Japan whaling ships set out for Antarctic - to count, not hunt
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 8, 2015 -
Japanese whaling ships set sail for the Antarctic on Thursday on the look out for whales, but only to count them and take skin samples, after a UN court ordered an end to the annual hunt.
Two ships - the 724-ton Yushinmaru and the 747-ton Daini (No 2) Yushinmaru - weighed anchor from a port in western Shimonoseki city, a major whaling base, a government official said.
A third boat, the ...
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Gaza's ruined homes offer little shelter from storm
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Jan 8, 2015 -
Living by candlelight with no electricity and reliant on sandbags to stop their ruined homes flooding, Gazans who survived last year's war are now struggling with a brutal winter storm.
As millions across Israel and the Palestinian territories hunkered down for the worst storm of the winter, freezing rain and gale-force winds battered the Gaza Strip where more than 100,000 homes were destroy ...
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Three dead, unknown number missing in Myanmar jade mine landslide
Yangon (AFP) Jan 8, 2015 -
Rescuers continued to comb through rubble Thursday for victims of a landslide at a jade mine in war-torn northern Myanmar that killed at least three people, according to police.
An unknown number of miners are missing after heavy rain triggered a landslide in Hpakant town in Kachin state on Tuesday evening, a local police officer told AFP.
The landslide is believed to have occurred when ...
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US says was overly optimistic on Haiti quake aid
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2015 -
US officials admitted Thursday that Washington had been over ambitious in its plans to help Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, despite pledging about $4 billion in aid.
Five years after the 7.0 quake levelled much of the capital Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010 more than a million survivors left homeless have been rehoused.
But thousands still live in canvas makeshift ...
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Five years on, Haiti struggles with quake legacy
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 8, 2015 -
Five years after a powerful earthquake demolished Haiti's capital, more than a million homeless survivors have been rehoused, but thousands remain under canvas, or struggle with trauma and injury.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, as the world's media scrambled over wreckage dotted with the corpses of more than 300,000 victims, billions of dollars in foreign aid was pledged.
Bu ...
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Standard Chartered to axe further 2,000 jobs
Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 8, 2015 -
Standard Chartered said Thursday it would close a swathe of its global equities business and axe 2,000 jobs around the world this year as it tries to make savings of $400 million as part of a structural overhaul.
The Asia-focused British bank said it had already announced or completed 2,000 job cuts in its retail clients business in the past three months, but 2,000 more were "expected during ...
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Turkey remains keen on European gas
Ankara, Turkey (UPI) Jan 8, 2015 -
Turkey's embrace of a Russian natural gas pipeline project doesn't mean Ankara has turned its back on the European energy sector, the energy minister said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during an early December meeting in Ankara the long-planned South Stream natural gas pipeline "will not be carried out."
South Stream had an optimum capacity of 2.2 trillion cubic feet per ...
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