graft Thursday, just over a week after her husband began serving a 12-year jail term. “The accused is found guilty of all three charges,” High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said as Rosmah sat quietly in the dock. The judge added that her defence was “bare denial and unsubstantiated”. The Kuala Lumpur court began mitigation on […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwanese soldiers on a tiny islet just off China’s mainland shot down an “unidentified civilian drone” on Thursday after it entered a restricted zone, Taipei’s military said. It is the first time Taiwanese forces have downed a drone and comes at a time when tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at their highest in decades. Taiwan’s defence ministry said a small civilian drone entered a “restricted zone” above Shiyu Islet, […]
DOHA, Qatar (AFP) – Qatar announced Wednesday that it will build the world’s biggest plant making blue ammonia — one of the new fuels being touted as a cleaner energy source. Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said the plant would cost $1.2 billion and start production in early 2026. State-owned Qatar Energy, a firm that is making huge profits from liquefied natural gas, said the plant would produce 1.2 million tonnes of ammonia a year “making […]
Tokyo, Japan (AFP) Tourists will be able to visit Japan from next week on package tours without a guide, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday, as the country moves to ease strict Covid-19 controls. From September 7, Japan will also raise its daily cap on the number of people allowed to enter the country to 50,000, Kishida told reporters. Japan has kept strict border restrictions in place longer than many other major economies, and only […]
Manila, Philippines (AFP) A Cambodian psychiatrist treating victims of the Khmer Rouge and a French environmentalist cleaning up Indonesian rivers were among the winners Wednesday of the 2022 Ramon Magsaysay Award — considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. The annual award, established in 1957 and named after a Philippines president who died in a plane crash, honours those who have performed “selfless service to the peoples of Asia”. The foundation that runs the award announced four winners […]
Tokyo, Japan (AFP) by Kyoko HASEGAWA A female former Japanese soldier on Wednesday submitted a petition to the defence ministry that was signed by more than 100,000 people demanding an independent probe into her alleged sexual assault by colleagues. The case is a rare example of a public allegation of sexual assault in a country where government data shows just four percent of rape victims report the crime to police. Rina Gonoi, 22, alleges that […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan said Wednesday it would exercise its right to self-defence and “counter-attack” if Chinese fighters and warships were to enter its territorial space, in the wake of Beijing’s huge military drills around the island. The self-ruled, democratic island lives under constant threat of an invasion by China, which claims it as part of its territory to be seized one day — by force if necessary. Tensions in the Taiwan Strait […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) – Stock markets resumed their downward trend Wednesday, with traders fearing the Federal Reserve’s determination to beat inflation with higher interest rates will tip the world’s top economy into recession. After bouncing from their June lows, global equities are once again taking a hiding from worried investors after Fed chief Jerome Powell warned last week the bank would need to tighten policy much more to succeed in its battle against prices. […]
Beijing, China (AFP) by Laurie CHEN China’s ruling Communist Party will begin its 20th Party Congress on October 16, state media reported Tuesday, a landmark meeting at which President Xi Jinping is expected to be anointed as the country’s most powerful leader in decades. The meeting in the capital Beijing is widely expected to see Xi reinstated as president for an unprecedented third term. It will also see the unveiling of a new top leadership […]
Geneva, Switzerland (AFP) The United Nations and the Pakistani government launched an emergency appeal for $160 million on Tuesday to help those hardest hit by the devastating floods in the country. The funds will provide 5.2 million people with food, water, sanitation, emergency education, protection and health support, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video statement, calling the flooding a “colossal crisis”. The aid, covering the initial six months of the crisis response, will […]
by Ashraf Khan, with Zain Zaman Janjua and Emma Clark in Nowshera Agence France-Presse SUKKUR, Pakistan (AFP) — Aid efforts ramped up across flooded Pakistan on Tuesday to help tens of millions of people affected by relentless monsoon rains that have submerged a third of the country and claimed more than 1,100 lives. The rains that began in June have unleashed the worst flooding in more than a decade, washing away swathes of vital crops […]
