International

Russian airport attacked from own territory, Ukraine says

KYIV, Ukraine, Sept 1, 2023 (AFP) – Ukraine’s military intelligence said Friday that a recent drone attack on an airport in northwestern Russia which damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory. The claim, falling on the first day of the school year, came as President Vladimir Putin told Russian students that their country was “invincible” and police in Kyiv scrambled to respond to bomb threats in schools. The attack this week […]

Heat records topple across sweltering Asia

BANGKOK, Sept 1, 2023 (AFP) – Temperature records are being toppled across Asia, from India’s summer to Australia’s winter, authorities said Friday, in fresh evidence of the impact of climate change. The sweltering temperatures match longstanding warnings from climate scientists and come as countries from Greece to Canada battle record heat and deadly wildfires. In India, the world’s most populous country, officials said this August was the hottest and driest since national records began more […]

Typhoon Saola slams southern China after battering Hong Kong

HONG KONG, Sept 1, 2023 (AFP) – Typhoon Saola roared ashore in southern China early Saturday as a weakened but still dangerous threat that has lashed Hong Kong and forced millions to hunker down for one of the region’s strongest storms in decades. Tens of millions of people across Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other southern Chinese megacities had braced for the menace of a cyclone rated as a super typhoon. And while it delivered a […]

Meta, Google balk as Canada spells out new online news law

OTTAWA, Sept 1, 2023 (AFP) – Ottawa on Friday spelled out how a new law requiring digital giants to pay publishers for news content will work in practice, including how much it could cost Meta and Google. The bill aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade. Effectively it targets only Google and Meta — which control about […]

In Africa first, Uber launches electric motorcycles in Kenya

Uber has announced the launch of electric motorcyle taxis in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in what it says is a first for the company in Africa. The move by the US app-based taxi service comes as the Kenyan government prepares to roll out electric vehicles across the country as part of a green mobility scheme. Uber announced the introduction of the Electric Boda in Kenya on Thursday, with about 3,000 bikes planned initially, saying it […]

Children in war-torn Ukraine go back to school

Children in Ukraine went back to school on Friday as a second academic year began during Russia’s all-out invasion of the pro-Western country. Nearly four million students are returning to learning, both virtually and in the classroom, Ukraine’s education ministry said. Big cities and towns across Ukraine are regularly subjected to artillery, drone and missile attacks and thousands of schools have been damaged or destroyed, according to authorities. “The nation preserved the opportunity for children […]

Sri Lanka policeman sacked for playing piano while president fled

Sri Lanka’s police force said Friday it had sacked an officer who entertained protesters with an impromptu piano performance after they stormed the island nation’s presidential compound last year. Constable R. M. D. Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residence on the day it was taken over by protesters who forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Instead, he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song to […]

5.4-magnitude quake shakes Indonesian island

KUPANG, Indonesia, Aug 31, 2023 (AFP) – A deep, 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern Indonesian island of Timor on Thursday, a US monitor said, shaking residents and forcing them to flee outside but causing no reported casualties or damage. The quake struck at a depth of around 54.6 kilometres on the northwest of Timor island near the city of Kupang at around 6:30 pm local time (1030 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey. It […]

Indonesia arrests 88 Chinese nationals over love scams

BATAM, Indonesia, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Dozens of Chinese nationals were arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of running an online love scam syndicate that ensnared hundreds of victims in China, police said Wednesday. Acting on a tip-off from their Chinese counterparts, Indonesian police arrested 83 men and five women at an industrial park in Batam city in Riau Islands province on Tuesday. Police said the syndicate blackmailed hundreds of victims in China, many of […]

UN warns thousands trafficked into online crime in SE Asia

GENEVA, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of people are being coerced in Southeast Asia by criminal gangs into carrying out online scams, often under the threat of torture, the United Nations said Tuesday. Many have been trafficked into working in online criminality and face serious violations such as torture or sexual violence, the UN said in a report. “People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while […]

EU drug watchdog approves updated Pfizer Covid jab

THE HAGUE, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – The EU’s drug watchdog on Wednesday approved an updated version of Pfizer and BioNTech’s anti-Covid jab to counter an infectious subvariant of the virus as winter approaches. The World Health Organisation in May said it no longer considered Covid-19 a global health emergency, but the virus is still circulating — and new variants are being tracked. The European Medicines Agency said it “has recommended authorising an adapted Comirnaty […]