Asia

China station next target for Hong Kong protesters as new rally begins

  by Jerome TAYLOR / Elaine YU Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Thousands of anti-government protesters began a march in Hong Kong Sunday that will end outside a controversial train station linking the territory to the Chinese mainland, as activists try to keep pressure on the city’s pro-Beijing leaders. The rally is the first major large-scale protest since last Monday’s unprecedented storming of parliament by largely young, masked protesters — a move […]

Iran set to exceed nuclear deal uranium enrichment cap

  TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran said Sunday it was set to breach the uranium enrichment cap set by an endangered nuclear deal within hours as it seeks to press signatories into keeping their side of the bargain. The Islamic republic also threatened to abandon more commitments unless a solution is found with parties to the 2015 agreement. The move to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent comes despite […]

Russia buries navy officers killed in sub fire

  by Marina KORENEVA Agence France Presse SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia (AFP) — Russia buried 14 navy officers amid tight security in Saint Petersburg on Saturday who were killed in a fire on a nuclear-powered submersible in circumstances that have not been fully revealed by the Kremlin. The officers died in the Barents Sea on Monday, but the accident was only made public a day later. Moscow has said the crew was studying the sea floor […]

North Korea says released Australian student was ‘spying’

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — An Australian student who was released after being held in North Korea had been “spying” in the reclusive country, state media said Saturday. Alek Sigley, 29, disappeared around two weeks ago prompting deep concern about his fate, but was freed and flew to Japan on Thursday. Official North Korean news agency KCNA said Sigley had admitted “he had been spying by collecting our internal information and sharing with others […]

Seoul dissolves Japan fund for WWII sex slaves

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A foundation set up to compensate victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery has been formally dissolved, South Korean officials said Friday, the latest chapter in a bitter dispute over the two countries’ shared history. The $8.8 million fund was established in 2015 as Tokyo and Seoul made a renewed effort to push past their continuing row over Japan’s brutal 1910 – 1945 occupation. The money — which the two […]

First charges against Hong Kong anti-government protester

  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — A Hong Kong street artist was charged on Friday with assaulting a police officer and criminal damage, the first prosecution against an anti-government protester since the city was rocked by unprecedented demonstrations. Sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the city has witnessed three huge peaceful rallies as well as civil disobedience and violence from a hard core of younger protesters who have besieged […]

Australian student detained in North Korea ‘released, safe’

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A 29-year-old Australian student detained in North Korea surfaced in Beijing airport on Thursday, saying he was in “very good” spirits after being released. Alek Sigley — one of a handful of Westerners living and studying in North Korea — disappeared without a trace around June 23, prompting a week of deep concern and frantic speculation about his fate. For days Sigley’s family received no word about his whereabouts or […]

Tornado kills 6, injures nearly 200 in China

BEIJING, China (AFP) — A tornado has left six people dead and nearly 200 injured after ripping through a northeastern Chinese city, local authorities said Thursday. The tornado hit Kaiyuan in Liaoning province on Wednesday afternoon, tearing down trees and electricity poles, smashing the windows of apartment buildings, and knocking down some brick walls. More than 190 people were injured and 43 of them were hospitalized, the Kaiyuan public security bureau said on the Weibo […]

More than a million ordered to shelters in rain-hit Japan

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese authorities have issued evacuation orders for more than one million people in southern parts of the country hit by heavy rains, a year after deadly floods that killed more than 200 people. Small landslides were already being reported in parts of the affected area, public broadcaster NHK reported. It said a total of 1.1 million people in Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, on the island of Kyushu, had been ordered to […]

China tells UK to ‘refrain’ from Hong Kong ‘interference’

  LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — China warned Britain on Wednesday that it must “refrain from further interference” in Hong Kong’s protests or risk “further damaging” its relationship with Beijing. China has appeared irked by Britain’s public rebukes over the unprecedented anti-Beijing demonstrations that have rocked Hong Kong in recent weeks. “I do hope that the British government will realize the consequences and… refrain from further interference, from further damaging the relationship,” China’s UK ambassador […]

Six dead, 18 missing after Indian dam breached

MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Six people were killed and at least 18 were missing on Wednesday after the heaviest monsoon rains in a decade breached a dam in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said. “Using drones, we have located six dead bodies and over 18 people are still missing,” Alok Awasthy, spokesman for India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), told AFP. “We have deployed two teams after the Tiware dam breach occurred last […]

Trump abandons controversial census change that could affect Filipinos living in US

  US President Donald Trump’s government on Tuesday gave up a controversial attempt to put a question about citizenship on next year’s census, handing a victory to those who argued the new item would lead to discrimination against minority residents including Filipinos living in the US. The decision followed a Supreme Court ruling that the case for adding the citizenship question was not convincing. Trump’s initial reaction to the ruling had been to call for […]