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South Korea’s opposition said Thursday it filed an impeachment motion against acting president Han Duck-soo, after he refused to appoint Constitutional Court judges to complete the process of removing his predecessor from office.South Korea fell in a political crisis when President Yoon Suk Yeol, currently suspended, declared martial law on December 3.Yoon was stripped of …

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An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan after travelling far off course, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, officials said.The Embraer 190 aircraft that was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia, but instead flew across the Caspian Sea …

Azerbaijani jet crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38 Read More »

Emotional ceremonies began across Asia on Thursday to remember the 220,000 people who died two decades ago when a tsunami devastated coastal areas around the Indian Ocean, in one of the worst natural disasters in human history.On December 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummelled …

Tsunami memorials begin as Asia mourns disaster 20 years on Read More »

Pope Francis called for “arms to be silenced” around the world in his Christmas address on Wednesday, appealing for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan as he denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza.He used his traditional message to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics to call for talks for a just peace …

Pope calls for ‘arms to be silenced’ in Christmas appeal Read More »

Angry protests broke out Wednesday in Syria over a video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine, with a war monitor saying one demonstrator was killed in Homs city.In an unrelated incident in Tartus province, a stronghold of deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported deadly clashes over …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Wednesday an “inhumane” attack from Russia, which launched over 170 missiles and drones, knocking out power in several regions on Christmas Day and killing an energy worker.The country woke up at 5:30 am (0330 GMT) to an air raid alarm, followed shortly by air force reports that Russia had launched …

Zelensky condemns Russian ‘inhumane’ Christmas attack on energy grid Read More »

More than 1,500 prisoners escaped from a Maputo prison Wednesday, taking advantage of the third day of unrest triggered by the controversial confirmation of the long-ruling Frelimo party as the winner of recent elections. A total of 1,534 detainees escaped the high-security prison located about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the capital, said national police chief Bernardino …

Mass jailbreak in Mozambique amid post-election unrest Read More »

Survivors and victims’ relatives will this week mark the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 220,000 people across more than a dozen countries.A 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island triggered huge waves that swept into coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand …

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: what to know 20 years on Read More »

Emotional ceremonies were expected across Asia on Thursday to remember the 220,000 people who died two decades ago when a tsunami devastated coastal areas around the Indian Ocean, in one of the worst natural disasters in human history.On December 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s western tip generated a series of massive waves that …

Asia to mourn tsunami dead with ceremonies 20 years on Read More »

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, officials said.The Embraer 190 aircraft that was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia but instead flew across the Caspian Sea and went down near the …

38 dead as Azerbaijani jet crashes in Kazakhstan Read More »