Republic of Congo pressed ahead Sunday with an election in which President Denis Sassou N’Guesso is widely expected to extend his 36 years in power, while the leading opposition candidate remained hospitalized with COVID-19. The watchdog group NetBlocks reported an internet blackout
Myanmar’s security forces killed at least 38 pro-democracy protesters on Sunday, defying calls by the international community to avoid the use of lethal action against unarmed people. According to the southeast Asia-based advocacy group, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 22 anti-coup
It was a move designed to show that Japan’s ruling party was committed to gender equality after the sexism row that forced one of its former prime ministers, Yoshiro Mori, to resign as head of Tokyo’s Olympic organising committee. The time had come to give
A strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake has taken place off the eastern coast of Japan, but no tsunami warning has been issued, Japanese authorities have said. The quake on Saturday produced powerful shaking along parts of Japan’s eastern coast, and was felt strongly in Tokyo,
New Zealand will suspend all high-level dialogue with Myanmar, ensure that its aid programmes do not include projects that benefit the junta, and impose a travel ban on Naypyidaw’s military leaders, as part of its diplomatic response to last week’s coup in the southeast Asian nation.
Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s ousted president have been charged by the military with minor offences relating to some walkie-talkies allegedly imported without the proper licence and for shaking hands during the pandemic, according to a police document. Ms Suu Kyi was arrested on
India blocked mobile internet services in several areas surrounding New Delhi on Saturday as protesting farmers began a one-day hunger strike after a week of clashes with authorities that left one dead and hundreds injured. Angry at new agricultural laws that they say benefit large private buyers
Thousands of people in Hong Kong have been ordered to stay in their homes in the city’s first coronavirus lockdown, as authorities battle an outbreak in one of its poorest and most densely packed districts. The order bans about 10,000 people living inside multiple
India’s Covid-19 vaccine drive has been hampered by turnout as low as 22% in some states, as fears over the safety of the vaccine and the spread of misinformation has fuelled widespread hesitancy. On Saturday, India launched the world’s largest vaccination programme as it
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, won a sixth term in office on Saturday, extending his 35-year-rule in one of the country’s most turbulent election campaigns while his main rival Bobi Wine alleged widespread fraud and rejected the result. Museveni won 59% of the vote,
A British barrister has agreed to act for the Hong Kong government next month in its efforts to convict Jimmy Lai and eight other pro-democracy activists accused of taking part in an illegal assembly in 2019. David Perry’s decision has been challenged by the chair of
Ten babies were killed in a maternity unit in the Indian state of Maharashtra early on Saturday when fire tore through a major hospital. Staff rescued seven of the newborn infants at the Bhandara district hospital but were beaten back before they
