NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — At least 13 miners were feared dead after being trapped by flooding in an illegal “rat hole” coal mine site in remote northeastern India, police said Friday. Dozens of emergency workers were pumping water out of a large trench that was flooded early Thursday near a river in mineral-rich Meghalaya state. “We are doing our best to reach out to them. Our information is 13 people were inside at the […]
Asia
‘Peace is possible’ in Yemen: US State Department
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday praised UN-brokered talks aiming to end Yemen’s devastating conflict, saying “peace is possible.” “The work ahead will not be easy, but we have seen what many considered improbable begin to take shape,” he said in a statement released hours after Yemen’s warring parties agreed to a ceasefire in the vital port of Hodeida on the final day of peace talks. “The United […]
Ankara train crash leaves nine dead, 86 injured
by Raziye Akkoc and Luana Sarmini-Buonaccorsi Agence France Presse ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Nine people were killed and nearly 90 injured after a high-speed train crashed into a locomotive in the Turkish capital on Thursday, officials said, becoming the latest rail disaster to hit the country. The accident comes less than six months after 24 people were killed in a train crash in northwestern Turkey in a series of several fatal accidents in recent years. […]
Five foreigners arrested in Bali drug sweep
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AFP) — Five foreigners have been arrested in Bali for drug trafficking, authorities said Thursday, with a German and Peruvian possibly facing execution if convicted under Indonesia’s strict drug laws. The accused smugglers — also including a Chinese, a Malaysian and a Briton — were arrested separately over the past two weeks, Bali police said. The arrests come less than a month after the first member of the Bali Nine heroin-trafficking gang […]
N. Korea food production down in 2018: UN body
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Food production has fallen this year in isolated, nuclear-armed North Korea, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Rice and maize are the North’s main staples, but rice output was expected to be below average because of erratic rains and low irrigation supplies, the FAO said in its quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. Unfavorable weather conditions also diminished maize yields, it added. As a result, the country […]
Huawei executive gets bail in case rattling China ties
by Deborah JONES / with Michel Comte in Ottawa and Laurent Thomet in Beijing Agence France-Presse VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — A Canadian court has granted bail to a top Chinese telecom company executive wanted in the United States, as diplomatic tensions turned to the detention of a former Canadian diplomat in Beijing. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, was released on Can$10 million (US$7.5 million) bail on Tuesday in a case that has […]
Koreas verify removal of frontline bunkers
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Soldiers from North and South Korea are set to verify the dismantlement of guard posts in the demilitarized zone Wednesday, Seoul said, after crossing into each other’s territory peacefully for the first time. The removal of 20 posts along the heavily-fortified frontier was one of the steps agreed at a September summit between the South’s President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, part of a […]
Thousands flee bombs and hunger in eastern Syria
by Delil Souleiman Agence France Presse AL-HOL, Syria (AFP) — Faraj was born in the pouring rain on a nondescript stretch of desert road in eastern Syria as his family fled escalating fighting over the Islamic State group’s last bastion. His family was part of a group of around 200 civilians who managed to escape from a pocket of territory in Deir Ezzor province that is still held by the jihadists. “I had to resist […]
US energy secretary meets Saudi counterpart after OPEC cuts
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia’s energy minister held talks Monday with US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, after the kingdom and its allies defied US pressure to cut oil production in a bid to prop up prices. They discussed the “state of the oil market” and energy cooperation between the two countries during a meeting in eastern Dhahran city, the minister, Khalid al-Falih, said on Twitter. Perry tweeted that he discussed the need for […]
China court bans iPhone sales in patent dispute: Qualcomm
(AFP) — A Chinese court ordered a ban in the country on iPhone sales in a patent dispute between US chipmaker Qualcomm and Apple, according to a Qualcomm statement Monday. The statement said the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court had granted Qualcomm’s request for two preliminary injunctions against four subsidiaries of Apple, ordering them to immediately to stop selling the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone […]
Ex-Nissan chief Ghosn charged, served with fresh arrest warrant
by Shingo ITO Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese prosecutors formally charged Carlos Ghosn with financial misconduct for under-reporting his salary and also served a fresh warrant on separate allegations, local media reported Monday, meaning the tycoon will likely spend Christmas in a cell. Former Nissan chairman Ghosn, 64, has been in detention since his November 19 arrest on suspicion of under-declaring his income by some five billion yen ($44 million) between 2010 and […]
Japan’s empress-in-waiting ‘insecure’ but vows to serve
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s Crown Princess Masako on Sunday pledged to do her best despite feeling ‘insecure’ about becoming empress in mere months, in a candid statement released on her 55th birthday. Emperor Akihito will step down on April 30, 2019 — the first abdication in the Japanese imperial family in more than two centuries. His eldest son and Masako’s husband Naruhito will ascend to the throne the next day. “Even though I feel […]
