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YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Envoys from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations arrived in Myanmar Thursday for talks with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, as the coup-stricken nation enters its fifth month of crippling unrest. Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the February coup, with more than 800 people killed in a brutal military crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. Erywan Pehin Yusof, Brunei’s second minister for foreign […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The US Air Force’s Pacific commander condemned Chinese military flights off Malaysia and Taiwan, describing them on Friday as “escalatory” and “destabilizing.” This week, 16 Chinese military aircraft flew over hotly contested waters off of Borneo prompting Malaysia’s air force to scramble its jets. General Kenneth Wilsbach said these activities and an increased number of incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone “adds to the list” of Chinese “destabilizing activities and also […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo is donating more than one million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to Taiwan, Japan’s foreign minister announced Friday, as Taipei struggles to secure jabs, accusing China of interference. The move is likely to stir controversy with Beijing, which views democratic and self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and works to keep the island diplomatically isolated. “We have received requests from various countries and areas for the provision of vaccines,” […]
by Amal JAYASINGHE COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka was preparing Thursday for a possible major oil leak from the burnt-out cargo ship sinking off Colombo’s main harbour, as worsening weather stalled salvage efforts. The Marine Environment Protection Authority readied oil dispersants and skimmers in case of a leak from the MV X-Press Pearl, which had 350 tonnes of fuel oil on board when it caught fire two weeks ago. The vessel, which burned […]
KARACHI, Pakistan (AFP) — The head of a Pakistani province ordered Thursday that government employees who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 would not be paid from next month. Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah announced the move after meeting with health officials to discuss the first cases of the delta variant detected in the province, which includes the megacity of Karachi. “Any government employee who is not vaccinated should have their salary stopped from […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — A major fire that tore through an oil refinery in the Iranian capital had been brought under control on Thursday, but was still not completely extinguished. “The fire at the refinery has been brought under control and will be completely extinguished by noon,” the official IRNA news agency said, citing Shaker Khafai, spokesman for Tehran Oil Refining Company. A column of black smoke was still visible over the site of the […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — A fire raged Wednesday at a southern Tehran oil refinery after a leak in a liquefied gas line triggered an explosion, the capital’s crisis team chief told state television. Intense flames and thick clouds of black smoke could be seen reaching high into the sky from across Tehran, AFP correspondents said. An “accident was caused by a leak from an emergency liquified gas line,” triggering “an explosion which caused the start […]
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that the United States risked “losing a precious friend” if it tries to corner his country, speaking two weeks before his first meeting with US counterpart Joe Biden. Already tense, relations between the two NATO states have further deteriorated since Biden replaced Erdogan’s ally Donald Trump in January, with the new president making a point of highlighting Turkey’s dire human rights record. When […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — An Iranian naval vessel sank in the Gulf of Oman Wednesday after efforts to put out a fire failed, but the crew safely disembarked, the navy said. The fleet replenishment tanker Kharg had caught fire on Tuesday near the port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman, the navy said, adding that firefighting efforts had gone on for 20 hours before the ship went down. © Agence France-Presse
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China reported the world’s first human infection of the H10N3 bird flu strain on Tuesday but said the risk of it spreading widely among people was low. A 41-year-old man was admitted to hospital with fever symptoms in the eastern city of Zhenjiang on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said in an online statement. “The risk of large-scale spread is extremely […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — International flights to Vietnam’s two biggest cities are to resume, officials said Wednesday, reversing a short-lived ban imposed over fears of a new coronavirus wave. The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam on Monday announced a temporary suspension for international passenger arrivals at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport from June 1-7. A similar decision was in force for the airport in commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City until June 14, as the country […]
by Amal JAYASINGHE COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — A fire aboard a ship that triggered Sri Lanka’s worst-ever marine ecological disaster was finally extinguished Tuesday after a 13-day international operation, the navy said. The near two-week inferno prompted a mammoth clean-up operation as huge volumes of microplastic granules from the Singapore-registered ship’s containers inundated 80 kilometers (50 miles) of beach. The unprecedented pollution forced a fishing ban and saw thousands of troops deployed to scoop […]
