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by Omar Haj Kadour with Maya Gebeily in Beirut Agence France Presse SARAQIB, Syria — A Russian pilot was killed Saturday in fighting with Islamists after his warplane was downed over northwest Syria, Russia’s defence ministry and a monitor said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful jihadist-dominated alliance said, on an affiliated media channel it had shot down the plane but made no mention of the pilot. “We were able to bring down the […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Myanmar’s government has told the Security Council that this month was “not the right time” for a visit by the top UN body to see first-hand the Rohingya refugee crisis, the council president said Thursday. Kuwait’s Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said Myanmar authorities were not opposed to such a visit, which could take place in March or April. “They just think that this is not the right time for a visit,” Otaibi, […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) – A wartime bomb was defused in Hong Kong on Thursday after forcing a busy commercial district into lock-down, with roads closed and thousands evacuated from surrounding shops, hotels and offices. It was the second time within a week that an American bomb dropped during WWII had been discovered at a harborfront construction site in Wan Chai. Police sealed off parts of the district after a worker found the device on Wednesday morning, […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – India’s government promised hundreds of billions of dollars to develop poor rural areas and help struggling farmers in its annual budget Thursday, looking to win over voters ahead of the next general election. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would spend $220 billion on rural infrastructure, including building new roads and toilets and bringing electricity to millions of rural households. Jaitley also announced a national healthcare scheme that will enable half […]
by Annabel Symington Agence France-Presse KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — Poor regulation and overcrowding are pushing Everest climbers away from Nepal to China, which is investing millions to boost a rival path to the top of the world. Veteran climbing outfits, fed up with what they regard as a lax attitude to safety on Nepal’s southern flank of the 8,848-meter (29,029-foot) peak, are starting to shift operations to Everest’s north side in Tibet. “The south side […]
by Kyoko Hasegawa Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Eleven people died after a fire broke out at a residence for elderly people with financial difficulties in northern Japan, police said on Thursday. Television footage showed the three-storey building engulfed in flames and dozens of firefighters battling the blaze in snowy conditions. Pictures of the aftermath showed the blackened husk of the building, whose roof had apparently collapsed due to the fire. The victims — […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has denounced US President Donald Trump’s administration as a “gross violator of human rights,” its state media reported Wednesday. The official Korean Central News Agency released its English-language report on Pyongyang’s annual white paper on US human rights violations as Trump began his State of the Union speech, in which he condemned the North. North Korea’s human rights record is heavily criticized by both the United States and […]
by Ben Dooley Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in China on Wednesday as she seeks to bolster her country’s global trade links ahead of its contentious divorce with the European Union. May began her visit in the central industrial city of Wuhan and will be in China until Friday in what the Chinese foreign ministry has touted as a “historic visit.” Later on Wednesday, May will head to […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) – The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist who was jailed in China in a case which further strained relations was Tuesday barred from boarding a flight to visit him in prison. Lee Ming-cheh — an NGO worker arrested during a trip to the mainland last March — was sentenced in November to five years in prison by a court in the central province of Hunan on charges of subverting state power. Human rights […]
ADEN, Yemen (AFP) — Yemen’s government accused southern separatists of an attempted coup on Sunday after they took over its headquarters amid fierce clashes in the city of Aden. The fighting, which killed at least 15 people, threw war-torn Yemen into further chaos and threatened to undermine President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who ordered his forces to stand down. Security sources and residents said clashes appeared to have spread to most of the city. The government […]
by Anna SMOLCHENKO / Ola CICHOWLAS Agence France Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian police on Sunday detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow as thousands rallied across the country against a March election expected to extend Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin term. Heeding a call by Putin’s bete noire, thousands braved freezing temperatures to stage rallies in dozens of cities to protest upcoming “pseudo-elections,” as Navalny and his supporters refer to them. In Moscow, Navalny chanted […]
by Mushtaq MOJADDIDI and Emal HAIDARY Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — An explosives-packed ambulance blew up in a crowded area of Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 158 others, officials said, in one of the biggest blasts to rock the war-torn city in recent years. The Taliban-claimed assault — the second carried out by the militant group in the Afghan capital in a week — triggered chaotic scenes […]
