It was an unlucky day in the Burmese calendar, farmer Yar Swe Kyin warned her husband in July, begging him not to go out to check on their crops.Hours later he was dead, killed by one of the countless landmines laid by both sides in Myanmar's three brutal years of civil war.In the evening, "I heard an explosion from the field," she told AFP at her home in ...

Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles -- Taliban authorities are working to remove "un-Islamic" and anti-government literature from circulation.The efforts are led by a commission established under the Ministry of Information and Culture soon after the Taliban swept to power in 2021 and implemented ...

Peruvian authorities said Tuesday they have tightened security at the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu after tourists there were filmed dispersing what were believed to be human ashes.Last week, citizens in Peru were outraged by a non-dated video on Tiktok in which a woman at the tourist site took ashes from a plastic bag and threw them in the air, then hugged ...

Gunshots, screams, eerie laughter: South Korea's border island Ganghwa is being bombarded nightly with blood-curdling sounds, part of a new campaign by the nuclear-armed North that is driving residents to despair.Before it started, 56-year-old Kim Yun-suk fell asleep to the hum of insects and woke to the chirping of birds. Now, she is kept awake every night ...

A study published Tuesday estimates that tax dodging enabled by the United States, the United Kingdom, and other wealthy nations is costing countries around the world nearly half a trillion dollars in revenue each year, underscoring the urgent need for global reforms to prevent rich individuals and large corporations from shirking their obligations.The new ...

Brazilian police said they arrested four soldiers on Tuesday over an alleged plot to assassinate then President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a 2022 "coup."The four "were arrested in Rio, where they were participating in the security operation for the G20 leaders' meeting," a federal police source told AFP, adding that a police officer was also taken ...

Booming Indigenous Maori "haka" chants rang out across New Zealand's capital on Tuesday, as tens of thousands rallied against a conservative push to redefine the nation's founding treaty.More than 35,000 demonstrators poured into the harborside city of Wellington, police said, shutting down busy streets as their spirited procession inched its way towards ...

Floodwaters reaching more than four meters high swamped thousands of houses in the storm-battered northern Philippines on Tuesday after rivers overflowed following heavy rain and a dam release.Typhoon Man-yi drenched swaths of the Philippines over the weekend, swelling the Cagayan river and tributaries, and forcing the release of water from Magat Dam.The ...

G20 leaders met in Rio de Janeiro on Monday for talks on climate change, ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, and more, at a forum that highlighted differences between world powers but also delivered some successes.Here are five key takeaways from the summit:- No climate breakthrough -Hopes were high that G20 leaders would jumpstart stalled UN climate ...

A Hong Kong court on Tuesday jailed all 45 defendants convicted of subversion in the city's largest national security trial, with "mastermind" Benny Lai receiving the longest term of 10 years.International condemnation was swift, with Western countries and rights groups slamming the sentencing as evidence of the erosion of political freedoms in the city ...

Dozens of lawmakers from across the world called Tuesday for the immediate and unconditional release of pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, before he is due to give evidence in his collusion trial in Hong Kong.Parliamentarians and foreign affairs experts from at least 22 countries and the European Parliament signed an open letter, expressing concern about the ...

A U.S. lawmaker critical of COP29 host Azerbaijan said he was nearly assaulted when he attended the climate talks in what he called an orchestrated attack by the government."It was no question that if it wasn't for the fact that security that the embassy hired protected me, I would have been in the hospital," Representative Frank Pallone told reporters on ...

Spain's King Felipe VI said Tuesday he and his wife Queen Letizia will next week return to the epicenter of the country's catastrophic floods, where survivors heckled and hurled mud at them during their last visit."We do not yet have the date or the itinerary, but yes it will take place," the king told reporters during a visit to Betera in the eastern ...

Police in central Thailand said they barricaded themselves into their own station over the weekend, after a menacing mob of 200 escaped monkeys ran riot on the town.The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population and authorities have built special enclosures to contain groups of the unruly residents.But on ...

An Indigenous lawmaker was censured by Australia's parliament Monday for heckling King Charles about the legacy of European settlement during his October visit to Canberra.The censure carries no practical punishment but passed the Senate Monday with 46 votes in favor and 12 against.During the king's visit to parliament, independent senator Lidia Thorpe ...

In a new book set to be released this week, Pope Francis I endorsed a genocide investigation into Israel's war on Gazawhich has killed or maimed more than 150,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened millions more over the past 13 months."In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a ...

Schools in Beirut were closed on Monday after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital killed six people including Hezbollah's spokesman, the latest in a string of top militant targets slain in the war.Israel escalated its bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in late September, vowing to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow Israelis displaced by ...

Thirteen Bangladeshi former top government officials arrested after the revolution in August appeared in court Monday accused of "enabling massacres", with prosecutors repeating extradition demands for exiled ex-leader Sheikh Hasina.Dozens of Hasina's allies have been taken into custody since her regime collapsed, accused of involvement in a police ...

An off-color joke by media executive Tom Rogers on MSNBCs The 11th Hour jolted other guests on set and caused the shows host to shriek with laughter.The moment came Friday night during a discussion about the controversy swirling around former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetzs selection as President-elect Donald Trumps next attorney general. But I do agree he will ...

The deaths of 23 children in Johannesburg this year from suspected food poisoning has ignited anger in South Africa against foreign nationals who run small corner shops known as spazas.There is still police tape around a now-closed spaza shop in Soweto's Naledi area that allegedly sold snacks to six young children who died from poisoning in October.The ...

French prosecutors demanded Wednesday that far-right leader Marine Le Pen receive a jail sentence and be banned from public office for five years over charges she embezzled European Parliament funds. The prosecution made the request in a Paris court where Le Pen and other defendants from her National Rally party are on trial accused of creating fake jobs ...

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake thanked voters Friday for delivering his leftist coalition a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections that repudiated establishment parties blamed for triggering an economic crisis.Dissanayake, a self-avowed Marxist, swept September presidential elections on a promise to combat graft and recover stolen ...

Hundreds of people fled Friday as Typhoon Man-Yi bore down on the Philippines, threatening yet more destruction even as rescuers tried to reach people stranded on rooftops by the last tropical cyclone.Five major storms have battered the archipelago nation in the last three weeks, killing at least 163 people and prompting the United Nations to request $32.9 ...

Political science student Saul Lara awakes around 4:00 am to begin his long journey -- over two hours by motorcycle taxi and crowded metro -- from the outskirts of Mexico City to school.The tiring commute illustrates the hardships brought by a crippling housing crisis in the Mexican capital, which has particularly impacted young people.As well as studying, ...

Juan Luis Guerra was the big winner of Thursday's Latin Grammys gala that saw the Dominican take home both the coveted best record and best album prizes thanks to his his fusion hit "Mambo 23" off "Radio Guira."It was the 25th anniversary of the awards show that was this year held in Miami's Kaseya Center after last year's journey to Spain, the first time ...