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by Jung Ha-Won © Agence France-Presse MIRYANG, South Korea (AFP) — Distraught relatives of those killed in a deadly South Korean hospital fire voiced anger Saturday at what they perceived as another man-made disaster in Asia’s fourth largest economy, just as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics. The huge blaze that erupted at the hospital in the southeastern city of Miryang Friday killed at least 37 people including 34 patients — mostly elderly women — and three […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — One of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy activists was banned Saturday from standing as lawmaker in upcoming elections, the latest blow to freedoms in the city as Beijing tightens its grip. Agnes Chow, 21, a former leader of the mass Umbrella Movement protests of 2014 that called for political reform, had her nomination rejected because she supports self-determination for the semi-autonomous city, the government said. It comes as fears grow that […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – Saudi Arabia on Friday released the owner of the influential Arab satellite network MBC nearly three months after his arrest in an anti-corruption drive targeting the kingdom’s elite, sources told AFP. Waleed al-Ibrahim was among some 350 suspects rounded up since November 4, including billionaire princes and ministers who were detained in Riyadh’s luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel. Ibrahim held a family gathering at his residence after his release, three MBC employees told AFP […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – South Korea’s rapid transformation from a war-torn, impoverished backwater to Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a flourishing democracy is a source of great national pride. But a series of preventable disasters — the latest being the hospital fire that killed at least 37 people on Friday — has shaken public confidence in the foundations of the country’s development. Many South Koreans have questioned whether safety standards were sidelined and regulations ignored in […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – Chinese internet giant Tencent said on Friday it will take a stake in the US production company behind the “Mission: Impossible” and “Terminator” series, marking China’s latest incursion into Hollywood. The deal will give Tencent the opportunity to co-finance Skydance Media films, which will benefit from the Chinese firm’s distribution and marketing in the world’s second-largest movie market, firms said in a statement. It did not provide financial details but the Los Angeles […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital on Friday killing at least 37 people, the government said, in the country’s worst blaze for a decade. Around 130 others were hurt in the fire, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics. While South Korea has risen to become the world’s 11th-largest economy, some of its infrastructure […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital Friday killing at least 41 people, reports said, in the country’s worst blaze for over a decade. More than 80 others were hurt in the blaze, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics. Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on to a rope dangling from […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — At least 33 people were killed in a blaze at a hospital in South Korea on Friday, in the country’s worst fire disaster for a decade. More than 70 people were also injured in the second devastating blaze in just a month in one of Asia’s most advanced countries and its fourth-largest economy. Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on to a rope dangling from a helicopter above […]
by Jung Ha-Won Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – A dozen North Korean female ice hockey players entered the South Thursday to form a unified team — the Koreas’ first for nearly three decades — at next month’s Winter Olympics. The Pyeongchang Winter Games have triggered an apparent rapprochement on the divided peninsula, where tensions have been high over the nuclear-armed North’s weapons ambitions. But the unified team has provoked controversy in the South, with accusations […]
by Jenny Vaughan Agence France-Presse HUE, Vietnam (AFP) – By day Nguyen Thi Hoa sold conical hats on the streets of Hue in southern Vietnam, at night she funneled secrets to Communist army handlers who were poised to launch an audacious assault on the city that would reshape the Vietnam War. Hoa was part of the Perfume River squad, a top secret female combat unit formed in 1967 and bound by the communist propaganda slogan: “When the […]
by Natsuko Fukue Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese soldier was killed Tuesday and several other people injured after a volcano erupted near a popular ski resort, sparking an avalanche and leaving scores stranded — including tourists from Britain and Taiwan. Footage broadcast on Japanese television showed thick black smoke interspersed with falling rocks rolling down the snow-covered side of the volcano towards a ski slope. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters […]
by Ben Dooley Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The spill from a sunken Iranian tanker off China’s east coast has more than trebled in size, just over a week after the ship sank in a ball of flames. Authorities spotted three oil slicks with a total surface area of 332 square kilometers (128 square miles), compared to 101 square kilometers reported on Wednesday, the State Oceanic Administration said in a statement late Sunday. […]
