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SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — A top Shanghai official conceded Thursday that the Chinese financial hub had been “insufficiently prepared” for its latest Covid outbreak, as criticism mounts over lockdowns that have caught residents off guard. The eastern megacity of 25 million has been split in two as part of a rolling lockdown plan to battle China’s worst outbreak in two years. The spread of the Omicron variant is testing the country’s zero-Covid strategy, which […]
NOUMEA, France (AFP) — A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck east of the French territory of New Caledonia on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, triggering tsunami warnings for some Pacific islands that officials later said were no longer in effect. The USGS said the tremor struck at 4.44 pm local time (0544 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles), 279 kilometres (173 miles) southeast of Tadine, New Caledonia. It initially gave the magnitude […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) – Two of the five men killed by a Palestinian gunman in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak were Ukrainian nationals, Israeli police said on Wednesday. A police statement identified those slain in Tuesday’s attack, noting that “a foreigner from Ukraine, aged 23” and “a foreigner from Ukraine, aged 32” were among them. According to police, Diaa Armashah, a Palestinian from the West Bank village Yabad, had opened fire in the […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka on Wednesday began imposing record nationwide 10-hour daily power cuts as it ran out of hydro-electricity on top of a severe shortage of fuel. The South Asian nation of 22 million people is in its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, because of a severe shortage of foreign currency to pay for imports. The state electricity monopoly said it was imposing the 10-hour power cut, up from […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in China on Wednesday in his first visit to the key ally since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last month. In a post on its Weibo social media account, the Russian embassy in Beijing confirmed Lavrov had landed in the eastern city of Huangshan, posting photos of delegates descending from a plane and being met by health officials in hazmat suits. Lavrov will attend […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – North Korea faked the launch of what analysts have dubbed its “monster missile” last week, Seoul’s military said Wednesday, adding that the test was, in reality, likely the same intercontinental ballistic missile Pyongyang fired in 2017. North Korea last Friday claimed to have successfully test-fired a Hwasong-17 missile — a long-range ICBM that analysts say may be capable of carrying multiple warheads — which it first unveiled at a military […]
KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) – At least 12 people were killed and 33 wounded on Tuesday when a Russian missile hit a regional government building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, emergency officials said. The strike hit the nine-storey building shortly before 9 am local time, destroying the entire central part of the structure. “The bodies of 12 people have been recovered from the site of the destruction and 33 people have been injured,” Ukraine’s […]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – Thousands of people demonstrated Tuesday in Haiti to denounce a surge in kidnappings and the lack of action by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry to protect the population from crime gangs. The Caribbean nation has been under the sway of gangs for months, their influence extending far beyond the poor neighborhoods of the capital Port-au-Prince that spawned them. “According to the alerts we receive, I’d say that between five […]
by Danny Kemp, with Anne Chaon in Istanbul KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russia pledged to scale down fighting around Kyiv and a second major city following peace talks on Tuesday that Ukraine’s leader said showed “positive” signs, but Western allies made clear their doubts over Moscow’s intentions. Details filtering from the talks in Istanbul raised hopes after more than a month of war that has left thousands dead and millions displaced. Kyiv’s negotiator David Arakhamia […]
by Danny KEMP Agence France-Presse BROVARY, Ukraine (AFP) – When a group of Russian soldiers burst into Valerii Koriachenko’s home in a village east of Kyiv, they told him his house and all his belongings were now theirs, down to his socks and underwear. “They took the rifle off safety and ‘politely asked’ us to go wherever we wanted, and said they were living there now,” said the 50-year-old baker, his bottom lip trembling with […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates on Monday urged Western countries to be “reasonable” in their expectations, underlining its commitment to the global OPEC+ energy alliance. The grouping of the 13 members of the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their 10 allies, including Russia, is an “alliance to stay”. “We always believe that whatever we do as countries, when it comes to production and this work, it […]
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the United States is forging “strongly” ahead on its growing Asia-Pacific priorities, despite the crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Hosting Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the Oval Office, Biden said the world’s “rules-based order” faces “unprecedented challenges,” but that Washington has not been distracted by the Ukraine war. “Even as we address the crisis in Europe, my […]
