Asia

More than 150,000 Iraqis fled west Mosul fighting: ministry

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi authorities said Thursday that more than 150,000 people have fled fighting in and around west Mosul since security forces launched an operation to retake it from jihadists last month. The International Organization for Migration released displacement figures on Wednesday indicating that nearly 100,000 had fled, but those statistics included fewer people residing outside of camps. According to Iraq’s ministry of migration and displaced, 152,857 people have fled the west Mosul […]

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Tillerson: 20 years of efforts to denuclearize N. Korea ‘have failed’

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that two decades of efforts to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have not worked and that a new approach is needed. “I think it’s important to recognize that the political and diplomatic efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to the point of denuclearization have failed,” he told a press conference with Japan’s foreign minister. “In the face of […]

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Chinese premier warns US against ‘trade war’

By Patrick Baert BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday warned the United States against starting a trade war while expressing optimism that the world’s two largest economies could keep relations steady despite Donald Trump-era frictions. “We don’t want to see any trade war breaking out between the two countries. That wouldn’t make our trade fairer,” Li told reporters at a press conference closing China’s annual parliamentary session. “No matter what bumps […]

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S. Korean prosecutors summon Park for questioning

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday ordered ousted president Park Geun-Hye to appear before them next week for questioning over the corruption scandal that triggered her dramatic downfall. Park, who was dismissed by the Constitutional Court last Friday, will be required to attend a prosecutors’ office in Seoul next Tuesday, a spokesperson said. A criminal suspect in the scandal, Park had repeatedly refused to make herself available for questioning by […]

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Over 800 health workers killed in Syrian ‘war crimes’: report

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 800 health workers have died in “acts of war crimes” in Syria since 2011, in hospital bombings, shootings, torture and executions perpetrated mainly by government-backed forces, researchers said Wednesday. The Syrian government and its ally, Russia, have turned the violent withholding of healthcare into a weapon of war, according to an analysis published in The Lancet medical journal. This “weaponization” of healthcare, […]

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Nepal police demolish camp for earthquake displaced

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) – Nepal police Tuesday demolished the largest remaining settlement of people displaced by a powerful earthquake that struck nearly two years ago, a move that will leave hundreds homeless. Around 100 families were still living in the camp in Kathmandu when police wearing riot gear used bulldozers to flatten the bamboo and tarpaulin structures. “The gods will curse the government. We don’t have our home and can’t rent a room from our […]

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S.Korea prosecutors to summon ex-president Park for questioning

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean prosecutors will summon former president Park Geun-Hye for questioning as a criminal suspect, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Park has been named as an accomplice to the secret confidante at the heart of a corruption and influence-peddling scandal that triggered her dramatic downfall, Choi Soon-Sil. Confirmation of Park’s impeachment by the nation’s top court last week stripped her of immunity from criminal prosecution. “We will decide Wednesday when […]

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50 North Koreans to be deported from Malaysia for overstaying

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia will deport 50 North Koreans for overstaying their visas, the deputy prime minister said Tuesday, in an apparent exception to a departure ban after the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam. The killing of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un last month in Malaysia with VX nerve agent triggered an angry standoff between Kuala Lumpur and Pyongyang that has seen them expel each other’s ambassador and refuse to let their citizens […]

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17 killed in China coal mine accident, state media reports

    BEIJING, China (AFP) — Seventeen Chinese coal miners were killed when a lift used to move workers fell down a shaft, state media reported, the latest deadly mishap in the country’s accident-prone coal-mining industry. The accident occurred Thursday when a cable supporting a mining cage caught fire, causing the rig to tumble down into a state-operated coal mine in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, Xinhua news agency said. An operation to extract the trapped […]

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Merkel says Erdogan terror comments ‘absurd’

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel regards accusations by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that she supports “terrorists” as “clearly absurd”, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said late Monday. “The chancellor has no intention of taking part in a game of provocation,” Seibert said in a brief written statement. “These accusations are clearly absurd.” Erdogan, whose government is embroiled in a spiralling row with European governments over the cancellation of pro-Ankara rallies on their […]

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Expanding Turkey President Erdogan’s powers will cripple democracy: opposition leader

by Raziye Akkoc and Luana Sarmini-Buonaccorsi Agence France Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey will vote against expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers in an April referendum, the leader of the country’s main opposition party has predicted, warning the opposite outcome would cripple democracy by concentrating power in one man’s hands. In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Republican People’s Party (CHP) chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu said even some ruling party voters were against a plan that […]

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