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Corruption overshadows Ukraine’s multi-billion reconstruction progam

When Bart Gruyaert agreed to help rebuild destroyed apartment blocks outside Kyiv, he hoped to be one cog in Ukraine’s vast reconstruction programme, repairing just some of the damage wrought by Russia’s invasion.But when the French company he works for, Neo-Eco, applied for building permits in the town of Gostomel, the local military administration asked …

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Scientists say world’s largest coral found near Solomon Islands

Scientists say they have found the world’s largest coral near the Pacific’s Solomon Islands, announcing Thursday a major discovery “pulsing with life and colour”. The coral is so immense that researchers sailing the crystal waters of the Solomon archipelago initially thought they had stumbled across a hulking shipwreck. “Just when we think there is nothing left to …

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HRW accuses Israel of ‘war crime’ with ‘forcible transfer’ in Gaza

Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday that Israel’s repeated evacuation orders in Gaza amount to the “war crime of forcible transfer”, and to “ethnic cleansing” in parts of the Palestinian territory.”Human Rights Watch has amassed evidence that Israeli officials are… committing the war crime of forcible transfer,” the report said.”Israel’s actions appear …

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Live-streamed prayers for stressed S. Korean exam parents

Nine-hour prayer sessions, live-streamed speaking in tongues, bowing before a Buddhist altar 108 times: South Korean parents are turning to God as students sit a crucial exam Thursday.The “Suneung” university entrance exam is a major event in the education-obsessed South, and officials take extreme measures, from rescheduling flights to pausing construction, to ensure students can …

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Beijing’s fears after Trump fills key posts with China hawks

Donald Trump’s cabinet of China hawks have likened the nation’s communist rulers to Nazis, levelled Covid conspiracies at them, declared a Cold War, and flagged much greater military support for Taiwan.That is likely to leave Beijing watching warily, experts say, as the United States president-elect surrounds himself with a litany of hardliners who spit strong …

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Man with explosives dies trying to enter Brazil’s Supreme Court

A man with explosives died Wednesday trying to enter Brazil’s Supreme Court in what appeared to be a suicide, officials said, days before the country hosts the G20 summit. “This citizen approached the Federal Supreme Court, tried to enter, failed, and the explosion happened at the entrance,” Brasilia governor Celina Leao told reporters, adding that no …

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Man with explosives dies trying to enter Brazil Supreme Court

A man with explosives died Wednesday trying to enter Brazil’s Supreme Court in what appeared to be a suicide, officials said.”This citizen approached the Federal Supreme Court, tried to enter, failed, and the explosion happened at the entrance,” Brasilia governor Celina Leao told reporters.Early indications are that this was a suicide, and no one else …

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