BEIJING (AFP) -- China’s transport ministry on Sunday slammed Didi Chuxing’s safety lapses as the ride-hailing giant said it would suspend its Hitch service after the rape and murder of a passenger, the second such killing this year. A 20-year-old female passenger was raped and killed by her driver on Friday in the eastern city of Wenzhou, barely three months after a similar incident in May. “These two vicious incidents that have violated the life and safety of passengers has exposed the gaping

DUBLIN (AFP) -- Pope Francis "begged for God's forgiveness" on Sunday for multiple abuse scandals within the Irish church but faced accusations by a former Vatican official that he had personally ignored allegations against senior clergy.In front of 45,000 supporters at the rain-soaked Knock shrine in the west of Ireland, the pope spoke of the "open wound" of the Church's sexual abuse scandal and demanded "firm and decisive" measures to find "truth and justice".Later Sunday he said Mass to tens

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Two people were killed and 11 others wounded Sunday when a video game tournament competitor went on a shooting rampage before turning the gun on himself in the northern Florida city of Jacksonville, local police said.Sheriff Mike Williams named the suspect of the shooting at a Madden 19 American football eSports tournament as 24-year-old David Katz from Baltimore, Maryland. (AFP)"There were three deceased individuals at the scene, one of those being the suspect, who took hi

Emmerson Mnangagwa was officially sworn in as president of Zimbabwe on Sunday after winning a bitterly-contested election which was the country's first since the ousting of strongman Robert Mugabe.Mnangagwa, whose victory in the July 30 polls was challenged by the main opposition, pledged to "protect and promote the rights of Zimbabweans" at an inauguration ceremony attended by thousands of supporters at a stadium in Harare. (AFP)"I Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa swear that as president of the repu

NEW YORK (AFP) -- Neil Simon, the prolific and Pulitzer Prize-winning US playwright celebrated as the king of comedy who won more Oscar and Tony nominations combined than any other showbiz writer, died on Sunday. He was 91.The brains behind more than 30 plays, 20 screenplays and five musicals, Time magazine dubbed him the "patron saint of laughter."Many of his works are classics of 20th century American theater and Simon has been credited with playing a seminal role -- along with film director W

JAKARTA, (AFP) - The 2019 Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships will be held in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, signal that the secretive country may be coming in from the sporting cold.At the Asian Games weightlifting in Jakarta, which North Korea have dominated winning seven golds, the Asian Weightlifting Federation and North Korea's Sports Minister Kim Il Guk signed an agreement Sunday for North Korea to hold the championships from October 27 next year. Gold medalist North Ko

Israel said an MSF nurse shot at troops on the Gaza border this week, a charge the medical charity said Friday it was investigating as it confirmed the death of an employee.　“Doctors Without Borders (MSF) confirms that one of its employees, Hani Mohammed Almajdalawi, was killed in Gaza on Monday, August 20, 2018,” the organisation said in a statement.　“MSF is working to verify and understand the circumstances regarding this extremely serious incident, and is not able to comment further at this s

China lashed out on Friday at “irresponsible” US accusations that Beijing was destabilizing cross-Strait relations after El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan in favour of the Asian giant.The White House also scolded the Central American country in a statement released Thursday, warning that the decision was made in a “non-transparent fashion” and affects “the economic health and security of the entire Americas region”.Taiwan and China have been engaged for years in a diplomatic tug-of-war in develop

Ukraine marked 27 years of independence Friday with its biggest ever military parade in central Kiev, as war continues against Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east. 　Around 4,500 servicemen, including dozens of representatives of foreign allies such as the United States and Great Britain, saluted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during the demonstration.　Poroshenko used the occasion to argue for the vital role Ukraine plays in defending the borders of Europe. 　Without the territo

Goldman Sachs has sold his new European headquarters, opening next year in London, to South Korea's National Pension Service for $1.5 billion, the US investment bank has said.Goldman added in a statement that it would lease back the building, worth $1.165 billion ($1.502 billion, 1.297 billion euros), in a deal lasting up to 25 years."The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. today announced it has entered into a binding agreement for the sale and leaseback of Plumtree Court with Korea's National Pensio

What South Korean Park Ki-dong wanted most of all to learn from his Northern siblings was: when did his parents die and where were they buried?He finally found out this week after decades of ignorance -- but was disappointed by what he heard when he met his brother and sister for the first time in nearly 70 years at a reunion this week.Lines on a map condemned them to a lifetime apart. (Yonhap)When the peninsula was originally divided by the US and Soviet Union along the 38th parallel in the aft

Contact lenses that are flushed down the toilet or dropped in sink drains contribute vastly to microplastic pollution in the oceans, researchers warned Monday.The amount of plastic waste created by lenses and their packaging in the United States alone is equal to 400 million toothbrushes each year, said researchers at Arizona State University who described their findings at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Boston."These are significant pollutants," research

From the pits of despair in Paris, record-setting Novak Djokovic now eyes a third US Open title in New York where for the first time since Wimbledon last year, the sport's 'Big Four' will be reunited.Djokovic became the first man to win all nine Masters titles with victory over Roger Federer at Cincinnati on Sunday. (AFP)Having captured, against all the odds, a fourth Wimbledon in July, the 31-year-old Serb suddenly finds himself as joint-favourite with world number one Rafael Nadal to triumph a

The US first lady Melania Trump will travel to Africa later this year, her office announced Monday, with further details expected in the coming weeks."This will be my first time traveling to Africa and I am excited to educate myself on the issues facing children throughout the continent," Trump said in a statement, "while also learning about its rich culture and history."(AFP)It is not yet clear where the US first lady will travel on the vast continent or when, but according to her communication

Mason, OH (AFP) -- Novak Djokovic ended a career-long jinx, lifting the trophy in Cincinnati at last to complete a matched set of Masters 1000 titles.Djokovic, who came up empty in five prior Cincinnati finals, defeated seven-time winner Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the final.The former world number one became the first man to win all nine of the ATP's Masters 1000 events in the elite series' current configuration.Federer, meanwhile, lost a final in the hardcourt US Open tuneup for the first time.