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 satellite […]
International
Thousands protest pardon of Peru’s ailing ex-president Fujimori
by Luis Jaime Cisneros Agence France Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Thousands of Peruvians marched in Lima on Monday to protest the pardon of ailing ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses. Current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski ordered the pardon of Fujimori and seven other prisoners on Sunday on humanitarian grounds, once again placing himself in the middle of a political crisis just days after he avoided impeachment. On […]
Japan jobless rate lowest since 1993
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s unemployment rate in November dipped to its lowest level since November 1993, official data showed Tuesday, offering another sign that the world’s third-largest economy is on track to recovery even if the place is slow. Figures released by the government showed unemployment stoof at 2.7 percent last month while jobs-to-applicants ratio improved slighty, up 0.01 percent from the previous month to 1.56 in November — the highest level in almost […]
Peru’s pardoned ex-president Fujimori still in hospital
by Luis Jaime Cisneros Agence France Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori remained in intensive care in a Lima hospital on Monday, a day after he was granted a pardon for his 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity. Current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski ordered the pardon on Sunday on humanitarian grounds for Fujimori and seven other prisoners. He said the decision relied on a medical evaluation that Fujimori suffered a progressive […]
Following Trump, Guatemala to move embassy to Jerusalem
by Edgar Calderon Agence France Presse GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — Guatemala said Monday it is starting the process of moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, after President Jimmy Morales announced he would follow US President Donald Trump’s controversial lead on the city. Morales wrote a message to Guatemalans on his Facebook page Sunday, saying he had spoken with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that “one of the most important topics was the return of […]
Four dead after Moscow bus ploughs into underpass
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Four people were killed Monday when a Moscow bus ploughed into a pedestrian underpass in the west of the city, officials said. It was not immediately clear what caused the accident as authorities said they were looking into several possibilities, including a technical malfunction. Authorities did not mention terrorism as a possible cause. “Nine people are currently in the city’s clinics… four people died on the spot,” the Moscow city hall […]
Russia bars Navalny presidential bid
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Central Election Commission on Monday unanimously rejected top opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s bid to run against President Vladimir Putin next year, leading him to urge a boycott of the polls. The commission voted 12 to zero in barring Navalny from the presidential election, citing a controversial embezzlement conviction for which he received a five year suspended sentence. Navalny’s crime qualifies as “serious” and therefore rids the individual of the right […]
Artist ‘released’ in China after Liu Xiaobo tribute
BEIJING, China (AFP) — An artist that could not be reached for more than a week after he painted a politically charged mural in southern China wrote on Twitter Monday that he has been “released”. “I was released a few days ago and we are in my hometown now,” the Twitter account of painter Hu Jiamin read days after Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported that the couple had been taken away by plainclothes men. Hu noted […]
Six dead in suicide attack near Afghan spy agency: officials
KABUL Afghanistan (AFP) — A suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a compound belonging to the Afghan intelligence agency in Kabul on Monday, killing six civilians, officials said. The attacker struck at a time when workers were arriving at their offices. It comes a week after militants stormed a National Directorate of Security (NDS) training centre in the Afghan capital. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP six civilians in a car were […]
150 trapped in French Alps ski lifts
LYON, France (AFP) — Around 150 skiers in the French Alps were rescued after being trapped for several hours when their ski lift broke down on Sunday. The rescue operation lasted about two hours, Franck Lecoutre, head of the tourism office in the Chamrousse ski resort, near Grenoble, told AFP. “They will all be in time for Christmas Eve,” he said, noting that no one had been hurt. The weather was clear for the rescue operation. The […]
Peru’s ailing ex-president Fujimori pardoned
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and rights abuses, has been pardoned on humanitarian grounds, the presidency announced on Sunday. “The president of the republic… has decided to grant a humanitarian pardon to Mr Alberto Fujimori and seven other people in similar condition,” it said in a statement. Fujimori was transferred from his cell to a clinic Saturday suffering from low blood pressure […]
N. Korea slams new UN sanctions as an ‘act of war’
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea slammed fresh UN sanctions imposed over its missile tests as an “act of war” on Sunday, its first response to the latest diplomatic move to punish Pyongyang’s ever-accelerating weapons drive. Tension has been high on the flashpoint peninsula as the isolated but nuclear-armed regime has staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests — most recently on November 29. The latest launch of the Hwasong-15 […]