Teknaf /Â AFP Alam’s short life ended on Saturday in a dark, tattered tent in Bangladesh, the Rohingya child’s skeletal body succumbing to illness contracted while fleeing Myanmar where his stateless people are under attack. He was six-months-old. Alam died hours after arriving at makeshift refugee camp close to Teknaf, the gateway to Cox’s Bazar, a poor, densely populated coastal ...
Read More »Pakistan appoints new army chief
Islamabad/ AFP Pakistan on Saturday appointed General Qamar Javed Bajwa as its new military chief, the prime minister’s office said, in a surprise pick for arguably the most powerful role in the country. Bajwa will take over from the hugely popular General Raheel Sharif, who won the hearts of millions with his bruising campaign against Islamic militants. “President Mamnoon ...
Read More »Final curtain down on symbol of an era
Havana / AFP Cuba’s historic revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died late Friday aged 90, after defying the United States during a half-century of iron-fisted rule and surviving the eclipse of global communism. One of the world’s longest-serving rulers and modern history’s most singular characters, Castro defied 11 US administrations and hundreds of assassination attempts. His younger brother, President Raul ...
Read More »Latin Americans march to condemn violence against women
Buenos Aires /Â AFP Mass marches to condemn horrific violence against women swept Latin America, after a series of brutal murders stoked outrage over a long-smoldering problem in the region. Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Buenos Aires, the latest in a series of massive protests organized by a burgeoning movement against domestic violence and a ...
Read More »Saudi sinks Russia oil talks with OPEC deal in limbo
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia pulled out of planned talks with non-OPEC nations. including Russia, as disagreements about how to share the burden of supply cuts stood in the way of a deal to boost prices just days before a make-or-break meeting in Vienna. OPEC officials were scheduled to meet with non-members including Russia on Monday before a ministerial meeting in ...
Read More »Kuwait goes to polls as opposition ends boycott
AFP Kuwaitis went to the polls on Saturday for the first election contested by the opposition in nearly four years amid fresh disputes over cuts in subsidies due to falling oil revenues. Turnout was high at many of the 100 polling stations with some centres reporting 70 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots with two hours to ...
Read More »Libya under pressure to devalue currency
Bloomberg Libya’s UN-backed government is under mounting pressure to devalue its currency, joining other energy producers from Nigeria to Kazakhstan that have buckled in the face of tumbling revenue and domestic turmoil. The dinar has been steadily weakening on the black market over the past year as the nation’s political rifts thwarted a recovery in oil output. It hit ...
Read More »South Sudan accepts UN peacekeepers with no conditions
JUBA / AP South Sudan’s government has accepted with “no conditions†increase the peacekeeping force in the country as mandated by the U.N. Security Council in August, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Lomuro told the Associated Press on Saturday. “I expect them arrive at any time. The challenge is now on the U.N. to implement and fulfill their promises,†...
Read More »Pollution drives India to champion gas for vehicles
Bloomberg Smothered by increasingly toxic air, India is moving to the forefront of a global push to use more of cleaner natural gas in vehicles. The country’s state-run gas companies are charting ambitious plans to extend the use of natural gas to trucks and scooters, and build infrastructure for long-haul travel on the fuel. Their optimism is reflected in ...
Read More »Japan’s consumer prices dip extending longest streak since 2011
Bloomberg Japan’s consumer prices fell for an eighth straight month — the longest streak of declines since 2009-2011, underlining how distant the nation is from achieving its 2 percent inflat- ion target. Consumer prices excluding fresh food, the Bank of Japan’s primary gauge of inflation, dropped 0.4 percent in October from a year earlier (forecast -0.4 percent.). Overall consumer ...
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