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by Sakher Abou El Oun GAZA CITY, Palestinian City (AFP) — Israeli air strikes hit sites across the Gaza Strip on Monday in retaliation for a rare rocket attack that hit a house near Tel Aviv, before Hamas said a ceasefire was reached. Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, said Egypt had brokered the ceasefire following the escalation that came just two weeks before Israel’s April 9 elections. Israel, whose strikes began […]
Beijing, China (AFP) — The death toll from a chemical plant explosion in China rose to 78 on Monday, with hundreds still receiving medical treatment four days after one of the country’s worst industrial accidents. Thursday’s explosion in Yancheng city, eastern Jiangsu province razed an industrial park and blew out the windows of surrounding homes. More than 500 people are still in hospital, said local authorities on their official Twitter-like Weibo account. Among them, […]
by Thanaporn PROMYAMYAI and Joe FREEMAN Results of Thailand’s first election since the 2014 coup were expected to trickle out Monday, with the junta primed to retain its grip on power after a vote that saw its main rival diminished, but vaulted a new pro-democracy force into the kingdom’s politics. The Election Commission delayed without explanation a full announcement of preliminary results on Sunday night as a blizzard of complaints mounted over apparent mistakes in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Friday abruptly announced the cancellation of sanctions imposed by his own Treasury Department to tighten international pressure on North Korea. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” Trump said in a tweet. He appeared to be referring to measures […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has returned its staff to an inter-Korean liaison office, Seoul said Monday, just days after unilaterally withdrawing from the joint facility. The office in the Northern city of Kaesong was opened in September as the two Koreas knitted closer ties, but the North pulled its staff out last week amid a deadlock in talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The unification ministry said some of the North Korean […]
by Joe Freeman Thailand’s election results were due Monday, with the junta appearing poised to hold on to power in a vote that saw its main rival diminished but vaulted a new pro-democracy force into the kingdom’s politics. Sunday’s poll — seen as a referendum on the military — was the first since a 2014 coup, and was held under new rules written by the junta to ease its transformation into a civilian government. Despite […]
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of North Maluku province in eastern Indonesia Sunday, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued. The quake was 150 kilometres (92 miles) northwest of the coastal town of Ternate at a depth of 37 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake was felt in Ternate but residents were unconcerned, a local said. “I was watching TV when the earthquake suddenly happened, the jolt was […]
by Sippachai KUNNUWONG / Joe Freeman Polls opened Sunday for the first Thai election since a 2014 coup, with a high turnout expected among a public who received a cryptic last-minute warning from the Thai king to support “good” leaders to prevent “chaos.” All television stations repeated the rare statement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn moments before polls opened across the politically turbulent country. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and the palace is ostensibly above the […]
by Ashraf KHAN A frantic mother cradling her seven-month-old baby rushes towards the special paediatric ward in a desolate Pakistan town, his eyes are blank and he is smaller than most newborns. He is starving in a country that has no shortage of food, but which has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and where malnutrition is rife. The infant weighs just 2.5 kilograms — the average for a healthy child […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A car rammed into a crowd in central China Friday, killing six people and injuring seven others, and the driver was fatally shot by police, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The injured were taken to hospital following the early morning incident in Zaoyang City in Hubei Province, CCTV said. A video, published by Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper, shows a body covered in a blanket left on the roadside and a group […]
by Peter STEBBINGS The death toll from a huge explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China surged to 47 on Friday, making it one of the country’s worst industrial accidents in recent years. More than 600 people are receiving medical treatment following Thursday afternoon’s blast at the industrial park in Yancheng, said the city government on its official Twitter-like Weibo account. Among them, at least 90 are seriously injured. City officials had previously said […]
YANCHENG, China (AFP) — The death toll from a huge explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China rose to 12 on Friday after rescuers pulled dozens of people from the area, state media said. The blaze “has been controlled” by firefighters hours after Thursday’s blast left an industrial park burning into the night in Yancheng in Jiangsu province, according to broadcaster CCTV. As of the early hours of Friday, a total of 88 people […]
