MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Friday said it detained more than 260 North Korean fishermen off its Far Eastern coast for poaching. The mass arrests came after Russia detained more than 160 North Korean fishermen in the Sea of Japan last week. The FSB security service said that it stopped “three schooners and five motorboats with 262 North Koreans onboard, Russian news agencies reported. The fishermen did not resist arrest and were brought to […]
Asia
North Korea doubts prospects for future summit with US
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US aggression and an obsession with disarmament mean another summit between Washington and Pyongyang is looking doubtful, North Korea said on Friday, even as it praised US President Donald Trump as “bold” and “wise”. Washington has “done nothing for the implementing the joint statement” from the first US-North Korea summit held in Singapore last year, Kim Kye Gwan, advisor to North Korea’s foreign ministry, wrote in a statement carried in […]
Saudi Arabia to offer tourist visas for first time
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia said Friday it will offer tourist visas for the first time, opening up the ultra-conservative kingdom to holidaymakers as part of a push to diversify its economy away from oil. Kickstarting tourism is one of the centrepieces of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform programme to prepare the biggest Arab economy for a post-oil era. The announcement comes just two weeks after devastating attacks on Saudi […]
N.Korea praises Trump, hopes for progress towards summit
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Friday praised US President Donald Trump as “different from his predecessors” as well as “wise” and “bold” as Pyongyang angles for a possible new summit between their leaders. According to Kim Kye Gwan, advisor to North Korea’s foreign ministry, the idea of holding a new summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “highly topical these days in the US”, the official wrote in […]
Updated: 5.7-magnitude earthquake shakes Istanbul, injures eight
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — A 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook Turkey’s largest city on Thursday, driving residents to evacuate buildings, AFP journalists witnessed. Eight people were “lightly injured”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press conference in Istanbul. “Some buildings have been lightly damaged,” he added. Istanbul’s Bogazici University Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said the quake’s centre was in the town of Silivri, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of the city. It said the […]
Heavy rains kill 17 in western India
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Seventeen people were killed Thursday in flooding caused by torrential rains in western India including five who were sleeping in a mosque, officials said. Twelve people including a nine-year-old boy were killed in flash floods and as walls collapsed in various parts of Pune district in Maharashtra state, police said. The mosque was washed away in a rural part of the state, police official Sandip Patil told AFP. “We have […]
Shallow tremor rocks quake-hit area of Pakistan
MIRPUR, Pakistan (AFP) — A shallow tremor sent terrified people running into the streets in northeastern Pakistan on Thursday, days after a powerful quake killed 38 people in the same area and destroyed infrastructure and roads. An AFP reporter in the city of Mirpur in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir described the shaking as “a wave going underneath the earth”. The US Geological Survey put the quake at 4.7 magnitude and 10 kilometres (six miles) deep, adding […]
Rescuers scramble to reach survivors as Pakistan quake toll climbs
by Nasir JAFFRY / Zain ZAMAN JATLAN, Pakistan (AFP) — Rescuers battled along badly damaged roads and combed through toppled buildings Wednesday to reach victims of an earthquake that killed at least 38 people and injured hundreds more in northeast Pakistan. Authorities were still assessing the quake’s impact in villages around the city of Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, but in some the immediate damage was evident. After a night of heavy rain compounded the misery […]
Beijing opens glitzy airport ahead of China’s 70th anniversary
by Poornima WEERASEKARA BEIJING, China (AFP) — A futuristic new airport in Beijing, which is expected to become one of the busiest in the world, was opened by President Xi Jinping on Wednesday. Xi declared the starfish-shaped airport open in brief remarks at a ceremony inside the huge terminal, days before the country holds a grand celebration to mark 70 years of Communist rule. Located 46 kilometres (29 miles) south of Tiananmen Square, the Beijing […]
Bomb explodes injuring five in southern Turkey: state media
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Five people were injured Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded as a bus carrying police drove by in the southern Turkish province of Adana, state media reported. The blast in Adana was either an “improvised explosive device or a different type of bomb”, the governor, Mahmut Demirtas, told Anadolu news agency. One of those hurt was a police officer, he said, but the casualties did not suffer serious injuries. The other […]
Death toll in Pakistan quake climbs to 22 as rescuers assess damage
MIRPUR, Pakistan (AFP) — Rescue workers battled on Wednesday to reach people affected by a shallow earthquake that rocked northeast Pakistan a day earlier, killing at least 22 people and injuring hundreds more as it tore roads apart and felled buildings. Schools were shuttered near the quake-hit city of Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir where poor areas were reduced to rubble and the towering brick fences surrounding expensive homes had crumbled. Residents combed through the wreckage […]
Papua unrest death toll hits 26: Indonesian police
WAMENA, Indonesia (AFP) — At least 26 people have been killed in fresh unrest in Indonesia’s restive Papua region, authorities said Tuesday, as thousands fled to shelters following a day of violence that saw victims burned alive in buildings set ablaze by protesters. Papua, on the western half of New Guinea island, has been gripped by weeks of violent protests fueled by anger over racism, as well as fresh calls for self-rule in the impoverished […]
