Jakarta (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 Indonesia’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law approving the relocation of its capital from slowly sinking Jakarta to a site 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) away on jungle-clad Borneo island that will be named “Nusantara”. The House of Representatives vote provides the legal framework for the move, which was first tipped by President Joko Widodo in April 2019, citing rising sea … Continue reading Indonesia passes law paving way for capital’s move to Borneo

Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 Hong Kong independence activist Edward Leung, whose now-banned slogan became a rallying cry during the 2019 pro-democracy movement, was released from jail in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday after serving nearly four years. Leung, 30, was the face of localist group Hong Kong Indigenous and a rising star on the political scene as a fledgling pro-independence movement gained momentum … Continue reading Hong Kong independence activist Edward Leung released from jail

Bogota (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 A 14-year-old environmental activist has been shot dead in Colombia, indigenous groups and officials said, in the latest such attack in the world’s deadliest country for environmentalists. Breiner David Cucuname was one of two people killed while taking part in a rural security patrol Friday by an indigenous guard in the southwestern Cauca department plagued by violence between illicit armedhttp://dlvr.it/SHNbCy Continue reading Environmental activist, 14, shot dead in Colombia

Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 Hong Kong will cull hundreds of hamsters after some tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Tuesday, as the city pushes to maintain its strict “zero-Covid” strategy. The Chinese territory’s staunch adherence to the mainland’s “zero-Covid” policy has kept the number of cases low, but maintaining it has cut the finance hub off from the rest of the world for … Continue reading Hong Kong to cull hamsters after Covid found in pets

Qadis, Afghanistan (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 Survivors of twin earthquakes in Afghanistan that killed at least 22 people said Tuesday they had to spend the night without shelter in plummeting temperatures, after hundreds of buildings were damaged in the tremor. Rescuers meanwhile searched for more survivors of Monday afternoon’s quakes that jolted Qadis district in the western Badghis province, a rural area not easily accessible … Continue reading Rescuers search for survivors after deadly Afghan quakes

Antananarivo (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 At least 10 people have died in flash floods triggered by torrential rain that battered Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo overnight, an interior ministry official said Tuesday. “The floods caused landslides and houses collapsed,” Sonia Ray, spokeswoman for the ministry’s disaster management office, told AFP. Two people have been injured and more than 500 displaced from their homes, accorhttp://dlvr.it/SHNbCj Continue reading Ten killed by floods in Madagascar capital

Paris (AFP) Jan 18, 2022 Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: – Pandemic ‘nowhere near over’ – The Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says. “With the incredible growth of Omicron globally, new variants are likely to emerge,” he warns. Separately the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan warns against the notion that the pandhttp://dlvr.it/SHNb9z Continue reading Coronavirus: Latest global developments

Beijing (AFP) Jan 17, 2022 China’s birth rate plummeted to a record low last year, official data showed Monday, as analysts warn that faster-than-expected ageing could deepen economic growth concerns. Beijing has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly ageing workforce, slowing economy and the country’s weakest population growth in decades. The birth rate of the world’s second-biggeshttp://dlvr.it/SHK3cl Continue reading China’s birth rate at record low in 2021: official

Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 17, 2022 It may look like lobster and taste like lobster, but Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog is warning hungry hot pot fanatics that the shellfish-tasting meatballs do not, in fact, come from under the sea. Meatballs are ubiquitous in food-obsessed Hong Kong – offered up on skewers by lunchtime food vendors and also a popular menu item in hot pot and … Continue reading Hong Kong watchdog shell-shocked no crustacean in lobster meatballs

Tokyo (AFP) Jan 17, 2022 Persistently high levels of ozone pollution in Asia are costing China, Japan and South Korea an estimated $63 billion annually in lost rice, wheat and maize crops, a new study says. While ozone forms a protective layer around the Earth in the upper atmosphere, it is a harmful pollutant at ground level. It is created by a chemical reaction when … Continue reading Ozone pollution costs Asia billions in lost crops: study