One man was killed and 10 others injured in Singapore Friday when a partially-built elevated highway they were working on collapsed, authorities said, a rare construction accident in the city-state. The worker who died was Chinese, as were three of the injured. The other seven were Bangladeshis, officials said. About 60 emergency officials rushed to … Read more
Four women in pink remain on standby 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to come to the aid of their “sisters” in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. The four — two medics and two drivers — are leading a pilot project for a women-only pink ambulance service that aims to expedite medical care … Read more
A top East Timor official has been banned for life from taking part in any football-related activity after he accepted money to lose a match against Malaysia, the Asian football body said Thursday. Orlando Marques Henriques was found guilty of receiving $15,000 from a third party to arrange for seven players from the East Timor … Read more
A team of Afghan girls who had been denied visas to attend a Washington robotics competition spoke of Donald Trump’s support Thursday after US authorities changed course and allowed them to come. Clutching Afghan flags and waving to photographers, the schoolgirls boarded a plane in Herat in western Afghanistan Thursday afternoon to begin the long … Read more
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday wrapped up a four-day mission to the Gulf with little sign of progress in resolving the diplomatic crisis pitting Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar. Tillerson met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani for the second time in 48 hours, together with a Kuwaiti mediator, … Read more
Israeli ministers have frozen a plan to allow for the construction of thousands of Palestinian homes in a West Bank city, a statement said Thursday, a move that followed Israeli settlers’ objections. Israel’s security cabinet took the decision in a meeting Wednesday, the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, despite ministers having previously … Read more
Qatar Airways’ outspoken boss Akbar Al-Baker accused neighbouring Gulf states Thursday of “bullying” his country during the region’s political crisis and said his company’s profits would be hit by the dispute. Baker insisted that Qatar could sustain the impact of what he called a blockade imposed on Doha, but conceded that an impact on profits … Read more
An Iranian cancer researcher with alleged links to a hardline militia in the Islamic republic says he was denied entry to the United States and deported with his family. Mohsen Dehnavi had flown to the US with his wife and three small children to conduct postdoctoral research at Boston Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University. … Read more
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy said Thursday Israel would supply the Palestinians with millions of cubic metres of water annually, as Washington seeks to build confidence for fresh negotiations. Jason Greenblatt hailed an “important step forward” in a wider regional water deal, as Israel announced it would provide more than 32 million … Read more
Rights campaigners on Thursday welcomed an “overdue” reform in Saudi Arabia to allow girls to take part in sports at state schools in the ultra-conservative kingdom. The education ministry on Tuesday said state schools for girls would offer physical education from the next academic year providing they had the facilities. “This overdue reform is absolutely … Read more
A group of Afghan school girls taking part in a robotics competition in the US have been granted visas to attend it, after their initial applications were denied, US media said. US President Donald Trump had urged authorities to rethink their decision, AP news agency said. A US travel ban is in place for six Muslim-majority countries, … Read more
Near Mosul’s war-ravaged historic heart, Maher Al-Nejmawi watches a worker repainting his long-abandoned stall. Residents of Iraq’s second city are trying to put their lives back together after months of fighting. “Here, a car bomb exploded. Over there, a rocket hit the building,” says Nejmawi, a 29-year-old car battery and tyre salesman dressed in a … Read more
A group of Afghan school girls taking part in a robotics competition in the US have been granted visas to attend it, after their initial applications were denied, US media said. US President Donald Trump had urged authorities to rethink their decision, AP news agency said. A US travel ban is in place for six Muslim-majority countries, … Read more
South Korea’s central bank on Thursday tweaked upwards its growth forecast for Asia’s fourth-largest economy this year, citing strong exports. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said the bank was forecasting a 2.8 percent rise in gross domestic growth (GDP), 0.2 percentage points higher than an earlier projection made in April. It was the second … Read more
Worshippers quietly passed through metal detectors as they entered the central mosque in China’s far western city of Kashgar under the stern gaze of stone-faced police officers. The increasingly strict curbs imposed on the mostly Muslim Uighur population have stifled life in the tense Xinjiang region, where beards are partially banned and no one is … Read more
The UN’s World Food Programme announced Wednesday it has resumed aid deliveries in parts of Syria’s Raqa province for the first time in three years using a newly-opened land route. The deliveries come as thousands of civilians are being displaced by a US-backed campaign to oust the Islamic State jihadist group from the provincial capital … Read more
The UN aid chief on Wednesday blamed Yemen’s warring parties and their foreign backers for a ‘man-made’ cholera outbreak affecting 320,000 people in a country already reeling from war and severe food shortages. “This cholera scandal is entirely man-made by the conflicting parties and those beyond Yemen’s borders who are leading, supplying, fighting and perpetuating … Read more
A first herd of boycott-busting cows has been airlifted to Qatar to boost milk supplies five weeks after neighbouring Gulf states cut links with the emirate. The several dozen Holsteins were flown in from Budapest, the first of 4,000 cattle to be imported by August. The bemused bovines took to their new surroundings at a … Read more
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, touring the crisis-hit Gulf for a round of intense shuttle diplomacy, arrived in Saudi Arabia Wednesday for talks with four Arab states boycotting Qatar. Tillerson will meet with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Jeddah in an attempt to mend fences … Read more
Pakistan will raise the rate of contraception use to at least 50 percent within the next three years, the health minister has said, in a bid to help control its fast-growing population. Observers have warned that Pakistan’s population boom is negating any economic progress, using up valuable resources in a young country where jobs are … Read more