HANOI – A court in Vietnam sentenced a former beauty queen to two years in jail yesterday for falsely promoting gummies as rich in fibre on her social media channels, state media reported. The judges found Nguyen Thuc Thuy Tien guilty of deceiving customers, saying she was aware the fibre content of the candy was...
Tokyo – One person was killed as a major fire damaged 170 buildings in a residential area of the Japanese city of Oita, the local government said on Wednesday. Firefighters were still struggling to extinguish the blaze in the southern city as it spread to a nearby forested mountain. Footage showed firefighters hosing ferocious flames...
TAIPEI – Taiwanese prosecutors charged seven people, including a Chinese national, yesterday with violating national security after they allegedly collected military secrets for China. China claims democratic Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to take it, while Taipei accuses Beijing of using espionage and infiltration to weaken its defences....
WASHINGTON – The United States yesterday said it has delivered a new treatment to prevent HIV in two African countries, months after President Donald Trump dramatically cut global aid. The US plans to expand the rollout of the drug Lenacapavir by working with an international group, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,...
RIYADH – A fatal accident involving a bus filled with Indian pilgrims killed at least 45 people near Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Medina, Indian police said yesterday, in one of the deadliest crashes in the Gulf kingdom in years. “The tragic bus accident involving Indian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia is deeply distressing,” V.C. Sajjanar,...
ADDIS ABABA – Three people have died from the Marburg virus in Ethiopia, the Ministry of Health said yesterday, less than a week after an outbreak was declared. The Marburg virus is one of the deadliest known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period.Also like...
LONDON – The UK government was set to announce sweeping changes to its asylum system yesterday, including drastically cutting protections for refugees and threatening visa bans for countries that refuse to take back irregular immigrants. Here’s what is known so far about the plans, which have been dubbed by the government as the “most sweeping...
VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo XIV decried poverty on Sunday, urging world leaders and Catholics to reach out to marginalised people, as the Church celebrated a “Jubilee of the Poor.” The US pope has made social justice a key theme of his papacy, now in its sixth month since being made head of the world’s...
JOHANNESBURG – A daughter of former South Africa president Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty at the start of her trial Monday to charges of inciting 2021 riots that left more than 350 people dead. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla (43) is accused of inciting terrorism and public violence via social media after her father was sent to prison...
KANO, NIGERIA – Clashes between rival jihadist factions in northeast Nigeria have claimed some 200 lives in the restive Lake Chad area, intelligence, militia and jihadist sources told AFP on Monday. Fighting between Boko Haram and rival militants from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group broke out in Dogon Chiku on the shores...