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By Kang Jin-kyu SEOUL, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – South Korea’s birth rate fell to a record low last year, the government said Wednesday, despite having poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability. The country has one of the world’s longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates, a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge. Neighbouring Japan is grappling with the same issue, and on […]
By Claire LEE SEOUL, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – More than half a million students in South Korea sat the crucial national university entrance exam Thursday, with authorities taking extraordinary measures, including halting flights, to minimise distractions. The nine-hour test, which was taken by 504,588 pupils this year, is crucial for securing spots in top universities. It is also considered key to elevated social status, lucrative careers, and even marriage prospects. Enormous pressure placed on […]
SANTIAGO, Nov 9, 2023 (AFP) – Hunger affected some 43.2 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022, about 6.5 percent of the region’s population, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday. While an improvement from 2021, the figure was higher than pre-Covid — representing some six million extra hungry people from 2019, the agency said in a regional overview of food security and nutrition. The FAO cited the pandemic, the climate […]
WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2023 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden condemned the killing of a six-year-old Muslim boy as a “horrific act of hate” on Sunday, after authorities charged the assailant with murder and hate crimes for an attack allegedly linked to the war between Israel and Hamas. The child was stabbed 26 times by his landlord on Saturday and later died at hospital, while his 32-year-old mother was also wounded but expected to survive, […]
LONDON, Sept 25, 2023 (AFP) – The UK’s inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis is set to “cut lives short” and “significantly widen the wealth-health gap”, according to a study published by open access journal BMJ Public Health on Monday. Modelling conducted for the study predicted that the proportion of people “dying before their time” (under the age of 75) will rise by nearly 6.5 percent due to the sustained period of high prices. The most deprived […]
By Camille LAFFONT Agence France-Presse BILMA, Niger, June 9, 2023 (AFP) — At the edge of an oasis almost engulfed by the dunes, where the rare caravan still passes, is a desert landscape punctured by holes. The salt pans of Kalala, near Bilma in northeastern Niger, were once an essential stop for traders with their swaying lines of camels. Salt digging, carried on from generation to generation, was a thriving business, involving a commodity so […]
By Inès BEL AIBA Agence France-Presse MINNEAPOLIS, May 22, 2023 (AFP) – It’s been nearly three years since a white police officer put his knee on George Floyd’s neck, asphyxiating the African-American man and sparking mass protests against racism and police violence. As the anniversary approaches of the May 25, 2020 killing — which was captured on video and went viral around the world — AFP came back to ask his aunt, a protester, […]
NEW YORK, May 4, 2023 (AFP) – New York prosecutors are investigating the death of a homeless man put in a chokehold by a fellow rider on the city’s subway, in an incident that has sparked outrage. The death of Jordan Neely — who US media identified as a Michael Jackson impersonator who often performed on the train — was caught on camera and has angered homeless advocacy groups. The incident also touches on two […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — A Brazilian court on Wednesday ordered the countrywide suspension of messaging app Telegram after its parent company failed to provide data sought by authorities on neo-Nazis operating on the network, officials said. The move came after a spate of violent school attacks, at least one of them linked to exchanges on a group with anti-Semitic leanings. Justice Minister Flavio Dino said the court had fined Telegram a million reais […]
Facebook and Instagram began a week-long rollout of their first paid verification service on Friday, testing users’ willingness to pay for social media features that until now have been free. Facing a drop in advertising revenues, parent company Meta is piloting a subscription in Australia and New Zealand before it appears in larger markets. The service will cost US$11.99 on the web and US$14.99 on the iOS and Android mobile platforms. From Friday, subscribers […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Monday 1/23/2023 Japan’s low birth rate and ageing population pose an urgent risk to society, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday, pledging to address the issue by establishing a new government agency. Birth rates are declining in many developed countries, but in Japan the issue is particularly acute because it has the world’s second-highest proportion of people aged 65 and over, after the tiny state of Monaco, according to World […]
by Ludovic EHRET Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the world’s most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis. The nation of 1.4 billion has seen birth rates plunge to record lows as its workforce ages, in a rapid decline that analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers. The population […]
