Bangkok/ AFP Seventeen girls died after a fire swept through the dormitory of a school for children of hill tribes in northern Thailand, officials said on Monday, with a survivor describing fleeing as flames engulfed the building. The fire started late Sunday night, meaning many of the children at the school run by a Christian charity were asleep as ...

  Nicosia/ AFP Cypriots disaffected by three years of economic downturn have protested at the polls, staying away in droves and electing two far-right lawmakers in an echo of the populist wave sweeping Europe. Final results released on Monday showed that 3.7 percent of voters backed the National Popular Front (ELAM), a party which defends the Athens-inspired coup of 1974 ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea on Monday rejected the latest proposal by the North to hold military talks, saying Pyongyang first needed to take steps towards abandoning its nuclear arsenal. The North’s leader Kim Jong-Un offered the military dialogue during a speech to a recent congress of the ruling Workers’ Party—the first event of its kind for more than ...