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by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban have taken the strategic Afghan city of Ghazni just 150 kilometers (95 miles) from Kabul, a senior lawmaker and the insurgents said Thursday. The city — the 10th provincial capital to fall to the insurgents in a week — lies along the major Kabul-Kandahar highway, effectively serving as a gateway between the capital and militant strongholds in the south. “The Taliban took control of the key […]
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish rescuers evacuated a regional hospital on Wednesday and plucked stranded villagers off rooftops as flash floods and mudslides swept across the Black Sea coast. Officials said one person died of a heart attack in the mayhem and an elderly women was swept away by the rushing water and remained unaccounted for. The health ministry said eight people were also rushed to hospital when a bridge collapsed. “From a meteorological point […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A helicopter with 16 people on board, including 13 tourists, crashed in Kamchatka in Russia’s far east on Thursday, the local government said in a statement. The helicopter came down in Lake Kuril in the Kronotsky nature reserve, the statement said. According to preliminary information, “there were three crew members and 13 passengers on board”, all tourists, it added. Rescuers and divers were dispatched to the scene. According to a local […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s drug regulator has approved the country’s first mixed-vaccine trial, a company involved in the study said, as the rapid spread of the Delta variant raises concern about the efficacy of domestically produced jabs. The trial will test the efficacy of combining an “inactivated” vaccine made by China’s Sinovac with a DNA-based one developed by US pharmaceutical company Inovio, a statement issued on Tuesday said. The statement was put out by […]
SHIMLA, India (AFP) — At least one person was killed Wednesday and 25-30 people were feared trapped after a landslide onto a road in India’s Himalayan north, officials said. “Six people have been rushed to local hospitals with injuries. At least one person is dead,” a local police official from Himachal Pradesh state bordering Tibet told AFP. “We think one bus and or a truck and some cars are also under the rubble. But there […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi has been invited to a planned regional summit in Baghdad, his office said Tuesday during a visit by Iraq’s top diplomat. The invitation was delivered to the Iranian capital by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, a day after Baghdad announced the summit set for later this month. French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed he plans to attend, while Iraq has said Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A group of Australian Olympic athletes were Wednesday facing 28 days in quarantine on return from Tokyo in a move slammed as “cruel” and “uncaring” as concerns mount over their mental wellbeing. All overseas travellers, including the nearly 500-strong Australian team, are required to spend 14 days’ isolation in a hotel or special outback camp on arrival in the country, under strict coronavirus rules. But some will have to endure double […]
by Evan GERSHKOVICH YAKUTSK, Russia (AFP) — Alexander Fyodorov peered out his office window towards the vast forests where wildfires had been raging for weeks around the Siberian city of Yakutsk. It was a rare day for this summer — for once the sky in the world’s coldest city was not shrouded in a sepia orange toxic smog, produced by the third straight year of increasingly massive blazes. In Yakutia, known as Sakha in its […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka’s government rejected on Tuesday mounting calls for an immediate lockdown to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths that is severely stretching hospitals and crematoriums. Government spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the country had not reached a critical stage even as the island nation suffers more than 100 deaths per day on average. “Curfews or a lockdown is the last resort, but we are not […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Riot police fired water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in Bangkok Tuesday as hundreds rallied for democratic reform and against the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Demonstrators defied a ban on public gatherings as Thailand tries to quash its worst virus outbreak so far, with new cases hovering around the 20,000 mark daily. The slow start to the coronavirus vaccination program in Thailand and economic pain from […]
by Beiyi SEOW DANDONG, China (AFP) — A Chinese court on Wednesday jailed Canadian businessman Michael Spavor for 11 years after finding him guilty of spying in a case his country has condemned as politically motivated. Spavor was detained in 2018 along with compatriot Michael Kovrig on what Ottawa has said are trumped-up charges after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on a US extradition warrant. Relations between the two countries have hit rock […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore on Wednesday upgraded its growth forecast for this year as the trade-reliant economy’s key export markets pick up strength thanks to rapid coronavirus vaccine rollouts. The prosperous city-state, one of the world’s most open economies, suffered its worst ever recession last year as it was hammered by the pandemic. But stronger overseas demand is helping to power a rebound, which is being closely watched as Singapore is seen as a […]
