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BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Saturday reported its highest number of coronavirus cases since May, with millions in lockdown this weekend as authorities persist with their zero-Covid policy. Using snap lockdowns, long quarantines and mass testing, China is the last major economy still pursuing the goal of eliminating outbreaks, even as the strategy takes a heavy toll on the economy. China reported 450 local infections on Saturday, up from 432 a day earlier. […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India has reported its first confirmed case of monkeypox after a 35-year-old man with a history of travel to the Middle East showed symptoms, officials said. The federal government rushed a multi-disciplinary team to the southern state of Kerala in view of the confirmed case of monkeypox there, according to an official statement. The man, who travelled from the United Arab Emirates to Kerala on Tuesday, was in stable condition […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping made a public visit to Xinjiang, state media reported Friday, his first since a crackdown in the region saw Beijing accused of detaining over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in camps. The United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled China’s actions in Xinjiang a “genocide”, imposing sanctions over the alleged human rights abuses. Beijing has denied the allegations, calling them the “lie […]
BALI, Indonesia (AFP) — Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs met in Indonesia Friday for talks on the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the host warning them failure to tackle energy and food crises would be catastrophic. The two-day meeting on the resort island of Bali started under the shadow of a war that has roiled markets, spiked food prices and stoked breakneck inflation, a week after Moscow’s top diplomat […]
by Sean GLEESON and Mahesh PERERA Agence France-Presse COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Out of gas and stuck in line for days, a group of motorists kick off their shoes and settle on a sidewalk in Sri Lanka’s capital for a round of cards. Emergency curfews, tear gas plumes and the sudden departure and resignation of the president have all failed to budge the long vehicle queues snaking out of Colombo’s empty petrol stations. Chronic […]
by Beiyi Seow Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China logged its slowest economic growth since the initial Covid outbreak, official data showed Friday, expanding just 0.4 percent in the second quarter with lockdowns and property market weakness nudging a government target further out of reach. Beijing has dug its heels in on a zero-Covid policy of stamping out virus clusters as they emerge with snap lockdowns and long quarantines, but this has battered businesses […]
by Robbie COREY-BOULET Agence France Presse Saudi Arabia announced Friday it was lifting restrictions on “all carriers” using its airspace, an apparent gesture of openness towards Israel ahead of US President Joe Biden’s arrival. It was the latest conciliatory move by Riyadh concerning the Jewish state, which it has refused to recognise despite intensive efforts by the Israelis to establish ties with Arab countries. The Saudi civil aviation authority “announces the decision to open […]
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel has “no objection” to two strategic Red Sea islands being transferred to Saudi Arabia as a step towards any normalisation of ties between both countries, high-ranking officials said Thursday. The Jewish state hopes US President Joe Biden’s Middle East tour will hail the start of diplomatic ties between it and Saudi Arabia. After meeting Israeli officials on Wednesday and Thursday, Biden is on Friday to travel on to Saudi Arabia […]
Colombo, Sri Lanka | AFP | Thursday 7/14/2022 by Amal JAYASINGHE Sri Lanka’s president submitted his resignation Thursday shortly after reaching Singapore, the parliamentary speaker’s office said, days after the head of state fled protests triggered by his country’s worst-ever economic crisis. Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned by email, the speaker’s spokesman said hours after he landed in the city-state, after protesters overran his palace on the weekend. Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, and left […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s central bank on Wednesday delivered a historic half-point interest rate hike to tame fast-growing inflation, particularly soaring energy costs linked to the war in Ukraine. The Bank of Korea (BOK) raised its benchmark policy rate by 50 basis points to 2.25 percent, it said in a tweet, the largest increase since its current framework was implemented in 1999. The decision comes as Asia’s fourth-biggest economy recovers from […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — A bomb blast near a shopping mall in Myanmar’s commercial hub Yangon has killed two people and wounded eleven, rescue workers and local media said on Wednesday. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion, which took place on Tuesday afternoon, as the country marked a public holiday for a Buddhist festival. “When we arrived there, injured people were scattered about and there was blood on the roadside,” a […]
by Hiroshi HIYAMA / Tomohiro OSAKI Agence France Presse A Tokyo court Wednesday ordered former executives from the operator of the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant to pay 13.32 trillion yen ($97 billion) for failing to prevent the disaster, plaintiffs said. Four ex-bosses from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were ordered to pay the damages in a suit brought by shareholders over the nuclear disaster triggered by a massive tsunami in 2011. Plaintiffs emerged […]
