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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — A long-range Chinese combat drone capable of carrying a large weapons payload has circled Taiwan, the island’s defense ministry said Friday. Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of an attack by Beijing, which views the island as part of its territory. Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 38 Chinese aircraft, including a TB-001 drone nicknamed the “twin-tailed scorpion”, around the island between 6:00 am (1000 GMT) Thursday and 6:00 am Friday. […]
PEKANBARU, Indonesia (AFP) — Eleven people drowned in western Indonesia after a passenger boat carrying dozens overturned, an official said Friday. Rescuers saved 62 people and found the bodies of mostly women and children after the accident off the coast of western Riau province on Thursday afternoon, local search and rescue agency official Kukuh Widodo said in a statement. “The capsized boat carried 74 people. Sixty-two survived the incident, 11 are dead, and one other […]
KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russian missile strikes targeted several Ukrainian cities overnight including the capital Kyiv, officials said Friday. At least five people were killed in strikes that hit the central cities of Dnipro and Uman. While Russia regularly bombed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure last winter, the massive strikes had tailed off in recent months. Kyiv had not been targeted by missiles in more than 50 days. Most fighting is now taking place in the […]
Shenyang, China (AFP) by Matthew WALSH Once jailed for murder, Cao Yongsheng now makes a living caring for the dead, benefitting from a bold rehabilitation scheme that’s giving some of China’s most serious criminals a second life as funeral workers. It is a rare campaign to help former prisoners, many of whom say a lack of reform programmes, a resultant skills shortage and deep-seated discrimination push them towards reoffending. Cao served 17 years behind bars […]
by Fabien Zamora China and Ukraine’s leaders speaking this week raises the unflattering prospect of Kyiv and the West having to reject a Chinese proposal to end the Ukraine war, analysts say. The one-hour conversation between Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday was the first since Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour more than a year ago. Xi, who has refused to condemn President Vladimir Putin’s invasion and maintained cordial ties with Moscow, advocated peace […]
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2023 (AFP) – Climate activists attacked a famous Degas sculpture in a Washington museum Thursday, smearing its Plexiglas enclosure with paint. The French artist’s wax sculpture of ‘La petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ was attacked with stripes of red and black paint, the National Gallery of Art reported. The incident was one of the first of its kind in North America. The gallery said in a statement to AFP that the work […]
Deaths from hunger are on the rise in Africa because of droughts worsened by climate change and conflict, UN officials and non-governmental organisations said Thursday. Their warning is the latest in a series of statements from campaigners and experts warning that Africa is facing an unprecedented food crisis. There is a death by starvation every 36 seconds on average in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the UN’s children’s organisation UNICEF and NGOs Care and Oxfam told […]
NAIROBI, April 27, 2023 (AFP) – Kenya said on Thursday that one of the country’s highest-profile pastors would face charges over the “mass killing” of his followers, just days after the discovery of dozens of bodies in mass graves linked to another church. Ezekiel Odero, the head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, “has been arrested and is being processed to face criminal charges related to the mass killing of his followers,” Interior […]
ABOARD THE BRP MALABRIGO , April 27, 2023 (AFP) – A Chinese coast guard ship cut off a Philippine patrol vessel carrying journalists in the disputed South China Sea, causing a near-collision, an AFP team on board another boat saw. The near-miss off the Spratly Islands on Sunday was the latest in a steady string of incidents between China and the Philippines in the contested waterway. AFP was one of several media outlets invited to […]
Beijing, China | AFP | Thursday 4/27/2023 by Jing Xuan TENG From Ukraine to the Middle East, Beijing is positioning itself as a mediator with a leading role in solving the world’s crises. Xi Jinping’s phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday was the Chinese and Ukrainian presidents’ first contact since Beijing’s strategic ally Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. AFP answers some key questions about China’s diplomatic ambitions and its plans for Ukraine: – What […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky by phone on Wednesday, the first known call between the two leaders since the start of Russia’s invasion. The nearly one-hour discussion, which reportedly included Xi advocating for peace negotiations, was met by Russian accusations that Ukraine was undermining efforts to end the fighting. Beijing says it is neutral in the Ukraine conflict and Xi has never condemned the Russian invasion, but the Chinese […]
MADRID, April 27, 2023 (AFP) – An unusually early heatwave in drought-hit Spain is set to peak on Thursday and Friday with temperatures expected to break April records in the south of the country. Since Monday, Spain has been enveloped by a mass of warm, dry air from North Africa that has driven up temperatures to “levels normally seen in summer and exceptionally high for this time of year,” said Spain’s state weather agency AEMET. […]
