International

Kim’s sister defends North Korea’s spy satellite capabilities

Seoul, South Korea (AFP) North Korea has developed advanced technologies to take images from space using a spy satellite, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un insisted Tuesday, after experts mocked black-and-white pictures supposedly taken from space in a weekend launch. Kim Yo Jong’s defence of North Korea’s satellite capabilities comes after the isolated country said it conducted an “important final-stage” test for the development of a reconnaissance satellite. But experts in Seoul quickly […]

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UK nurses stage new walkout over pay

London, United Kingdom (AFP) by Joe JACKSON UK nurses on Tuesday staged a second one-day strike amid an increasingly acrimonious fight with the government for better wages and warnings that patient safety could be jeopardised. Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland walked out for the first time in the union’s 106-year history last Thursday. They want an above-inflation pay increase to make up for […]

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Fire at key Russian gas pipeline kills three: governor

Moscow, Russia (AFP) Three people died Tuesday in a fire at a key gas pipeline in western Russia that sends supplies through Ukraine and on to Europe, the regional governor told state-run television. Images circulating on social media showed a large ball of fire billowing over one and two-storey buildings in a snow-blanketed village, with residents moving closer to inspect the blaze. “According to preliminary data, four people were working (at the site). Unfortunately, three […]

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German court convicts 97-year-old in one of last Holocaust trials

  Itzehoe, Germany (AFP) by Céline LE PRIOUX A court on Tuesday convicted a 97-year-old former Nazi camp secretary of complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people in what could be Germany’s last Holocaust trial. Presiding judge Dominik Gross handed a two-year suspended sentence to Irmgard Furchner for her role in what prosecutors called the “cruel and malicious murder” of prisoners at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland. Furchner sat in a wheelchair in […]

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Six dead as Thai navy continues search for missing sailors

Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand  (AFP) by Montira Rungjirajittranon with Thanaporn Promyamyai in Bangkok Six bodies have been found and one survivor was rescued Tuesday, after the sinking of a naval vessel two days ago in the Gulf of Thailand, the Thai navy said. Seventy-six sailors from the HTMS Sukhothai have been hauled from the sea after the vessel went down late Sunday roughly 37 kilometres (22 miles) off the country’s southeastern coast. There were 23 […]

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All hostages freed and captors killed as Pakistan police siege ends

Bannu, Pakistan (AFP) All 33 suspected militant prisoners who seized a Pakistan police station over the weekend were killed and their hostages freed in a clearance operation by special forces on Tuesday, the defence minister said. The hostage takers, who were suspected of being members of various militant groups including the Tehreek–e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), overpowered their jailers and snatched weapons on Sunday. “All the hostages have been freed,” Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament. […]

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Freak wave kills three at S.African beach

Johannesburg, South Africa (AFP) A freak wave killed three swimmers and seriously injured 17 others Saturday at a popular beach in South Africa’s southeastern city of Durban, the emergency services said. “There was a freak wave that washed some people to sea, three have drowned and 17 people have been taken to hospital,” Robert Mckenzie, spokesman of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial first responders services told AFP. One of the dead was a child aged around seven or […]

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Four dead as Thai navy continues search for missing sailors

  Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand (AFP) by Montira RUNGJIRAJITTRANON Four bodies were recovered in the Gulf of Thailand on Tuesday, the Thai navy chief said, following the sinking of a naval vessel two days ago. More than 70 survivors from the HTMS Sukhothai have been hauled from the sea since the vessel went down late Sunday roughly 37 kilometres (22 miles) off Thailand’s southeastern coast. Rescuers in helicopters, two planes, and four vessels — the […]

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US lawmakers release $1.7 trillion spending bill to avert shutdown

Washington, United States (AFP) US lawmakers early Tuesday released the text of a $1.7 trillion funding bill which Congress hopes to pass within days to avert a government shutdown. The bill includes $858 billion in defense funding and will also provide $44.9 billion in emergency assistance for Ukraine. It also includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs, including $118.7 billion for Veterans Affairs medical care, a 22 percent increase, and provides $40.6 billion to help US […]

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6.4-magnitude quake strikes off northern California: USGS

San Francisco, United States (AFP) A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern California early Tuesday but there was no tsunami threat, seismologists said. The relatively shallow quake hit 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the port city of Eureka, in Humboldt county, the US Geological Survey said. In a preliminary assessment, the USGS said there was a low likelihood of casualties but some damage was possible. The National Tsunami Warning Center said a […]

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‘Listen to me’, says Israeli woman accusing top rabbi of rape

  Jerusalem, Undefined (AFP) by Michael BLUM Through weekly protests outside Israel’s parliament, Nehama Teena has demanded an investigation into a prominent rabbi she accuses of rape and sought to break the code of silence surrounding sexual assault in the Orthodox world. “I’m not asking that they take my word for it, only that they listen to me and stop preventing victims from speaking,” the 38-year-old mother of five told AFP. In August, Teena rattled […]

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Russian President Putin says situation in annexed regions ‘extremely difficult’

Moscow, Russia (AFP) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the situation in four territories of Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed was “extremely difficult”. “The situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin told the Russian security services on their professional holiday. Putin singled out those working in the “new regions of Russia”. “The people living there, the citizens of Russia, rely on you, […]

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