YANGON, Aug 24, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar authorities have handed over seven people suspected of involvement in online scams targeting Chinese citizens to Beijing authorities, state media reported Thursday. Criminal syndicates are accused of kidnapping or luring citizens of China and other countries to lawless enclaves along Myanmar’s northern and eastern borders and forcing them to work as online scammers. The scammers typically target their compatriots and groom them for weeks before cajoling them into […]
International
Ex-cop in US distraught over divorce opens fire killing three
LOS ANGELES, Aug 25, 2023 (AFP) – A retired cop upset over his failed marriage opened fire at his wife and others at a southern California bar popular with bikers, killing three people and wounding six, authorities said Thursday. Responding officers killed the shooter, who was identified later as 59-year-old John Snowling by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. His wife was wounded but survived the Wednesday night attack, another chapter in America’s gun violence crisis, […]
Trump arrested in racketeering case, mug shot taken
ATLANTA, Aug 25, 2023 (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump was arrested at a Georgia jail on Thursday on racketeering and conspiracy charges and released on a $200,000 bond after having a historic mug shot taken. Trump, who is accused of colluding with 18 other defendants to overturn the 2020 election result in the southern state, spent less than 30 minutes inside Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail before leaving in a motorcade for the airport. […]
Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin offers ‘condolences’ after Wagner plane crash
KUZHENKINO, Russia, Aug 24, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence Thursday on the plane crash a day earlier that reportedly killed mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and other senior members of the Wagner paramilitary group. In televised comments Putin offered his “sincere condolences to the families of all the victims”, describing the crash as a “tragedy”. As well as Prigozhin, the other nine people on board also died. Wednesday evening’s crash took […]
Japan releases water from Fukushima nuclear plant, China furious
NAMIE, Japan, Aug 24, 2023 (AFP) – Japan began releasing wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, prompting a furious China to ban all seafood imports from its neighbour. The start of the discharge of around 540 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water over several decades is a big step in decommissioning the still highly dangerous site 12 years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents. Live video […]
Prigozhin death leaves many unknowns and one assumption
PARIS, Aug 24, 2023 (AFP) – The exact circumstances of the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin remained unclear Thursday, although most experts believe it marks President Vladimir Putin’s vengeance for his short-lived rebellion in June. The head of the mercenary group, which in June attempted to topple Russia’s military leadership, was on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday, with all passengers killed, Russian officials said. Russian social media accounts linked to the opposition […]
Gunman kills three at California bar
LOS ANGELES, Aug 24, 2023 (AFP) – A gunman shot three people dead and wounded at least six others at a bar in the US state of California on Wednesday, police said. The shooter also died in the incident, with police saying there was an “officer-involved shooting” at the location but that no officers had been hurt. “Confirmed 4 deceased at scene, inc. the shooter,” the Orange County Sheriff said on social media. “6 transported […]
Wagner chief Prigozhin among 10 killed in plane crash: Russian officials
MOSCOW, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – The head of the Wagner mercenary group, which in June attempted to topple Russia’s military leadership, was on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday, with all passengers killed, Russian officials said. The crash comes two months after Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a short-lived rebellion — seen as the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power. Since then uncertainty has surrounded the fate of […]
Saudi storm brings lightning, fierce winds to Mecca
RIYADH, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – Fierce storms closed schools Wednesday in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca region, home to Islam’s the Grand Mosque, which was lashed by heavy rains and wind overnight, witnesses said. As pilgrims tried to circumambulate the Kaaba, the giant black cube towards which all Muslims pray, a bolt of lightning struck the iconic Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower hotel, illuminating the night sky late Tuesday. The storm brought gale force winds exceeding […]
Chinese ships chase, block Philippine boats in disputed sea
ABOARD THE BRP CABRA, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – As a US military surveillance plane circled overhead, eight Chinese ships chased and briefly blocked four Philippine boats on a resupply mission to a tiny garrison in the hotly contested South China Sea. The high seas cat-and-mouse game on Tuesday followed assurances from Chinese coast guard vessels patrolling the waters that Philippine boats would be allowed to deliver provisions to the remote outpost on Second Thomas […]
Finland culls 120,000 fur animals after bird flu outbreak
HELSINKI, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – Finland, Europe’s largest producer of fox fur, is culling 120,000 farmed foxes and minks in response to bird flu outbreaks in the country’s fur farms, officials said Wednesday. “A culling order has been issued for 13 farms,” Tuija Gadd, head of the virology unit at the Finnish Food Authority, told AFP. “Culling has already been completed on 10 farms.” H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in seagulls were reported in […]
Around 100,000 people evacuated due to floods in Pakistan
KASUR, Pakistan, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – Families waded through water and cattle were loaded onto boats in a mass evacuation of around 100,000 people in Pakistan’s Punjab province, officials said Wednesday. Several hundred villages and thousands of acres of cropland in the central province were inundated when the Sutlej river burst its banks on Sunday. “The flood waters came a couple of days ago and all our houses were submerged. We walked all the […]
