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COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) — Animal activists in Bangladesh have warned of a growing crisis among horses used for tourism during the country’s coronavirus lockdown, after owners said Wednesday that five more had died of starvation in a popular resort town. Twenty-one horses that used to carry tourists along Cox’s Bazar beach in southeastern Bangladesh died in one month, their owners said, after a lockdown imposed from April 14 saw visitors to the scenic spot […]
SINDHUPALCHOK, Nepal (AFP) — At least one person died and seven others were missing after houses and bridges were washed away when a river burst during heavy monsoon rains in Nepal, officials said Wednesday. The annual monsoon rains in the Himalayan nation revitalizes farms and waterways but also triggers deadly landslides and floods. Officials said a landslide caused by the monsoon deluge blocked a river, which then burst and sent a flood of water downstream […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan said on Thursday it will make a vaccine passport available from a next month for Japanese travellers, as governments around the world experiment with ways to relaunch tourism and business trips. “We are preparing to issue a certificate of vaccination for those who need one… when they visit foreign countries,” top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters. The certificate will be paper-based rather than digital and will be issued by […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to lift Tokyo’s virus emergency on June 20, a month before the Olympics, the government announced Thursday as reports said only 10,000 spectators would be allowed at Games events. Tokyo and several other parts of the country have been under a virus emergency since April 25, with the measure forcing the early closure of bars and restaurants and banning them from selling alcohol. It is due to expire on […]
by Ludovic EHRET JIUQUAN, China (AFP) — The first astronauts for China’s new space station blasted off Thursday for the country’s longest crewed mission to date, a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power. The trio launched on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station, where they will spend three months, in a much-anticipated blast-off broadcast live on state TV. Lift-off happened at 9:22 am (0122 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch […]
by Marc Jourdier and Frank Zeller TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iranian voters are to elect a new president Friday, with the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi expected to replace the moderate Hassan Rouhani after a host of candidates were disqualified. The vote comes at a time when the recession-hit country is in talks with world powers to revive a battered 2015 nuclear deal and at pains to end a punishing US sanctions regime. Buzz has been minimal […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean authorities are failing to properly tackle the country’s widespread digital sex crimes against women, which have a devastating impact on victims, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said Wednesday. South Korea is the world’s 12th largest economy and a leading technological power, but remains a male-dominated society with a poor record on women’s rights. Digital sex crimes, or the sharing of intimate pictures or video without permission, […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s remote Maluku islands on Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning. The shallow quake hit at 1:43 pm local time (0443 GMT) in the Banda Sea about 70 kilometres (44 miles) southeast of Amahai on the island of Seram. Shallow quakes tend to do more damage than deep ones, but there were no immediate reports […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Kim Jong Un has admitted that North Korea’s food situation is “tense”, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm in a country that suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s in which hundreds of thousands died. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. And last year the coronavirus […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan said a record 28 Chinese military aircraft including fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers flew into its defence zone on Tuesday, as Beijing hit out at international criticism of its military posturing. The incursion came a day after NATO said China’s increasingly aggressive military goals threatened international order — and after G7 leaders issued a landmark statement urging peace in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s defense ministry said it scrambled its own […]
by Claire DOYEN KWALHATHI, South Africa (AFP) — Single mother Lihle Magudulela spat out a mouthful of dirt as she sucked on a stone dug up from a hillside in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, convinced she might have found a diamond. Thousands have flocked to the outskirts of KwaHlathi village, more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, after a cattle herder last week unearthed a handful of unidentified crystal-like stones. News of the […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A huge red banner welcomed nearly 9,000 students in Wuhan for a massive graduation ceremony over a year after the city was battered by the first global outbreak of Covid-19. Students in navy gowns and mortarboards sat in crowded rows, without social distancing or face masks, beneath the sign that read: “Welcoming the graduates of 2020 back home. We wish you all a great future.” Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019 […]
