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US-China rivalry and divisions over regional leadership threatened to overshadow a landmark summit of island leaders that got under way Tuesday in the Fijian capital, Suva.
A Hong Kong activist with terminal cancer was jailed Tuesday for attempted sedition over a planned protest against Beijing's Winter Olympics that was foiled by a pre-emptive arrest.
A Mexican schoolboy was set on fire and badly burned in a classroom -- his "only crime" was speaking an Indigenous language in a country struggling to end racial discrimination.
A new programme costing $23.5 million to study the long-term impact of climate change on Singapore was announced by Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu on Tuesday (12 July).
Twitter shares plunged Monday as Elon Musk issued a mocking, defiant commentary about a looming court battle after he ditched a $44 billion buyout of the social media giant.
Tech firm wooed owners of publications in Europe and India as it sought favourable treatment from governments, documents show
Family and friends of assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe gathered at a Tokyo temple Tuesday for a private funeral, as mourners outside condemned the leader's "despicable" murder.
The Erik ten Hag era at Manchester United got off to a highly encouraging start as they routed arch-rivals Liverpool 4-0 in their pre-season friendly in Bangkok.
A video of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, published Tuesday showed police waiting for more than an hour before breaching a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.
Britain's ruling Conservative party was Wednesday to winnow down the eight candidates vying to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid growing acrimony over alleged dirty tricks. Johnson was to face one of his last sessions of Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons before his successor is announced on September 5, after controversially blocking an opposition Labour bid to evict him sooner. The Labour party had been seeking Wednesday to force a Commons vote of no confidence in Johnson's premiership, arguing the UK can ill-afford weeks more of Tory infighting given a cost-of-living crisis and challenges such as the war in Ukraine. But the government refused to give the motion time for debate, in a move dubbed unprecedented by constitutional experts. Johnson was forced last week to announce his resignation after a stunning cabinet revolt -- including by then finance minister Rishi Sunak -- following a string of scandals that left the Conservatives sliding in opinion polls against Labour. It was a spectacular fall from grace for a politician who secured a landslide election win in December 2019 and took the UK out of the European Union just a month later, before the Covid pandemic struck. Conservative MPs were to vote on the eight candidates who survived an initial cull Tuesday, with a result expected around 1600 GMT Wednesday. Those failing to get 30 votes will be eliminated. A series of votes will be held into next week until there are just two left in the race. Grassroots party members will then be balloted. While Johnson himself says he will stay above the fray, his remaining loyalists have not held back in rubbishing frontrunner Sunak, and have been coalescing behind the right-wing foreign secretary, Liz Truss. Sunak's camp denied orchestrating a plot to boost the standing of less favoured candidates in the hope of seeing off stronger contenders such as Truss, before the final runoff vote by party members. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who withdrew from the race to support Sunak, also pushed back at the claims that his candidate had been a "socialist chancellor" for overseeing a massive support package during the pandemic. Sunak has since been stressing the need to balance the books, in contrast to a free-for-all series of tax cuts promised by leadership rivals that have drawn concern from the Bank of England and independent economists. Sunak came top in Tuesday's list of nominations from Tory MPs, ahead of former defence minister Penny Mordaunt, Truss, and foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat. Former junior minister Kemi Badenoch, new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt and Attorney General Suella Braverman rounded out the eight. jit/gw
XERXIA join Brazil's LOUD as the first two teams to be eliminated from Masters Copenhagen in 11th-12th place. But they did put up a fight. Here's how the series went
Sri Lanka's embattled president flew out of his country early Wednesday, in a probable prelude to his resignation after months of widespread protests over the island nation's worst-ever economic crisis.
Hundreds of thousands of people were under lockdown in a small Chinese city Tuesday after just one case of Covid-19 was detected, as Beijing's strict no-tolerance virus strategy showed no sign of abating.
Kyiv said Tuesday it had launched artillery barrages that a destroyed a Russian arms depot and carried out a "special operation" to free military captives in the Moscow-controlled Kherson region. The bombardments in the south came as the EU green-lit one billion euros in aid for Ukraine and Turkey announced that delegations from Moscow and Kyiv would meet in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss the resumption of stalled grain deliveries across the Black Sea. The bombardment overnight in the Kherson region, which Russian forces captured soon after they invaded in late February, were reported as Kyiv tries to claw back territory in the south. Ukrainian military officials said the strikes had destroyed artillery, armoured vehicles "and a warehouse with ammunition" in Nova Kakhovka. Russian-backed authorities, however, accused the Ukrainians of damaging civilian infrastructure and killing at least seven people, a toll that could not be independently verified. "There are no military targets here," the head of the city's Moscow-backed administration, Vladimir Leontiev, said on social media. "Warehouses were hit, as were shops, a pharmacy, petrol stations and even a church," he added. Ukrainian military intelligence said separately that its troops had rescued five people in a "special operation" in Kherson, including a military serviceman and former police officer, without specifying when. - EU financial aid - The Ukrainian army has for several weeks been waging a counter-offensive designed to recapture Kherson, while Russian troops have focused on trying to capture the entire eastern Donbas region. The deputy head of the pro-Russian authorities in Kherson, Ekaterina Gubareva, accused Ukraine of having used long-range, precision artillery systems supplied by the United States in the strikes in Nova Kakhovka. Military analysts are crediting newly arrived systems from the West -- including HIMARS from the United States -- with attacks deeper in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, including on ammunition depots. EU member states, which have been supplying Ukraine with military support, on Tuesday also approved one billion euros in financial support for Kyiv. "This will give Ukraine the necessary funds to cover urgent needs and ensure the operation of critical infrastructure," said Zbynek Stanjura, the finance minister of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU's rotating presidency. The United States, however, cautioned Monday that Iran was planning to supply drones with combat weapon capabilities to Russia for use in Ukraine. Russian forces early Tuesday launched "massive" strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, with missiles hitting two medical facilities and residential buildings, the city's mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said. The regional head, Vitaliy Kim, said 12 people were wounded. - 'Front getting closer' - The heaviest fighting in recent weeks has centred on the industrial east in the Donbas where Moscow's forces have slowly advanced despite fierce resistance since failing to capture Kyiv after its February 24 invasion. Ukrainian emergency services said the death toll had risen to 35, two days after Russian bombardment flattened a residential building in the eastern town of Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region of the Donbas. In Bakhmut -- one of the few remaining cities under Ukrainian control in the eastern region -- AFP journalists could hear nearby artillery fire. "I'd like to evacuate too but my parents don't want to. Everyone has gone. I only have one friend left here," said eight-year-old Sofia, watching around two dozen people gather near the town hall to evacuate further west. "The front is getting closer," said municipal offical, Dmytro Podkuyidko, estimating the more than one-third of the town's esimtated population of 73,000 have fled. "If it gets worse, I'll end up leaving too," Podkuyidko said. The Kremlin has been working to consolidate its hold over territories it controls like Kherson, both militarily and bureaucratically since the beginning of the conflict. After Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday passed a decree fast-tracking Russian passports for all Ukrainians, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was expected Tuesday to open a representative office for separatist authorities in Moscow. burs-jbr/jm
Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency after the crisis-hit nation's president fled to the Maldives, with protesters also demanding the prime minister quit.
The region is facing a greater risk of attacks by home-grown extremists who are inspired by “cyber jihad” linked to ISIS, said the Internal Security Department.
Faced with a doubling of Covid hospitalizations in recent months, US health authorities reiterated the need Tuesday for vaccine vigilance to fight the pandemic, even as the jabs' immunity against new Omicron subvariants remains unclear.
Humanity's view of the distant cosmos will never be the same.
US senators on Monday demanded Meta address reports that its Facebook and Instagram social networks have been censoring information about how to legally get an abortion.
Show us any hint of structure, philosophy or progress. That is what Asian fans are looking for among the Manchester United squad under Erik ten Hag, says Neil Humphreys.