The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday delivered a condolence message for former South Korean first lady Lee He-ho, the first high-level contact between the two countries in months.
Kim Yo Jong, who holds a powerful position in the reclusive state, delivered the message, and flowers, on her brother's behalf at a meeting with South Korean officials at Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone.
The meeting lasted about 15 minutes, said Chung Eui-yong, South Korea's top national security advisor.
"Kim commented we should continue co-operation in honour of Lee's efforts for inter-Korean harmony," he said, according to broadcaster YTN.
Lee, a lifelong companion of late president Kim Dae-jung, died on Monday aged 96.
Kim was known for his "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea, and Pyongyang also sent a delegation to Seoul to pay respects when he died in 2010.
Wednesday's meeting was the first by senior officials since the breakdown of a second summit between North ..

Sister of N. Korean leader pays respects Panmunjom meeting

PTI Automatic

As Hong Kong is convulsed by fresh anti-government protests, many of those who have taken to the streets say they feel this is their last chance to protect the city's freedoms after years of slow strangulation by Beijing.
Four years ago huge pro-democracy "Umbrella Movement" protests brought parts of the city to a standstill for months, but that campaign eventually fizzled without the government making any major concessions.
The current protests are focused on a controversial proposal to introduce a law allowing extraditions to countries Hong Kong doesn't already have a treaty with -- including China.
Organisers said over a million people took to the streets on Sunday -- police put the figure at a more modest 240,000 -- but pro-Beijing Chief Executive Carrie Lam has rejected all calls to delay or withdraw the bill.
"We have been listening and listening very attentively," she said after Sunday's protests, but insisted her administration had already made substantial concessions.
While ..

Years of dashed hopes fuel Hong Kong protest rage

A five-year-old boy who tested positive for Ebola in Uganda has died, a health ministry official told AFP Wednesday, in the first spread of a deadly outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The boy who tested positive for Ebola in Kasese yesterday passed on last night in the isolation unit," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Five-year-old boy dies from Ebola in Uganda: health official

A Yemeni rebel missile attack on an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia wounded 26 civilians on Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels said.
Eight of those wounded at Abha airport were admitted to hospital, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The other 18 were discharged after receiving first aid.
The Huthi rebels said earlier that they had launched a missile at the airport in the Saudi mountain resort city.

Yemen rebel attack wounds 26 at Saudi airport

The British government on Wednesday presented draft legislation to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 in what it said would be a first for a major economy.
The new target was broadly welcomed across the political spectrum but environmental groups said it would require radical action to decarbonise the entire economy.
The deadline is far more ambitious than Britain's current policy of cutting emissions by 80 per cent over the same period and Finance Minister Philip Hammond has reportedly warned it could cost more than 1.0 trillion pounds.
The 2050 date will be introduced in existing climate change laws through a piece of legislation known as a statutory instrument that parliament is expected to approve.
"As the first country to legislate for long-term climate targets, we can be truly proud of our record in tackling climate change," Prime Minister Theresa May said.
In one of her final acts before she steps down next month, she said Britain "must lead the world to a cleaner, ...

Britain sets deadline for carbon neutrality by 2050

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the hand-picked successor to Kazakhstan's longtime ruler, was inaugurated as president Wednesday after winning an election marred by a police crackdown and slammed by foreign monitors for "voting irregularities".
The career diplomat became only the country's second elected president, succeeding 78-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in March after ruling since Soviet times.
During the inauguration in the capital Nur-Sultan, Tokayev, 66, pledged that "different opinions, united nation" would be a slogan of his presidency.
He was shown kissing the state flag in a ceremony broadcast on state television that was watched over by Nazarbayev and marked in ceremonial pomp by the national anthem and artillery salutes.
Speaking in both Kazakh and Russian during the ceremony, Tokayev said that the results of Sunday's polls which he won with over 70 per cent of the vote showed that the people had "supported the strategy of Elbasy", which translates from Kazakh ..

Successor to longtime Kazakh ruler sworn in as president

Shops began to reopen in Sudan's capital on Wednesday but many residents stayed indoors after demonstrators called off a nationwide civil disobedience campaign that had brought Khartoum to a standstill.
The slow return to normalcy came after an Ethiopian mediator announced that the protest leaders and the ruling military council had agreed to resume talks following a deadly crackdown on a weeks-long sit-in.
The negotiations collapsed last month because the two sides disagreed about whether a civilian or soldier should head a new governing body.
The launch of the civil disobedience campaign on Sunday came nearly a week after a raid on the sit-in outside the army headquarters in Khartoum on June 3 left dozens dead and hundreds wounded.
On Wednesday morning an AFP correspondent who toured parts of the capital saw buses waiting for passengers at their stations, while shops in some districts opened.
The main gold market in central Khartoum remained shut, and many residents still preferred .

Some shops open but residents wary as Sudan strike ends

Ghanaian security forces on Wednesday freed two young Canadian women who had been kidnapped at a golf club in the city of Kumasi last week, a government official said.
"National Security Operatives in the early hours of Wednesday 12 June, 2019 completed an operation which successfully rescued the two Canadian women recently abducted" in Kumasi, Ghana's second city, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said in a statement.  "Citizens and travellers are once again assured that Ghana remains safe," he added.
The Canadian charity volunteers aged 19 and 20 were abducted June 4, in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of the capital Accra.
They had been travelling in an Uber with a third Canadian woman.
When they reached their destination, the pair got out of the taxi first and were taken. The third woman then went to alert the police with the Uber driver.
Police said the women were volunteers with Youth Challenge International, a Canadian ...

Ghana security forces free two kidnapped Canadians

Hong Kong stocks tumbled Wednesday as the city was rocked by a massive protest against government plans for a controversial extradition law.
The Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.73 percent, or 480.88 points, to 27,308.46.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.56 percent, or 16.34 points, to 2,909.38, and the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, lost 0.64 percent, or 9.83 points, to 1,528.40.

Hong Kong stocks sink as city is hit by protests

Syrian air defence shot down Israeli missiles targeting the south of the country Wednesday, state media said, as a monitor reported positions of the regime's Lebanese ally Hezbollah had been hit.
The attack was launched in the early hours of the morning against the Tall al-Hara sector near the Golan Heights, according to official news agency SANA, which said there had been no casualties.
It did not specify what had been targeted.
SANA also accused Israel of conducting an "electronic war" and "jamming" Syrian radar.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted positions of the Hezbollah Shiite movement in two locations, but without causing any casualties.
"All the positions hit had the Lebanese Hezbollah there," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The missiles targeted Tall al-Hara, a hill in the southern province of Daraa where Hezbollah has radars and the regime has air defence batteries, said the Observatory, which relies ..

Syria says air defence downs Israeli missiles

Japan has joined Britain in pledging to become carbon neutral later this century, as the world races to prevent catastrophic climate change, but critics blasted Tokyo's plan as unambitious.
While Britain on Wednesday outlined plans for fast-track legislation that would reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, Japan's policy only pledges to meet the goal sometime after the middle of the century.
Both countries are among the nearly 200 nations that have signed up to the Paris climate agreement, which commits signatories to efforts to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).
Japan's policy, adopted by the cabinet on Tuesday, is expected to be submitted to the United Nations before the country hosts the G20 summit in Osaka later this month.
It sets "a carbon-neutral society as the final goal, and seeks to realise it at the earliest possible time in the latter half of this century."
But while it says renewable energy -- such as solar and wind -- will ...

Japan sets carbon-neutral goal as UK plans climate laws

Violent clashes broke out in Hong Kong on Wednesday as police tried to stop protesters storming the city's parliament, while tens of thousands of people blocked key arteries in a show of strength against government plans to allow extraditions to China.
Police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to disperse crowds of black-clad demonstrators -- most of them young people and students -- calling for authorities to scrap the Beijing-backed law.
Clashes broke out shortly after 3:00 pm (0700 GMT) -- the deadline protesters had given for the government to abandon the controversial bill.
Rows of riot police were quickly outnumbered by protesters -- many wearing face masks, helmets or goggles -- who gathered in the centre of the city ahead of a scheduled debate in the city's legislature.
By late morning, with crowds swelling and major roads blocked by throngs of protesters, officials in the Legislative Council (Legco) said they would delay the second reading of the bill "to a later ...

Hong Kong police use tear gas as protesters try to storm parliament

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected in Tehran for a rare diplomatic mission, hoping to ease tensions between the Islamic republic and Tokyo's key ally Washington.
The first Japanese prime minister to visit Iran in 41 years, Abe is expected to arrive in Tehran at around 1120 GMT and go straight into talks with President Hassan Rouhani.  Tehran is locked in a bitter standoff with Washington after President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May last year.
Washington has since reimposed crippling unilateral sanctions that have forced Japan to halt its once substantial purchases of Iranian oil and launched a military buildup in the Gulf.
"Amid concerns over growing tension in the Middle East and with the attention of the international community on the issue, Japan wishes to do its best towards peace and stability in the region," Abe told reporters in Tokyo before leaving for Tehran.
"Based on traditional friendly ties between Japan and Iran, I would like .

Japan's Abe in Tehran mission to ease Iran-US tensions

Two young Canadian women kidnapped at a golf club in Ghana last week were freed in an  operation by security forces on Wednesday, a government official said.
"National Security Operatives in the early hours of Wednesday 12 June, 2019 completed an operation which successfully rescued the two Canadian women recently abducted" in Kumasi, Ghana's second city, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said in a statement.

Two Canadians kidnapped in Ghana freed: official

Venezuelan authorities said that 17 people have been charged with attempting a "coup" since a failed April 30 uprising against President Nicolas Maduro.
"There are 34 people being investigated, of whom 17 have been detained and charged" for having "attempted a coup d'etat," said Attorney General Tarek William Saab Tuesday.
Fifteen opposition lawmakers have been stripped of their immunity by the regime-dominated Constituent Assembly for having supported the attempted uprising led by Juan Guaido, who heads the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
Guaido's deputy Edgar Zambrano was one of those arrested and charged while the other 14 have either sought refuge in diplomatic missions, fled the country or gone into hiding.
Surrounded by a group of around 30 military personnel, Guaido appeared in a video shared on social media on April 30 calling on the armed forces to rise up against Maduro.
But following two days of deadly clashes between protesters and the security forces, the revolt .

Venezuela says 17 arrested and charged over anti-Maduro 'coup'

Police used pepper spray and batons Wednesday to beat back umbrella-wielding protesters who tried to reach Hong Kong's parliament as demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill turned violent.
Clashes broke out shortly after 3:00 pm (0700 GMT) -- the deadline protesters had given for the government to abandon a controversial bill that would allow extraditions to China.
Protesters using umbrellas as shields could be seen trying to get closer to riot police protecting the Legislative Council building, with projectiles thrown at officers who responded with pepper spray and baton charges.

Clashes break out as Hong Kong protesters try to reach parliament

Asian markets fell Wednesday after two days of healthy gains with Hong Kong the worst performer, sinking two percent as a huge protest paralysed key roads in the city and a number of local businesses shut up shop.
Profit takers moved in while investors keep a nervous eye on developments in the China-US trade saga and an expected meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan this month.
The US president repeated on Tuesday that he expects to hold a face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Osaka and said Beijing wanted a deal "very badly".
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross tempered expectations the leaders would reach an agreement by saying the meeting could lead to progress but not a "definitive agreement". However, he said he was confident an agreement would be reached eventually.
The comments out of Washington were keeping traders on edge, though a broad narrative of central bank easing -- with the Federal Reserve tipped to begin cutting interest .

Asian markets retreat after gains, protests batter

Tens of thousands of protesters paralysed central Hong Kong on Wednesday, blocking major roads in a defiant show of strength against government plans to allow extraditions to China.
Black-clad demonstrators, most of them young people and students, surrounded government offices, bringing traffic to a standstill as they called on authorities to scrap the Beijing-backed law.
Rows of riot police were far outnumbered by protesters -- many who wore face masks, helmets or goggles -- just hours ahead of a scheduled debate in the city's legislature.
By late morning, with crowds swelling, officials in the Legislative Council (Legco) said they would delay the second reading of the bill "to a later date".
In scenes echoing the Occupy movement in 2014 that shut down swathes of the city for months, people flooded major roads and junctions in the heart of the city, dragging barricades onto highways and tying them together. Others plucked loose bricks from pavements.
Some protesters in cars ...

Protest against China extradition bill paralyses Hong Kong

rotest against China extradition bill paralyses Hong Kong

A toothpaste company has been put up for auction on e-commerce giant Alibaba's Taobao, an immensely popular shopping portal in China which sells everything from mundane household items to jumbo jets.
Tianqi toothpaste, a household name in China, and its manufacturer Guangxi Aoqili were listed for auction on Tuesday at a starting price of 163.24 million yuan (USD 23.6 million).
The package on offer included 57 trademarks related to Tianqi, industrial real estate and production equipment, according to the auction notice, which did not explain why the company was being sold or why Taobao was chosen for the transaction.
The company went unsold in the first round, after only two buyers signed up. The auction terms require the successful bidder to resume production of Tianqi a month after the sale.
Tianqi was most popular in the early 2000s, but has since faded away with competitors chomping away at its market share.  The auction notice on Wednesday did not say if the sale would be ...

Toothpaste firm up for auction on Chinese shopping portal

Protesters blocking roads around Hong Kong's parliament must disperse and obey the law, a top government figure warned Wednesday, in the first official reaction to the latest protests sparked by plans to allow extraditions to China.
Matthew Cheung, the city's chief secretary, called on demonstrators to unblock key arteries and withdraw.
"I also urge citizens who have gathered to show restraint as much as possible, disperse peacefully and do not defy the law," he said in a video message.

AFP

AFP

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