BERLIN (AFP) -- Hundreds of anti-lockdown demonstrators defied a court-ordered protest ban on Sunday and gathered illegally in the streets of Berlin, resulting in scuffles with police. Police said some protesters had "harassed and attacked" officers in the capital's western Charlottenburg district and ignored roadblocks. "They tried to break through the police chain and pull out our colleagues. This led to the use of irritants, batons and physical violence," Berlin police t

LONDON (AP) -- Restaurants, ride-hailing apps and food delivery services are backing Britain's COVID-19 vaccination drive, offering discounts and even free slices of pizza to persuade young people to roll up their sleeves and get the shot. The program, announced Sunday by the Department of Health and Social Care, is designed to boost the vaccination rate among adults under 30 as Britain races to inoculate as many people as possible before colder weather arrives. While more than 90% of adults i

BEIJING (AFP) -- Chinese cities rolled out mass testing of millions of people and imposed fresh travel restrictions as health authorities battled Sunday to contain the country's most widespread coronavirus outbreak in months. China on Sunday reported 75 new coronavirus cases with 53 local transmissions, with a cluster linked to an eastern airport now reported to have spread to over 20 cities and more than a dozen provinces. The outbreak is geographically the largest to hit China in several mon

YANGON (AFP) -- Myanmar's junta chief said Sunday that elections would be held and a state of emergency lifted by August 2023, extending the military's initial timeline given when it deposed Aung San Suu Kyi six months ago. The country has been in turmoil since the army ousted the civilian leader in February, launching a bloody crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 900 people according to a local monitoring group. A resurgent coronavirus wave has also amplified havoc, with many hospi

　The United Nations lamented a “dramatic worsening” of world hunger last year, saying much of that is likely connected to the pandemic, and it urged that billions of dollars are needed to save millions of people from starving. 　A report issued jointly by five UN agencies said hunger outpaced population growth in 2020, with nearly 10 percent of all people estimated to be undernourished. 　It said the sharpest rise in hunger came in Africa, where 21 percent of the people - 282 mil

　The South Korean passport was found to be the third most effective one for travelers around the world, allowing its bearers to travel to 191 countries visa-free, data showed. 　Asia’s fourth-largest economy and Germany tied for third, only after Japan and Singapore, in the latest edition of the Henley Passport Index. 　The Japanese passport provides visa-free travel to 193 countries and Singapore to 192 countries. 　The index released by immigration consulting firm Henley & Part

　Three South Korean electric vehicle battery makers accounted for a third of the global market in the first five months of the year, but their share has slightly slipped since last year in the face of toughening competition with Chinese rivals, a market research firm said. 　The trio - LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation - supplied a combined 88.4 gigawatt-hour equivalents of EV batteries in the January-May period, up from 33.6 GWh a year earlier, according to the data by SNE

　South Korea had the second-largest monthly capacity of 200-millimeter-equivalent wafers last year behind Taiwan, a report showed. 　The country, home to major chipmakers like Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, had a capacity of 4.25 million wafers per month, accounting for 20.4 percent of global wafer capacity as of December 2020, according to market researcher IC Insights. 　Taiwan was the capacity leader at 200 mm or 8-inch wafers, taking 21.4 percent of the global capacity. The country,

　TOKYO (AFP) - Olympics chief Thomas Bach revealed “doubts” and “sleepless nights” over the postponed Tokyo Games on Tuesday as the opening ceremony nears after a year‘s delay and coronavirus chaos that has made them deeply unpopular with the Japanese public. 　Bach, speaking at the International Olympic Committee session in Tokyo, said the unprecedented step of postponing the Games “weighed on me” as it proved more complicated than he thought. 　The b

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to avoid a second lockdown last autumn, arguing that most of those dying were over 80, according to his former aide-turned bitter foe Dominic Cummings. 　In a BBC interview airing on Tuesday, the mastermind of Johnson‘s anti-EU Brexit campaign said his former boss “put his own political interests ahead of people’s lives”. 　In the latest of a series of attacks on the government following his resignation as chi

　Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat has overtaken Hong Kong as the world‘s most expensive city for foreign workers, a survey showed. 　Turkmenistan is almost wholly dependent on natural gas exports and has struggled to recover from the global energy price slump in 2014 that battered the local manat currency and plunged many citizens into poverty. 　Despite the long-running economic crisis, authorities broke ground on a major expansion of Ashgabat in May, with autocrat leader Gurbangul

More than 60 people have died and dozens were missing Thursday as severe flooding in Germany and Belgium turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse. Among those killed were nine residents of an assisted living facility for people with disabilities and two firefighters involved in rescue efforts across the region. "I grieve for those who have lost their lives in this disaster,'' German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit to

　Amazon and Apple are the world’s most valuable brands but Chinese brands are rising up the leaders list and are more valuable than Europe’s top brands, according to a global ranking by Kantar’s BrandZ. 　Amazon, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, remained the world’s most valuable brand with an estimated value of $684 billion, followed by Apple, founded in 1976, at $612 billion and Google at $458 billion, Kantar said. 　Tencent, China’s biggest social media and vid

　South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking remained unchanged this year after rising by five notches in the previous year on the back of its efforts to contain the pandemic, a report showed. 　South Korea ranked 23rd in terms of global competitiveness among 64 countries surveyed, according to the 2021 report by the International Institute for Management Development. 　IMD, a Swiss-based international institution, has been releasing the report every year since 1989 based on a country

NAYPYIDAW (AFP) -- Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her personal staff have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 since being taken into military custody, her lawyer said Tuesday, as the country battles a spike in cases. Suu Kyi has been all but invisible since being detained by the military in February, with a handful of court appearances in a special court in Naypyidaw her only link to the outside world. Coronavirus infections are rising sharply in Myanmar, with authorities report