North Korean defector criticises China in rare Beijing talk
Beijing (AFP) March 26, 2016 -
A North Korean defector made a rare public appearance in China on Saturday, criticising Beijing's repatriation of asylum seekers despite alleged warnings from South Korea not to speak out.
Hyeonseo Lee, who escaped from North Korea to China in 1997, called on Beijing to let refugees from her original homeland - who it routinely sends back - pass "safely without being caught by the Chinese ...
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Taiwan's KMT picks China-friendly leader after election loss
Taipei (AFP) March 26, 2016 -
Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang party picked a China-friendly leader on Saturday as it struggles to regain public support after a crushing defeat in national elections.
The former ruling KMT lost the presidency to Tsai Ing-wen of the China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in January, as well as control of parliament for the first time in the island's history amid public unease over ...
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Apple says San Bernardino iPhone could affect NY case
New York (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Apple has said the US government's potential ability to unlock a phone used by one of the San Bernardino killers means the company may not have to provide help in a similar case in New York.
The tech giant wrote a letter to a federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday, setting out its position after the government said it may have found a way to crack the shooter's iPhone without Apple's help. ...
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Chinese media laud hacker for US spying
Beijing (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Spying on the US is a service to China, state-run media said Wednesday, singing the praises of a man who confessed to hacking American defence contractors on Beijing's behalf.
Chinese national Su Bin, 50, pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from the companies, including plans for transport planes and fighter jets.
In a plea agreement filed Wednesday, he admitted to conspiring with t ...
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Russia to deploy missile systems on Kuril islands: defence minister
Moscow (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Russia will deploy a range of coastal missile systems on the far-eastern Kuril islands, claimed by Japan, as part of its military build-up in the region, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday.
"The planned rearmament of contingents and military bases on Kuril islands is under way. Already this year they will get Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems as well as new-generation E ...
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N. Korea nukes Washington on video, threatens South
Seoul (AFP) March 26, 2016 -
North Korea released a new propaganda video Saturday showing a nuclear strike on Washington and then threatened South Korea with a "merciless military strike" for slandering leader Kim Jong-Un.
Pyongyang has been ramping up the bellicose rhetoric and propaganda for weeks, since the launch of annual South Korea-US war games that it views as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
Seoul and W ...
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Pakistan protests to India after 'spy' arrest
Islamabad (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Pakistan on Friday protested to India after arresting a man suspected of being an Indian spy, sparking a new diplomatic tiff between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
The man was arrested during a raid in the southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistani media reports said quoting local security officials, calling him an agent with India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency. ...
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UN atomic chief warns on 'nuclear terrorism'
Vienna (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
The world needs to do more to prevent "nuclear terrorism", the head of the UN atomic watchdog has warned ahead of an important summit and in the wake of the Brussels terror attacks.
"Terrorism is spreading and the possibility of using nuclear material cannot be excluded," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano told AFP in an interview late Thursday.
"Member states n ...
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Amnesty condemns 'detentions' linked to Xi letter
Beijing (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Amnesty International on Friday condemned reported Chinese detentions linked to a letter calling on President Xi Jinping to resign, after a US-based dissident said his parents and brother were missing.
The reported detentions of New York-based Wen Yunchao's family members would be the latest in a widening crackdown following publication of an anonymous letter calling on Xi to step down for ...
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Nigerian troops free 800 Boko Haram hostages: army
Lagos (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Nigerian troops have freed more than 800 people held by Boko Haram Islamist fighters in multiple villages in the country's restive northeast, the army said Thursday.
All the hostages were rescued in Borno state with 520 recovered in Kusumma village on Tuesday after a confrontation with Boko Haram fighters, and a further 309 from 11 other villages under the Islamist group's control.
"Th ...
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Myanmar army chief vows to uphold democratic transition
Naypyidaw, Myanmar (AFP) March 27, 2016 -
Myanmar's powerful army chief vowed Sunday to keep the nation "on the path to democracy", days before Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government takes office after decades of army rule.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing made the remarks at an annual display of military might by Myanmar's armed forces, a body that long crushed democratic aspirations with an iron fist but has since stewarded the coun ...
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'Missing' bookseller Lee Bo on way back to China: reports
Hong Kong (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo, who went missing three months ago and surfaced in China, is already on his way back over the border after a brief return home, local media reported.
British citizen Lee, 65, returned to Hong Kong Thursday after disappearing in late December, in a case that has raised alarm over Beijing's tightening grip on the region.
But Lee crossed back into the mainland Fr ...
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'Nothing has changed' says abused Hong Kong maid Erwiana
Hong Kong (AFP) March 27, 2016 -
It is just over a year since Erwiana Sulistyaningsih's Hong Kong employer was jailed for horrific abuse of her maid in a case that made headlines around the world.
After pictures of Erwiana's extensive injuries went viral in 2014, the young Indonesian became the face of a movement determined to force change for the army of more than 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong.
Although ...
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Miyajima's LED numbers tell tale of life in Hong Kong
Hong Kong (AFP) March 26, 2016 -
Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima's new work "Time Waterfall" has been shrouded in dense fog for most of the week, his trademark numbers partly hidden as they cascade down Hong Kong's tallest building.
But despite the heavy weather, Miyajima is still hopeful that his creation will deliver a message to the bustling city's residents: to be in the moment.
The 59-year-old's newest work is desi ...
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Australia slams Japan Antarctic whale hunt
Sydney (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
Australia on Friday branded Japan's killing of 333 whales "abhorrent", saying there was no scientific justification for the Antarctic hunt.
The Japanese fleet set sail for the Southern Ocean in December despite a worldwide moratorium and opposition led by Australia and New Zealand, using a loophole in the ban that allows for lethal research.
On Thursday, Japan's Fisheries Agency announce ...
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France's Marineland accused of 'mistreating orcas'
Antibes, France (AFP) March 27, 2016 -
Environmental campaigners said Sunday they were taking legal action against a French marine park, Europe's largest, over the treatment of its orca whales and other animals after many were killed in a recent storm.
The Antibes Marineland reopened a week ago after suffering severe damage in deadly storms that struck the Cote d'Azur, on France's Mediterranean coast, in October.
Many animals ...
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World's nations gather to rescue ocean life
Paris (AFP) March 27, 2016 -
It took a decade to get to the negotiating table, and it could easily take another to finish the job, but UN talks in New York to safeguard life in the high seas finally begin in earnest Monday.
The stakes could hardly be higher, experts and diplomats agree.
Oceans produce half the oxygen we breathe, regulate the weather, and provide humanity's single largest source of protein.
Witho ...
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Bolivia to take Chile to court over water dispute
La Paz (AFP) March 27, 2016 -
Bolivian President Evo Morales said Saturday that his country has decided to file suit against Chile at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a water dispute.
Bolivia argues it owns the Silala spring waters originating in its southwest department of Potosi and that it is not being compensated for Chile's use of the water, which flow across their shared border.
Chile, however, arg ...
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Sierra Leone begins destroying stockpile of 'unuseable' arms
Freetown (AFP) March 26, 2016 -
Police and military arms experts in Sierra Leone began destroying nearly 5,000 "unserviceable weapons" on Saturday in an operation set to last two weeks.
Among the weapons were AK-47 and M16 assault rifles as well as light machine guns manufactured in Canada, technical field manager Ernest Woest told AFP. There were also home-made shotguns seized from rebels after Sierra Leone's 11-year civ ...
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Carbon leads the way in clean energy
Nathan, Australia (SPX) Mar 25, 2016 -
Groundbreaking research at Griffith University is leading the way in clean energy, with the use of carbon as a way to deliver energy using hydrogen.
Professor Xiangdong Yao and his team from Griffith's Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre have successfully managed to use the element to produce hydrogen from water as a replacement for the much more costly platinum.
"Hydrogen pr ...
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TEPCO bungles Fukushima cleanup as robots damaged by Radiation
Tokyo (Sputnik) Mar 25, 2016 -
The much-maligned Japanese energy company is at it again with another technological failure.
Cleanup efforts at the shuttered and leaking Fukushima nuclear plant hit the skids this week as officials were confronted with a new and unexpected challenge: radiation levels are so high that a particularly damaged reactor cannot be accessed, even by robots.
Tokyo Electric Power Company's (T ...
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Astrosat shows RAPID advances in the jungles of Malaysia
Glasgow, UK (SPX) Mar 23, 2016 -
Scottish space science and management company Astrosat has been invited to demonstrate the effectiveness of its revolutionary Recovery and Protection in Disaster (RAPID) system to the Malaysian government in field conditions.
RAPID is a technology solution designed to aggregate, manage, analyse and share critical infrastructure data designed to be a modular system of data layers. This maxi ...
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Philippine mountain fire forces hundreds to flee
Manila (AFP) March 27, 2016 -
A raging fire on the Philippines highest mountain forced hundreds of people to flee from the peak by foot, officials said Sunday.
Firefighters dug ditches that were seven-feet (two metres) deep in their battle to contain the blaze, which began Saturday afternoon and was ongoing 24 hours later, to stop it from spreading on the tourist hotspot of Mount Apo.
There were no reported injuries ...
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Japan court orders dolphin-hunt town to pay damages to Australian
Tokyo (AFP) March 25, 2016 -
An anti-dolphin hunting activist is being paid damages by a Japanese town made notorious by the Oscar-winning film "The Cove," after it refused to let her into its aquarium.
Sarah Lucas, CEO of Australia for Dolphins, two years ago tried to enter a whaling museum in Taiji which keeps whales and dolphins, but was rejected after museum officials said those opposed to whaling cannot enter, news ...
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Research on near-earth space to start with first launch from Vostochny
Vostochny, Russia (Sputnik) Mar 25, 2016 -
Aist 2D will become the first satellite to reach orbit from the Vostochny Space Launch Center, jump starting a series of research projects on near-Earth space and the way it impacts materials used in spacecraft, the press service of the Samara State Aerospace University said in a statement released on Tuesday, March 15.
"Scientists from the Samara State Aerospace University will launch an ...
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