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by Shafiqul ALAM Agence France Presse DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 37 people died when an overcrowded night ferry caught fire in Bangladesh on Friday, police said, as terrified passengers leaped overboard to escape the blaze. The latest maritime tragedy to hit the impoverished low-lying nation happened in the early hours in a river near Jhalokathi, 250 kilometres (160 miles) south of Dhaka. “We have recovered 37 bodies. The death toll may rise. […]
by Shafiqul ALAM DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 32 people died when a packed ferry caught fire in southern Bangladesh on Friday, police said, in the latest maritime tragedy to hit the impoverished low-lying nation. The incident happened early in the morning near the southern rural town of Jhalokathi, 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of the capital Dhaka. The vessel was carrying around 500 people. “The three-storey Obhijan 10 caught fire mid-river. We have […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has “no plans to send government officials” to February’s Beijing Olympics, Tokyo said Friday, after the US and other countries announced diplomatic boycotts over rights concerns. Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto and Japanese Olympic Committee head Yasuhiro Yamashita will attend the Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said. The United States, Britain, Australia and Canada this month announced diplomatic boycotts of the Games over what […]
by Claire LEE Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s ex-president Park Geun-hye has received a pardon, cutting short a jail term of more than 20 years for corruption, the justice minister announced Friday, saying the reprieve was in the interests of national unity. Park became South Korea’s first woman president in 2013, casting herself in the role of the daughter of the nation, incorruptible and beholden to none. Less than […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York’s famous New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will be drastically scaled back due to the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday, as the Omicron variant fuels a “staggering” surge in Covid cases. Typically some 58,000 New Yorkers gather to watch a giant ball drop marking the arrival of a new year, but next week the capacity will be reduced to 15,000, with each attendee required […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK on Thursday set another daily Covid-19 daily infections record, fuelled by the Omicron variant. Some 119,789 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, a day after figures exceeded 100,000 for the first time at 106,122. The UK is among the worst hit countries in Europe with a virus death toll of 147,720. The Office for National Statistics estimated that nearly 1.4 million people in UK households had […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Fifty-five people have tested positive for Covid-19 aboard a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship that set sail Saturday from the southeastern US state of Florida, the company said. The infections on the “Odyssey of the Seas” involved passengers and crew members, even though 95 percent of the people on board were vaccinated against the coronavirus, Royal Caribbean said late Wednesday. Out of an abundance of caution the ship did not […]
by Jing Xuan Teng, with Agence France Presse Bureaus BEIJING, China (AFP) — China shut down a city of 13 million people on Thursday in a bid to extinguish a tiny Covid-19 outbreak and chase its zero-case goal, as other nations around the globe battled huge infection surges driven by the Omicron variant. Early studies from South Africa and Britain gave some cause for hope, however, indicating Omicron infections appear to result in fewer […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — The death toll from Malaysia’s worst floods in years rose to 27 on Wednesday, as a clean-up operation gathered pace and residents assessed the damage unleashed by the disaster. Days of torrential rain caused rivers to overflow at the weekend, swamping cities, cutting off major roads, and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Selangor — Malaysia’s most densely populated and wealthiest state, encircling the capital […]
KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — More than 100 jihadist fighters were killed in air strikes by the Nigerian military last week, security sources and residents told AFP on Tuesday. Fighter jets bombarded three Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) camps in Nigeria’s northeast on Monday last week, killing more than 100 fighters including several senior commanders, the sources said. ISWAP has been consolidating its power in the Lake Chad region since the death in May of […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday Israelis over the age of 60 and medical teams will be eligible for a fouth Covid vaccination, following the recommendation of an expert panel. “The citizens of Israel were the first in the world to receive the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and we are continuing to pioneer with the fourth dose as well,” he said in remarks relayed by his office, calling on […]
Travellers to Hong Kong from Britain will have to initially quarantine in a government camp from Tuesday, joining 12 African nations and the United States on the city’s strictest entry tier. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong has maintained some of the world’s toughest quarantine restrictions, measures that have kept infections at bay but left the finance hub isolated. Those policies have been tightened further since the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant, which has […]
