TOKYO (AFP): A huge black barrier to block Mount Fuji from view will be installed in a popular photo spot by Japanese authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behaved foreign tourists. Construction of the mesh net -- 2.5 metres (8 feet) high and the length of a cricket pitch at 20 metres -- will begin as...
BEIJING (Reuters): Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 26 told the United States’ top diplomat Antony Blinken that the world’s two biggest economies should be “partners, not rivals”, adding that there were a “number of issues” to be resolved in their relations. “The two countries should be partners, not rivals,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster...
Before it was forced to close over its “intolerable” treatment of animals, the Islamabad Zoo was home to neglected elephants and underfed lions pacing back and forth behind the bars of their enclosures. Now, four years later, it is a rehabilitation centre for Pakistani wildlife, providing a refuge for motherless leopard cubs, tigers seized from owners...
NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Police in India arrested a man at the New Delhi international airport on April 25 for impersonating a Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilot, after he was found walking around the airport dressed in full pilot gear. In a fashion not dissimilar to the semi-fictional Hollywood film Catch Me If You Can starring...
PHNOM PENH/NEW YORK (AFP): New York prosecutors said Friday they had returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 antiquities that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by networks of American dealers and traffickers. The antiquities were valued at a total of US$3 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. Bragg said in a statement that he had returned...
BANGKOK (Bloomberg): Voice TV, a Thai media company owned by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s family, said it will cease operations next month and lay off about 200 employees including journalists. Voice TV is known for its television channel with programs reaching about 22 million households nationwide through digital terrestrial, satellite, and cable TV, according to...
TAIPEI (AFP): Taiwan was hit by a series of at least 10 earthquakes in the early hours of Saturday, with the strongest reaching 6.1 magnitude, according to the island's Central Weather Administration. No tsunami warning reports followed the earthquakes, which triggered mobile phone alarms in capital Taipei, an AFP journalist said, and came just several days...
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's King Charles will return to public duties on April 30 following nearly three months of treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. The positive news about the king's health comes after a tough start to 2024 for the royal family. Six weeks after the king's cancer diagnosis was revealed in February,...
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -The trial of internet personality Andrew Tate on human trafficking charges can go ahead, a Romanian court ruled on Friday, 10 months after he was first indicted, although his representative said he would challenge that decision. Tate was indicted in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking,...
BERLIN (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Friday rejected criticism over the arrests of journalists and said the fact that people had access to the internet meant press freedom was assured. "We must protect our media landscape from external negative influences, just like any other country, and everyone must comply with the laws," Aliyev told...
