CHARIKAR (AFP) -- Rescue workers were searching Thursday for bodies in the debris of collapsed houses after flash floods fuelled by torrential rains killed at least 162 people in Afghanistan. At least 100 people died in the city of Charikar north of Kabul when flooding overnight on Tuesday caused hundreds of buildings to collapse. Abdul Ghayor, a labourer who was working in the capital, said he had rushed back to Charikar to look for his family only to find his house had been swept away. &q

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian police announced on Thursday they had begun a preliminary examination of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's illness after the Kremlin dismissed German doctors' findings that he was apparently poisoned. Transport police in Siberia said they have started "a pre-investigation check" into what led to Navalny's hospitalisation in the city of Omsk to establish "all the circumstances" and decide whether to open a criminal probe. The 44-year-old polit

ROME (AFP) -- China's foreign minister on Tuesday kicked off a tour of a Europe still reeling from coronavirus, as he seeks to shore up economic and diplomatic relations in light of tensions with the US. Donald Trump's administration has stepped up anti-China rhetoric in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 3, despite ongoing trade talks. On his first European stop in Rome, Wang Yi shied away from naming Washington explicitly, but lamented "provocation and damage from e

JAKARTA (AFP) -- South Korea's LG Electronics has temporarily shut a factory near Indonesia's capital after some 200 employees contracted coronavirus, the company and a local official said Tuesday. The Cibitung plant, which makes televisions and digital sign parts, will shut for nine days after about a third of its 600 employees tested positive. LG would "come up with disinfection measures for the entire property for the safety and health of its employees", it said in a statement.

       DUBLIN (AFP) -- Ryanair will cut its September and October timetable by "20 percent" on weaker-than-expected demand following renewed virus-linked travel restrictions in some European countries, the Irish airline said Monday. "These capacity cuts and frequency reductions for the months of September and October are unavoidable given the recent weakness in forward bookings due to COVID restrictions in a number of EU countries," the no-frill

     PARIS (AFP) -- Amazon France has withdrawn advertisements for child-like sex dolls from its website after an online outcry, the French government said Monday. The French AIVI anti-paedophilia movement alerted authorities on Twitter over the weekend, prompting widespread outrage on social media. Screengrabs of some of the dolls, shared in an online campaign accusing Amazon of facilitating paedophilia, show some of the dolls on offer: likenesses  of pre-pu

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- South Korea's Kim Si-woo aced one hole and lipped out on another hole-in-one bid Saturday on his way to grabbing a two-stroke lead at the US PGA Wyndham Championship. Sparkling on the same course where he won his first PGA title four years ago, Kim fired an eight-under par 62 to stand on 18-under 192 after 54 holes at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. Americans Rob Oppenheim, who shot 62, and Doc Redman, who fired a 63, shared second on 194 in search of

  GENEVA -- The World Health Organization insisted Monday there was still hope of conquering the coronavirus pandemic despite the pain and suffering behind the looming 750,000 death toll and 20 million cases. With both landmarks expected to be reached within days, the WHO said it was never too late to take action to suppress the COVID-19 crisis that has gripped the planet. "This week we'll reach 20 million registered cases of COVID-19 and 750,000 deaths," WHO chief Tedros Adhan

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Two Chinese nationals have been indicted for seeking to steal COVID-19 vaccine research and hacking hundreds of companies in the United States and abroad, including defense contractors, the US Justice Department said Tuesday. Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, also targeted human rights activists in the United States, China and Hong Kong, Assistant Attorney General John Demers said. The indictment comes amid rising tensions between the global superpowers fueled by the coro

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States' COVID-19 virus case load is soaring at an explosive rate, even as leaders of some of the worst-hit states resist mandatory mask measures to stem the spread. Health authorities reported more than 77,600 new cases on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University database. The number of patients hospitalized for the virus is at its highest level since April 23, according to The COVID Tracking Project. The death rate, which plummeted in May and June, ha

NEW DELHI (AFP) -- India on Friday became the third country in the world to record one million coronavirus cases, following Brazil and the United States where infections also continued to surge. The virus has killed more than 588,000 people and infected nearly 14 million around the world since first being detected in China late last year. But, despite extraordinary restrictions on people travelling that have crippled the global economy, the pandemic is worsening in many parts of the world. I

BEIJING (AFP) -- Beijing 2022 organisers were "pressing ahead" with preparations for the Winter Olympics Friday after a senior IOC official warned the coronavirus could force the Games to be postponed. Dick Pound, a former International Olympic Committee vice-president, told AFP that all options would have to be considered if the Beijing Games cannot be held in 2022. Beijing is due to host the Winter Olympics just six months after the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, which have been put ba

MOSCOW (AFP) -- President Vladimir Putin has ordered snap military drills involving 150,000 personnel and hundreds of aircraft and naval vessels to ensure "security in Russia's southwest," the defence ministry said Friday. "In accordance with the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces snap exercises are being conducted by troops of the Southern and Western military districts," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying in a statement. The

BEIJING (AFP) -- US officials have "lost their minds and gone mad" in their dealings with Beijing, China's foreign ministry said Friday, in the latest verbal salvo between the two superpowers. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have run high this year and some of the most outspoken critics of China in American congress were this week hit with sanctions, days after the US imposed visa bans and asset freezes on several Chinese officials. US Attorney General Bill Barr added fuel t

A Seoul court on Friday slashed disgraced former president Park Geun-hye's prison terms by 10 years, in what should be the final ruling over the corruption scandal that brought her down. The country's first female president was impeached in 2017 after huge street protests against her rule. She had been serving a combined 30-year jail term for bribery, abuse of power and receiving money from the national spy agency. But on appeal the Seoul High Court sentenced Park to 15 years in prison