International

Walmart manager kills six in latest US mass shooting

Chesapeake, United States (AFP) by Bastien INZAURRALDE A 31-year-old overnight manager at Walmart shot and killed six people at a store bustling with Thanksgiving holiday shoppers before turning the pistol on himself, authorities said Wednesday, in America’s second high-profile mass shooting in four days. Four other people remained hospitalized in unknown condition following the Tuesday night rampage in Chesapeake, Virginia, police chief Mark Solesky said. The gunman is believed to have died of a “self-inflicted […]

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Newborn killed in Russian strike on Ukraine maternity ward: rescuers

KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) – A newborn baby was killed following a Russian strike that hit a maternity ward in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, Ukrainian emergency services said Wednesday. Overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday, “in the city of Vilniansk in Zaporizhzhia region, as a result of a rocket attack on the territory of the local hospital, the two-storey building of the maternity ward was destroyed,” rescuers said on social media. They […]

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Singapore warns slower economic growth in 2023

SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) – Singapore warned on Wednesday that economic growth could slow to a trickle next year owing to weakness in key export markets including the United States, Europe and China, as rising interest rates and the Ukraine war cause headwinds. The city-state’s economic performance is often seen as a useful barometer of the global environment because of its reliance on trade with the rest of the world. The trade ministry said it expected growth […]

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Dreams of wealth turn to dust for Qatar migrant workers

by Shafiqul ALAM / with Aishwarya KUMAR in New Delhi / and Mikhail FLORES in Manila Agence France-Presse SREEPUR, Bangladesh (AFP) — Hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to Qatar in recent years to work on giant construction schemes as it boosted its infrastructure ahead of the World Cup. Drawn by the prospect of making more money than they could ever hope to at home, migrants make up nearly 90 percent of Qatar’s population […]

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Protests erupt at largest iPhone factory in China

BEIJING, China (AFP) – Large-scale protests broke out at Foxconn’s vast iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, central China, images circulating on Weibo and Twitter on Wednesday showed. Videos showed hundreds of workers marching on a road in daylight, with some being confronted by a row of people in hazmat suits and riot police. Another clip from a livestream video showed dozens of workers at night confronting a row of police officers and a police vehicle with flashing […]

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Indonesia quake survivors appeal for supplies as rescuers trawl rubble

by Dessy SAGITA Agence France-Presse CIANJUR, Indonesia (AFP) — Survivors of an Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 268 people appealed for food and water Wednesday, as rescuers picked through devastated villages with hopes of finding anyone alive fading. The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong quake near the town of Cianjur in West Java needed to be cleared ahead of heavy rains forecast in the […]

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Magnitude-6.1 quake hits northwest Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — A magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck northwest Turkey during Wednesday’s early hours, the US Geological Survey said. The shallow tremor struck about 170 kilometers (105 miles) east of Istanbul, the country’s largest city, according to the USGS. It gave a time of 4:08 am (0108 GMT) and a depth of 10 km. The USGS uses a “fixed depth” of 10 km when initial quake data is “too poor to compute”, according to its […]

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Dubai airport traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels: statement

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) – Passenger traffic at Dubai international airport returned to pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter, a statement said on Tuesday, with volumes nearing 18.5 million at the major aviation hub. Dubai, the world’s busiest airport for international passengers before the Covid-19 pandemic, had 18,455,938 visitors in the three months to September, the biggest number since 17.8 million in the first quarter of 2020. “The growth in passenger traffic has been terrific […]

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New Zealand win toss, bat against India in third T20

NAPIER, New Zealand (AFP) – New Zealand’s stand-in captain Tim Southee won the toss and chose to bat against India after rain delayed the start of the third and final Twenty20 international in Napier on Tuesday. After the first T20 international was washed out in Wellington, India’s Suryakumar Yadav scored 111 off 51 balls to set up a 65-run win at Mount Maunganui on Sunday. Southee is standing in for Kane Williamson who has a medical […]

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Large quake rattles Solomon Islands

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AFP) – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Solomon Islands on Tuesday, swaying buildings, hurling items off shelves and briefly knocking out power in parts of the capital Honiara. There were no reports of serious injuries or major structural damage. “This was a big one,” Joy Nisha, a receptionist with the Heritage Park Hotel in the capital told AFP. “Some of the things in the hotel fell. Everyone seems OK, but panicky.” At one […]

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US, China defense chiefs meet in Cambodia

by W.G. Dunlop Agence France-Presse SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP) — US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe in Cambodia on Tuesday as the two sides move to keep tensions in check. The meeting on the sidelines of a conference of defense ministers in Siem Reap — which lasted for an hour and a half — was the first between Austin and Wei since June, before a visit by US House Speaker […]

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38 killed in central China fire

BEIJING, China (AFP) – Thirty-eight people were killed and two were injured after a fire at a plant in central China, state media said Tuesday, citing local authorities. The fire broke out at a plant in Anyang City in Henan Province on Monday afternoon, news agency Xinhua reported. State media said rescue services first received reports of a fire at 4:22 pm (0822 GMT) at Kaixinda Trading Co., Ltd. “After receiving the alarm, the municipal fire […]

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