Rapid floods shock Sri Lanka’s survivors

For villages on the northern edge of Sri Lanka’s capital, floods are a familiar ordeal — but even the hardiest residents were stunned when the Kelani river surged this week. Heavy showers upstream inundated the banks of the Kelani on Friday night, and the situation deteriorated rapidly the next day even though Cyclone Ditwah — […]

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Brand in Hongkong: Student fordert unabhängige Untersuchung und wird von Polizei befragt

Wegen seines Aufrufs zu einer unabhängigen Untersuchung der Brandkatastrophe in der chinesischen Sonderverwaltungszone Hongkong ist ein Student offenbar von den Sicherheitsbehörden befragt worden. Der 24-jährige Miles Kwan, der auf Flugblättern für eine Petition geworben hatte, wurde am Montag von einem Reporter der Nachrichtenagentur AFP beim Verlassen einer Polizeiwache gesehen. Örtliche Medien hatten am Samstag berichtet, […]

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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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