Category Archives: World News

Japan ruling party triumphs in local elections despite criticism over links to Moonies

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Support for the Liberal Democratic party had plunged last year as media uncovered its links to the Unification church after the killing of Shinzo Abe

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) has won key local elections in the first big electoral test for the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, since damaging revelations emerged about his party’s ties to the Unification church.

LDP candidates triumphed in governor elections in prefectures from Hokkaido in the country’s north to Oita in the south-west on Sunday, raising speculation that Kishida could call a snap general election.

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‘A scary scene’: Auckland, still recovering from deadly flooding, hit by tornado

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Residents of New Zealand’s largest city say people are ‘heartbroken’ at fresh damage wreaked by storm

Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, has been hit by a tornado, two months after the wider region was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle and three months after the city was struck by deadly flooding.

Auckland Emergency Management said it began receiving reports of “localised havoc” around 9pm on Sunday, according to the NZ Herald. Authorities received more than 30 calls, with roofs lifted off homes and trees toppled.

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Good Friday agreement ‘based on compromise’, Sunak says on 25th anniversary

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PM says ‘work to be done’ to restore government at Stormont ahead of Biden meeting on Tuesday

The Good Friday agreement was “based on compromise”, which should be the defining message for the next chapter in Northern Ireland, Rishi Sunak has said on the peace deal’s 25th anniversary.

The prime minister said there was “work to be done” by a new generation of politicians to restore government at Stormont “as soon as possible”, as he and Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, prepare to intensify work to broker a way out of the deadlock.

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Crises on multiple fronts threaten Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power

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Support for prime minister wanes as his ‘plot to overturn Israel’s democracy’ is seen as threat to national security

On Friday afternoon, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, found himself standing at the side of a remote road in the vast desert valley that runs the length of the occupied West Bank’s frontier with Jordan.

Along with his defence minister, Yoav Galant, Netanyahu was inspecting the scene of a shooting attack earlier in the day that killed British-Israeli sisters Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, and left their 45-year-old mother Lucy fighting for her life. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) search for the perpetrator is still under way.

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Profits at Apple’s subsidiary in Ireland rise to $69bn

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Main non-US division pays $7.7bn in corporation tax but $20.7bn in dividends to California parent

Apple’s main Irish subsidiary paid €7.7bn (£6.8bn ) in corporation tax last year, but paid out nearly triple that amount in dividends to its California parent company, after reporting more than $69bn (£56bn) in profits.

The latest financial filings for the subsidiary, which is facing legal challenges over its tax arrangements in Ireland, show the Irish division made the equivalent of nearly $190m a day over the year to September.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: two killed in Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia; Pope prays for peace

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Man and his young daughter killed after forces strike residential building in the south-eastern city; Francis references war in Easter message

Pope Francis appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country’s invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message to the world, in which he called for an end to all conflict.

Francis, 86, presided over the solemn Easter day Mass in St Peter’s Square and delivered his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message and blessing from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia.

… comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones because of the war, and grant that prisoners may return safe and sound to their families.

Open the hearts of the entire international community to strive to end this war and all conflict and bloodshed in our world.

There are no French forces engaged in operation in Ukraine. The documents cited do not come from the French armies. We do not comment on documents whose source is uncertain.

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Holiday rites without clashes in Jerusalem but region braces for further violence

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Al-Aqsa mosque compound tensions have triggered cross-border fighting in Gaza and drawn in Lebanon and Syria

Simultaneous Muslim and Jewish holiday rites at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount or al-Aqsa mosque compound have passed without major clashes after rare cross-border airstrikes and rocket fire between Israel and Syria overnight, and fears of wider conflict in the Middle East after escalations on multiple fronts.

About 15,000 Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem, the holiest site at which Jews can pray, on Sunday morning for a benediction prayer marking Passover. At the same time, thousands of Palestinians performed dawn and midday Muslim prayers at al-Aqsa, an esplanade on the other side of the wall, as part of observances during the holy month of Ramadan. Christian pilgrims also flooded the Old City to mark Easter Sunday, in a rare convergence of celebrations in the three different faiths.

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Marseille blast: two dead and six missing after explosion destroys buildings

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Removal of bodies ‘will take time’, says fire department, as blaze under rubble hampers rescue efforts in French city

Two bodies were found in the rubble of a building that collapsed in Marseille following a major explosion, French authorities said early on Monday, as rescue workers scrambled to find at least six people still unaccounted for.

The discovery of the bodies came about 24 hours after the blast brought down the four-storey building in the Mediterranean port city in southern France.

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Paris exhibition to tell story of eccentric acting pioneer Sarah Bernhardt

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Petit Palais show celebrates breadth of belle epoque theatre star’s creative talents with 400 exhibits

On page 158 of a heavy, leather-bound Paris police register from the 19th century, a handwritten page headed with a photograph details the activities of a young “courtesan” called Sarah Bernhardt.

The Book of Courtesans, as it was known by the then equivalent of the vice squad, was a detailed record of high-class sex workers, often actors and dancers, who were the mistresses of princes, aristocrats and the wealthy.

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‘Savages’: Ukrainian resort town resisting Russian attempts to repeat past glories

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Ochakiv was ‘paradise’ before unwelcome visitors began raining down missiles from spit of land nearby

The view from the Ukrainian town of Ochakiv appears idyllic. Beyond the beach, a narrow strip of land stretches out across the sea. The peninsula in Mykolaiv province is known as the Kinburn spit. In happier times holidaymakers would take a boat from Ochakiv and camp among the dunes. The nature reserve is home to swans, pelicans and migrating birds.

Last June it got a new and unwelcome visitor: Russia. Soldiers captured the rustic territory, with its summer houses and mini-lakes, and turned it into a military base. Ever since the Russian army has bombarded Ochakiv, which is five miles (8km) away. Truck mounted launchers release Grad missiles, sending them over the Black Sea. Afterwards the crews speed off and take cover amid the mazy sands.

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China sends dozens of warplanes towards Taiwan as US urges restraint amid military drills

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Show of force comes after Taiwanese president Tsai met US House speaker McCarthy this week, despite Beijing warning against it

China sent dozens of warplanes towards Taiwan for a second day of military drills on Sunday, launching simulated attacks in retaliation to the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, meeting the US House Speaker during a brief visit to the US.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it was monitoring the movements of China’s missile forces, as the US said it too was on alert.

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‘Barbaric’ attacks leave 44 civilians dead in Burkina Faso

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‘Armed terrorist groups’ attacked two villages in northeastern Burkina Faso, near the Niger border

Forty-four civilians have been killed by “armed terrorist groups” in two villages in north-eastern Burkina Faso, near the Niger border, a regional governor said Saturday.

The provisional toll of “this despicable and barbaric attack” which targeted the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi overnight on Thursday “is 44 civilians killed and others wounded,” said Rodolphe Sorgho, lieutenant-governor of the Sahel region.

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British-Israeli sisters killed in West Bank gun attack named

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Rina and Maia Dee, aged 15 and 20, identified on Twitter by Benjamin Netanyahu as mother remains in intensive care

The two British-Israeli sisters killed in a gun attack in the occupied West Bank on Friday have been named as Rina and Maia Dee.

Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, who were born in London, were identified on Twitter by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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China launches military drills around Taiwan after US House speaker meeting

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Three-day operation comes after Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen met with Kevin McCarthy in California

China launched military drills around Taiwan on Saturday, in what it called a “stern warning” to the self-ruled island’s government following a meeting between its president and the US House speaker.

The move sparked condemnation from Taipei and calls for restraint from Washington, which said it was “monitoring Beijing’s actions closely”.

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Iranian police plan to use smart cameras to identify “violators of hijab law”

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Women who break Islamic dress code will be identified, warned on first instance and then taken to court

Police in Iran plan to use smart technology in public places to identify and then penalise women who violate the country’s strict Islamic dress code, the force said on Saturday.

A statement said police would “take action to identify norm-breaking people by using tools and smart cameras in public places and thoroughfares”.

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Tensions run high across Israel after car ramming attack leaves tourist dead

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Further violence feared after Arab-Israeli man drives his vehicle into busy city promenade following a West Bank shooting

On 8 April 2022, a Palestinian gunman entered a crowded bar in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, and opened fire, killing three people and wounding 10. This weekend, on the anniversary of that attack, an Arab-Israeli man rammed his car into pedestrians on the city’s seaside promenade, killing an Italian tourist and injuring seven more people.

That attack followed a shooting earlier in the day in the north of the occupied West Bank that killed two British-Israeli sisters, aged 15 and 20, and left their 48-year-old mother in critical condition after their car veered off the road.

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Russia-Ukraine war – as it happened: Ukraine to boost defences along border with Belarus

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Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of Ukraine’s joint armed forces, announced the decision on social media

The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea.

Russian state-run Tass news agency quoted an adviser to Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties have been reported.

Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation.

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Saudi officials arrive in Iran to discuss reopening diplomatic missions

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Visits comes two days after Middle Eastern powers met in China to restore relations

A Saudi delegation arrived in Tehran on Saturday to discuss reopening diplomatic missions with Iran after seven years.

The visit comes two days after the unprecedented meeting between Iran and Saudi Arabia’s heads of diplomacy in China after the two countries agreed to restore diplomatic ties last month.

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Hezbollah and Israel pull back from the brink – but spectre of conflict looms

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The rocket attack that followed air strikes and mosque raids failed to provoke all-out war, but it must surely be inevitable

The groves of southern Lebanon had been quiet for nearly 17 years. But as farmers tended to orange trees and banana crops on Thursday, rocket men lurked among them, readying the biggest barrage fired into Israel since the war of 2006 and taking a startled region to the precipice of another conflict that leaders on both sides of the border fear will be worse than all before them.

Familiar sights of streaks through a clear blue sky, sirens and billowing smoke from impact sites were soon replaced by fear and trepidation. In Beirut and Tel Aviv, an escalation seemed imminent. But as a troubling afternoon wore on, the apocalyptic showdown between Hezbollah and Israel that had been widely predicted started to fizzle. Rhetoric was of measured responses. Israel was content to blame Palestinian groups and put a distance between them and Hezbollah. War could wait, for now.

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At least 20 missing after boat attempting to cross Mediterranean sinks off Tunisia

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Latest incident comes amid sharp rise in numbers trying to leave crisis-hit north African country

At least 20 people were missing on Saturday after their boat sank off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, amid a sharp rise in boats setting off from the north African country.

The coastguard rescued 17 other people from the same boat off the southern city of Sfax, two of whom were in critical condition, said a local judge, Faouzi Masmousdi.

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