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by Philippe RATER Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Thursday denied international port access to four North Korean ships suspected of carrying or having transported goods banned by international sanctions targeting Pyongyang, diplomats told AFP. The ban of the four vessels — the Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Sam Jong 2 and Rye Song Gang 1 — brings the UN’s total number of blocked ships to […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called an explosion that tore through a Saint Petersburg supermarket, wounding 13 people, “an act of terror.” “As you know, an act of terror took place in Saint Petersburg yesterday,” he said at a meeting of military officers in the Kremlin. The homemade bomb went off in a locker at the supermarket on Wednesday evening, officials said. Anna Mityanina, vice governor of Saint Petersburg, […]
By Mushtaq Mojaddidi Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — At least 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded in multiple blasts at a Shiite cultural centre in Kabul on Thursday, officials said, in the latest deadly violence to hit the Afghan capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban was quick to deny involvement in the assault near the Afghan Voice Agency, a media outlet which earlier reports had […]
INDORE, India (AFP) — He is inspired by Bollywood and has a Freddie Mercury-style moustache — but it is the Michael Jackson dance moves of traffic cop Ranjeet Singh that grab attention on India’s chaotic streets. Heads turn and drivers cannot fail to notice when the 38-year-old moonwalks across busy intersections, avoiding rickshaws and trucks in the centre of Indore, a city of two million people. “I have been a Michael Jackson fan for years […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The United States and Germany urged China to free an outspoken government critic known as “Super Vulgar Butcher” on Wednesday after he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Wu Gan, who refused to plead guilty to charges of “subverting state power,” was on Tuesday handed one of the harshest punishments meted out to a group of lawyers and activists swept up in a major crackdown two years ago. “The embassies […]
by Patrick Lee Agence France-Presse SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AFP) — An Australian grandmother who said she was tricked into carrying drugs into Malaysia after falling for an online romance scam was Wednesday cleared of trafficking, a crime punishable by death. Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto wept and hugged her son after being found not guilty of smuggling crystal methamphetamine, a rare outcome in a country where hundreds of people have been sentenced to death for drugs […]
by Jung Ha-Won Agence France-Presse NAMYANGJU, South Korea (AFP) — Barking at their rescuers, labradors, beagles and mongrels desperately scrambled out of rusty cages in South Korea: saved from the dinner plate by a deal with dog-meat farmer Kim Young-Hwan. In the face of falling demand, Kim agreed to close his establishment in exchange for compensation from US-based Humane Society International (HSI). The dogs are bound for a new life in adoptive homes in the […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is preparing to launch a satellite, a Seoul newspaper said Tuesday, as outside observers warn that the nuclear-armed regime’s space program is a fig leaf for weapons tests. Pyongyang is under multiple UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests and is prohibited from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology including satellites. “Through various channels, we’ve recently learned that the North has completed a new […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — The detention of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar was extended for two more weeks, a court said Wednesday, in the pair’s first public appearance since their December 12 arrest under a draconian colonial-era secrecy law. Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27 — Myanmar nationals who had been reporting on a military-led crackdown on Rohingya Muslims — were arrested after being invited to meet police for dinner on the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States sanctioned two North Korean officials on Tuesday over the development of ballistic missiles, as Russia and America’s top diplomats held talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Tensions have escalated after the isolated but nuclear-armed regime staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests, most recently on November 28. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un have also traded personal insults. “Treasury is […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Foreign and local journalists jailed for flying a drone near Myanmar’s parliament could be released from prison in early January after police dropped additional charges that carried at least three more years behind bars, their lawyers said Tuesday. Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia, who were on assignment for Turkish state broadcaster TRT, were detained late October along with Myanmar journalist Aung Naing Soe and […]
TIANJIN, China (AFP) — A Chinese court sentenced an activist known by the online pseudonym “Super Vulgar Butcher” to eight years in prison Tuesday after he refused to plead guilty to charges of “subverting state power.” Wu Gan, who was taken into police custody in May 2015, attracted authorities’ attention with performance art and caustic commentary on Chinese society and politics that he published online. He was “dissatisfied with the current system of governance, and […]
