Asia

Seven-year-old boy missing in Japan forest found alive: officials

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A seven-year-old boy missing since his parents abandoned him in a bear-inhabited forest in northern Japan as a punishment nearly a week ago was found alive on Friday, officials said. The boy, apparently unharmed and in good health, was discovered inside a military base at about 7:50 am (2250 GMT Thursday), a police spokesman said. “A Self-Defence Force official who was on a drill found a boy whose age appeared to […]

6.5-magnitude quake strikes off coast of Indonesia: USGS

PADANG, Indonesia (AFP) — A 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the Indonesian island of Sumatra early Thursday, US seismologists said, but there were no initial reports of casualties or damage and no tsunami alert was issued. Many people were woken by the quake around dawn and ran out of their homes in Padang, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) from the epicentre, an AFP journalist in the city said. The quake took place at 5:56 am local […]

Tokyo governor under fire for spending on luxury hotels, pyjamas

  by Kyoko Hasegawa TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s embattled governor apologised Wednesday in the face of rising public anger over alleged inappropriate spending on everything from luxury hotel suites to children’s pyjamas. Yoichi Masuzoe has come under intense media grilling over lavish outlays on overseas business trips, online auction purchases and accommodation at high-end hotels and spas. Tokyo is set to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, and while the drama is unlikely to impact the city’s […]

Four killed in S. Korea subway site collapse

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Four workers were killed and 10 others injured in a collapse Wednesday at a subway construction site near the South Korean capital Seoul, the fire department said. The victims were doing welding work 15 meters underground when an explosion — possibly of an oxygen tank — caused the surrounding structure to cave in on top of them. Four workers were killed, while the injured, some of them with severe burns, […]

Man loses leg in Australia shark attack

PERTH, Australia (AFP) — A surfer was critical Wednesday after a shark ripped off his leg in an attack in Australia’s west with witnesses recounting how “all hell broke loose” as his board was snapped in half. The attack happened at Falcon Beach, a suburb south of Perth, late Tuesday not long after Surf Life Saving WA, a volunteer non-profit organisation, tweeted that a shark, believed to be a great white, had been sighted in […]

Taliban kill 16 bus passengers in northern Afghanistan: officials

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban killed at least 16 people and kidnapped dozens of others on Tuesday after pulling them from buses in northern Afghanistan, officials said, in the latest assault since the insurgents named a new leader last week. The Taliban have so far not commented on the incident in Aliabad district in the volatile province of Kunduz, where the insurgents briefly overran the provincial capital in a stunning military victory last year. “The […]

6.1 magnitude quake hits Taiwan

(Eagle News) — A 6.1 magnitude quake shook northeast Taiwan, with its epicenter located 57.2 miles or 92 kilometers east northeast of Keelung, Taiwan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake struck 1:23 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, and was felt even in Taipei, the country’s capital, where tremors were felt in buildings.  There were no immediate reports of damage. The previous quake that hit Taiwan happened on May 12, measuring 5.6 in […]

17 killed in India army ammunition depot fire: reports

MUMBAI, India (AFP) — India’s military has a history of fires and other accidents that have been blamed on lax safety standards, including a blaze on a submarine that left two officers dead off the Mumbai coast in 2014. Firefighters using ten fire engines worked through the night to contain the depot blaze, Ramesh Barde, a fire officer with the Nagpur fire department, told AFP. “The fire broke out at 1:30 am (2100 GMT Monday) and […]

Chief Syria opposition negotiator quits over failed peace talks

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The Syrian opposition’s chief negotiator in UN-brokered peace talks has announced his resignation, branding the stalled Geneva negotiations a failure on both the security and humanitarian fronts. “The three rounds of talks were unsuccessful because of the stubbornness of the regime and its continued bombardments and aggression towards the Syrian people,” Mohammed Alloush, a member of the Saudi-backed rebel group Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), said late Sunday in a statement […]

IS-claimed suicide attack kills 7 in Iraq cafe

BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up on Sunday among young Iraqis assembled in a cafe in Moqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least seven people, police said. The Islamic State group, which swept through large parts of Iraq two years ago but no longer holds fixed positions in Diyala province where Moqdadiyah is located, said it carried out the attack. “It was a place where young people were gathered… for now […]

Iraq forces poised for Fallujah assault

by Ammar Karim with Layal Abou Rahal in Beirut BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Elite Iraqi troops were poised Sunday to assault one of the Islamic State group’s most emblematic bastions, Fallujah, as the jihadists counterattacked in both Iraq and neighboring Syria. The fighting prompted a new exodus of thousands of desperate civilians and deep concern for the many more trapped in the battlegrounds. The overall commander of the Fallujah operation, Abdelwahab al-Saadi, said Saturday it […]

Hiroshima survivors recall A-bomb as Obama visits

(AFP) President Barack Obama is making history as the first sitting US leader to visit Hiroshima where an American plane dropped an atomic bomb seven decades ago. Survivors of the world’s first nuclear attack share their stories with AFP. Quentin Tyberghien / AFP