South Korean religious leader on trial on graft charges

The leader of one of South Korea’s largest cult-like churches stood trial on Monday accused of bribing the country’s former first lady with gifts including a designer handbag and a diamond necklace. The arrest of leader Han Hak-ja in September rocked the Unification Church, which claims to have 10 million followers worldwide and controls a […]

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Konsumlaune der Verbraucher im Dezember weiter verschlechtert

Die vom Handelsverband (HDE) ermittelte Konsumlaune der Verbraucher in Deutschland hat sich weiter verschlechtert. Der Index sank auf 95,24 Punkte und damit auf den niedrigsten Stand seit Jahresbeginn, wie der Verband am Montag mitteilte. “Die Kaufzurückhaltung unter den Verbraucherinnen und Verbrauchern nimmt im Dezember etwas zu”, erklärte der HDE. “Zu beobachten ist eine Verschiebung vom […]

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Hong Kong student urging probe into deadly fire leaves police station

A Hong Kong student, who was reportedly detained by police after handing out flyers calling for an independent probe into a fire that killed 146 people, left a police station on Monday. Miles Kwan left the Cheung Sha Wan Division police station in a taxi on Monday afternoon, according to an AFP reporter at the […]

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Seoul mayor indicted over alleged illegal polling payments

South Korean prosecutors indicted the mayor of Seoul on Monday for allegedly violating political funding laws. Oh Se-hoon of the conservative People Power Party is serving his fourth term as mayor of South Korea’s capital and has long been tipped as a future presidential candidate. Prosecutors accuse him of arranging for a supporter to cover […]

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Asia floods toll tops 1,000 as military aid survivors

The toll in deadly flooding and landslides across parts of Asia climbed past 1,000 on Monday as hardest-hit Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel to help survivors. Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week. […]

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Zelensky meets Macron to shore up support for Ukraine as Trump optimistic

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, seeking to shore up European support as US President Donald Trump expressed optimism of a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. US and Ukrainian negotiators held hours of what both sides called “productive” talks in Florida on Sunday on a plan […]

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Australia ban offers test on social media harm

Australia’s under-16 social media ban will make the nation a real-life laboratory on how best to tackle the technology’s impact on young people, experts say. Those in favour of the world-first December 10 ban point to a growing mass of studies that suggest too much time online takes a toll on teen wellbeing. But opponents […]

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‘For him’: Australia mum channels grief into social media limits

Mia Bannister’s skin is inked with a eulogy to her teenage son Ollie, whose suicide after a battle with anorexia and online bullying pushed her to fight for world-first laws in Australia to get children off social media. From December 10, under-16s in Australia will be banned from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit […]

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