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A group linked to al-Qaeda claimed Thursday’s attack on the airport of Niger’s capital, Niamey, that killed at least 11 soldiers and two civilians, six months after other jihadists staged a large assault on the sensitive site. Twenty-two attackers were also killed as security forces repelled the raid on the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s defence ministry said. Gunfire erupte...
A group linked to al-Qaeda claimed Thursday’s attack on the airport of Niger’s capital, Niamey, that killed at least 11 soldiers and two civilians, six months after other jihadists staged a large assault on the sensitive site. Twenty-two attackers were also killed as security forces repelled the raid on Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s defence ministry said. Gunfire erupted ea...
An attack on Thursday on the airport and military airbase in Niger’s capital killed 11 members of the security forces and two civilians, the government said in a statement, without identifying the perpetrators. The first explosions were heard at around 6am local time, witnesses said, and sporadic gunfire was still audible nearly two hours later at the airport in Niamey, which was targeted by the ...
The death of a young tourist who jumped from a runaway horse carriage in Central Park has intensified calls to ban the old-time attraction from one of New York City’s most recognisable destinations. Romanch Mahajan, 18, died after he got off the four-wheeled carriage as its horse sprinted through the park without the driver. He was believed to be the first person to die in a horse carriage acciden...
New York City leaders including Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday vowed to work to put an end to the 150-year-old horse carriage industry in the wake of a teenager’s death. Romanch Mahajan, 18, was killed when a Central Park carriage horse bolted from its driver while he was on a family trip celebrating his high school graduation. Mahajan jumped out of the carriage after his mother fell out and he ...
British police said on Friday they had released a man who had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 3-year-old boy ended up in a zoo’s crocodile enclosure, saying he had not been fit for an interview. The boy is in a critical but stable condition in hospital after staff at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a farm and zoo in central England, pulled him from the enclosure following the in...
A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a three-year-old boy ended up in a crocodile enclosure at a zoo in central England on Thursday, resulting in him sustaining critical injuries, police said. Cambridgeshire Police said officers were called following reports of an incident at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a zoo near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which resulted in the boy being...
All living US ex-presidents – with the notable absence of current White House occupant Donald Trump – joined a star-studded line-up on Thursday for the opening of Barack Obama’s presidential centre in Chicago. Obama, 64, struck his trademark hopeful tone in a speech inaugurating the modernistic centre. The country’s first black president alluded to fears among many Americans that US democracy was ...
All living US ex-presidents – with the notable absence of current White House occupant Donald Trump – joined a star-studded line-up on Thursday for the opening of Barack Obama’s presidential centre in Chicago. Obama, 64, struck his trademark hopeful tone in a speech inaugurating the modernistic centre. The country’s first black president alluded to fears among many Americans that US democracy is i...
Former US president Barack Obama is getting a little help from his friends, including three former presidents, in celebrating the opening of his presidential museum in Chicago. The guest list for Thursday’s dedication ceremony includes Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera and Bono. Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama posed for pictures before the ceremony with former preside...
US President Donald Trump is not expected to have a phone call with Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te any time soon, despite saying earlier that he would be open to speaking with the person “running” the island. Two people familiar with the matter said there had been no movement towards arranging such a conversation, which was reliant on the American leader’s willingness to take the initiative. Three ...
Hong Kong property tycoon Gordon Wu Ying-sheung has said he is “very optimistic about the future of China” due to its “stability” as he received the Game Changer Award from the Asia Society for his contributions to the country’s development. At a fireside chat on Thursday after receiving the award from the city leader, the 90-year-old founder and chairman of Hopewell Holdings said he has been bett...
North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, condemned a G7 call for the country’s denuclearisation as a violation of its constitution and an infringement of sovereignty, state media KCNA said on Thursday. Kim said denuclearisation was an “irreversibly finalised agenda” that could never be realised, and that nuclear possession was North Korea’s core interest and an irrev...
A US$300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran has emerged as a flashpoint in a newly reached ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran, raising fresh questions over who will ultimately bear the cost. Outlined in a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the United States and Iran after more than 100 days of conflict, the fund commits Washington to work with regional partners o...
A Vietnamese police operation rescued about 400 pet cats destined for the dinner plate, uncovering a nationwide racket fuelling the country’s rampant pet meat trade that uses a criminal corridor running from the south to the north. Hundreds of desperate cat owners rushed to a Ho Chi Minh police headquarters over the weekend to see if their lost pet was among the cats rescued from traffickers by po...
Trials are under way in China to roll out autonomous navigation and other smart shipping solutions to slash logistics costs ahead of the opening of the landmark Pinglu Canal, which will link its landlocked southwestern regions to Southeast Asia to spur trade and connectivity. Intelligent barges and other vessels have been tested on the artificial waterway in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region si...
The British ambassador to China has paid a rare visit to a Chinese communist heartland where President Xi Jinping performed hard labour as a young man. Ambassador Peter Wilson on Wednesday visited Yanan in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi along with Lu Kang, vice-minister of the Communist Party’s International Department, the department said. State newspaper China Daily said Wilson mad...
US President Donald Trump lashed out at critics of his agreement with Iran on Thursday, calling those who accused him of offering concessions to end the war “fools”, ahead of negotiations in Switzerland on implementing the deal. Oil prices tumbled after Trump and his Iranian counterpart separately signed their accord to end the Middle East war, with the Strait of Hormuz to reopen but two months of...
Two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London found guilty of spying on activists were sentenced to up to 10 years in jail on Thursday. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, 65, an administrative manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), was sentenced to eight years in prison for assisting a foreign intelligence service at the Old Bailey. Co-defendant Peter Wai Chi-leung, 40...
A Thai police officer who tried to flee after shooting his wife and her mother with his service weapon outside a gym was chased down and detained by two fitness trainers. Responding to reports of gunshots, officers from Nang Rong Police Station arrived at the two-storey fitness centre owned by the shooter’s wife behind Sra Ya Ma Market in Buriram province on Wednesday afternoon, according to the T...
A sharp sell-off in Indonesian assets has taken on a political tone online, with some social media users alleging, without evidence, that Singapore stands to gain from a “Sell Indonesia” narrative around Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. The rupiah has slipped to multiple record lows and weakened about 8 per cent this year, crossing a key level and trading above 18,000 to the US dollar last week, ...
The deal between the US and Iran aims to halt the war and energy disruptions that have rattled the global economy, but observers warn the agreement is built on ground too shaky to guarantee a lasting peace. US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian electronically signed a long-anticipated memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday to end the US-Israel war on Iran....
Israel’s foreign minister said on Thursday that he was severing all contact with the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas over reported remarks in which she allegedly compared Israel to the apartheid regime that once ruled South Africa. Diplomatic relations between Israel and the EU have come under heavy strain since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, as well as over violence by Israeli se...
Towngas customers are facing higher bills as Hong Kong’s largest piped-gas provider will raise tariffs by 4.4 per cent in August, citing higher operating costs, while pledging no further changes over the next two years. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company (Towngas) said on Thursday that the tariff increase would result in about half of its commercial and industrial customers paying no more than HK...
Chinese state media and influencers have pushed back on criticism of hit indie movie Dear You, which has been described as a tool to expand Beijing’s influence over the Chinese diaspora. The Chinese media’s counterpunch this week came in the countdown to the movie’s release in Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets on Thursday. The film, which is in the Teochew dialect of Chinese, depicts a y...
More than 90 per cent of mainland Chinese families moving to Hong Kong under the city’s talent visa schemes have cited their children’s education as the primary reason for relocating, according to a survey. The survey by Beacon Group, one of the city’s largest tutoring and college admissions consultancies, was published on Thursday and showed that nearly 80 per cent of the respondents chose to mov...
Doctors in southern China had to remove two 10cm-long living worms from the arm of an anguished woman after she reported a big lump. The woman, surnamed Wang, said the lump, which first appeared on her arm a year ago, got bigger and bigger. Eventually, it ballooned to the size of a quail egg. Wang said the sharp pain from the swollen mass prompted her to seek medical treatment at Shenzhen People’s...
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at Nato allies on Thursday, announcing a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security. “This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly towards Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibi...
Hong Kong’s Housing Authority will roll out two schemes in September to promote more efficient use of subsidised homes by allowing owners to lease properties without paying a premium and encouraging elderly owners to swap properties for a smaller or remote flat. The two initiatives received the green light from the subsidised housing committee of the Housing Authority, the city’s major public hous...
Hong Kong’s Housing Authority will roll out two schemes in September to promote the effective use of subsidised homes by allowing owners to lease properties without paying a premium and encouraging elderly owners to swap properties for a smaller or remote flat. The two initiatives received a green light from the subsidised housing committee of the city’s major public housing provider, the Housing ...
