Day: June 21, 2019

Children among 30 killed in Indonesia matchstick factory fire

8:50 pm June 21, 2019

Jakarta: At least 30 people, including several children, were killed when a fire ripped through a private home that operated as a matchstick factory in Indonesia on Friday, authorities said. Pictures from the scene showed blackened corpses lying on top of each other in the burnt-out house after the blaze, which authorities said broke out […]

COVID surge, vaccine shortages spread beyond India’s borders

Hundreds injured in Georgia protest crackdown: Ministry

8:45 pm June 21, 2019

Tbilisi: At least 240 demonstrators and police officers were injured during an overnight anti-government protest in Georgia after riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a largely peaceful rally, the health ministry said Friday. It added that “102 people were being treated for injuries in Tbilisi hospitals”.

Philippine ex-official critical of China denied Hong Kong entry

8:42 pm June 21, 2019

Manila: Former Philippine foreign minister Albert del Rosario was denied entry to Hong Kong on Friday, in what critics called retaliation for his attacks on Beijing’s contested claims over the South China Sea. Del Rosario was behind two prominent legal initiatives against China, including a 2013 case at an international tribunal which ultimately ruled against […]

Iran has no right to answer diplomacy ‘with military force’: US

8:37 pm June 21, 2019

Al Kharj (Saudi Arabia): The US said Friday Iran has no right to respond to diplomacy “with military force”, a day after Tehran shot down a US reconnaissance drone over the Strait of Hormuz. “Our diplomacy does not give Iran the right to respond with military force,” Brian Hook, the US special representative on Iran, […]

UK minister in charge of India suspended amid assault claim

6:25 pm June 21, 2019

London: A minister in charge of India in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was suspended on Friday after footage showed him grabbing and forcibly ejecting a climate activist at a political event in London. Mark Field, Britain’s minister of state for Asia and the Pacific, was a guest at the formal black-tie dinner […]