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N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chadian rebels said on Friday their command centre was bombed overnight in an attempt to kill their leader, hours ahead of the funeral of President Idriss Deby who was killed on the frontline on Monday. The rebels have this month swept south across the desert from their bases in Libya towards N'Djamena, and say they are around 200-300 km (125-190 miles) from the Chadian capital. They called a temporary ceasefire to allow Friday's funeral for Deby to take place.
Find out which crystals are associated with October, November and December, and what they should be used for. Watch more of this series: School Of Hard Rocks
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s popularity appears to have weathered the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia, with pollster Merdeka Center reporting today that his...
The actor was previously hospitalised for a fever caused by tonsil inflammation
The 2019 World and European all-around champion, favourite for gold at this year's Tokyo Games, will have the element named after him -- 'The Nagornyy', the Olympic Channel said. Although Nagornyy picked up a 0.1 point penalty for stepping out of bounds on the floor exercise, he earned a score of 15.066 and tied for a share of the lead with compatriot Kirill Prokopev.
A YouGov/The Times poll revealed that Britons think the economy is the most pressing issue facing the government after the pandemic ends.
Lawrence Wong has been appointed Singapore's new Finance Minister, taking over from former PM-designate Heng Swee Keat, by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a Cabinet reshuffle barely a year since his team took office.
In an exclusive oped for Quartz Africa, Gregory Meeks, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, describes how the US plans to rebuild its relationship with African countries.
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Western Australia's capital of Perth and the neighbouring Peel region will enter a snap three-day lockdown from midnight on Friday after a man tested positive for COVID-19 after emerging from hotel quarantine. Health officials have said that he is likely to have contracted the virus during a two-week quarantine stay in a Perth hotel, raising concerns about community transmission as more virulent virus strains emerge. One of his close contacts in Perth has been found to have COVID-19, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said in a televised news conference where he announced the lockdown.
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Former education minister Maszlee Malik has condemned the alleged sexual harassment by teachers on students at schools, calling it degrading and uncalled for. He said this...
China and the United States are playing very different tunes about how they should bear the responsibility of tackling climate change, underlining their rivalry despite this being an issue they both agreed to work together on. In speeches delivered at the US-hosted Earth Day Summit on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said his country was not the only major polluter and that the “world’s largest economies” had to step up. But his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping said nations had to be credible instead of constantly changing their climate policies and they had to help developing countries to tackle the crisis. Chinese officials further said climate change should not be used as a geopolitical card to extend influence and that the big nations had still failed to provide sufficient help to poor countries. Those differences between the two sides have led to questions about how far the two nations can go together on climate change.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. “The desire for developed countries to contribute more has been China’s consistent position, not one that China decided on now. Of course, because the atmosphere between China and the US is not good right now, particularly as the US domestically is preparing a Strategic Competition Act on China, this has added a lot of uncertainty to future climate cooperation between the two,” said Wei Zongyou, a professor at Fudan’s Centre of American Studies. In a bid to show the US as eager to cement its climate leadership role, Biden told the 40 leaders from six continents that by 2030 the US would halve greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels, along with other measures that might affect new jobs, technologies and industries. But he said the US represented less than 15 per cent of the world’s emissions, and other nations had to take part. Biden did not name China, which was responsible for 28 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. “No nation can solve this crisis on our own, as I know you all fully understand. All of us, all of us – and particularly those of us who represent the world’s largest economies – we have to step up,” he said. Climate summit ‘may not change the forecast’ for US-China relations Xi did not offer new concrete pledges, saying China would strictly control and limit coal-fired power plants over the next five years. He did not name the US in his speech, but added that climate policies should be consistent – a remark seen as hitting out at the previous Trump administration’s move to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. “In this process, we must join hands, not point fingers at each other; we must maintain continuity, not reverse course easily; and we must honour commitments, not go back on promises,” he said. He said there should be different responsibilities between nations and more help given to developing nations. “Developed countries need to increase climate ambition and action. At the same time, they need to make concrete efforts to help developing countries strengthen the capacity and resilience against climate change, support them in financing, technology, and capacity building and refrain from creating green trade barriers, to help developing countries accelerate the transition to green and low-carbon development,” he said. Chinese officials defended Xi’s lack of concrete pledges at a press conference after the summit in which they said climate change should not be used as a “geopolitical tool”. “We are at a different development stage than the US and Europe,” said Xie Zhenhua, China’s special envoy for climate change. He said the 30 years that China needed to achieve carbon neutrality was already shorter than the 40-60 years that the US and European nations needed. China was committed to its climate goals despite facing “immense difficulties” in restructuring its economy, he added. Xie said a goal made in 2009 for rich countries to deliver US$100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing nations cope with climate change had not been realised. In an apparent jab at the US, Ma Zhaoxu, vice-minister of foreign affairs, said at the same press conference that Xi’s attendance had shown China’s leadership and commitment on climate change. “China is never engaged in geopolitical efforts and has no interest in playing the climate card. Climate change should not be used as a chip for geopolitical struggle or an excuse to attack others, or to erect trade barriers,” he said. Xie said Beijing and Washington had resumed dialogue on climate, including multiple rounds of video conferences between him and US special presidential envoy on climate John Kerry since February, and that a joint working group on climate change might be set up in the near future. Xie added that China and the US agreed to unveil their respective plans on achieving carbon neutrality before the Cop26 Glasgow summit in November. Ren Xiao, director of the Centre for Chinese Foreign Policy at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said divisions between China and the US – the world’s two largest emitters – on issues including climate hurt their capacity for cooperation against climate change. “The Chinese side’s policies have been more consistent but the US has had a greater back-and-forth in their reversals, so now it depends more on whether the US has the willpower and will take actual actions,” he said. China and US should ‘use UN to build global climate change consensus’ Ren said that while China did not raise new climate promises, it had made prior commitments. “Right now the problem is that the US is not doing enough,” he said. “China’s existing climate goals are not low and it will be good if China can complete those.” Su Wei, deputy secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China was working on a plan to reach peak carbon use in 2030 that included restructuring the coal and petrochemical industries, electricity, steel, construction, transport and agriculture. But Su said continuing reliance on coal in the coming few years remained “unavoidable” because the country needed coal for stable electricity. “We need stable supply of electricity and there are no other choices. We are going to need coal in the near future, but we will increase the percentage of renewable energy,” he said Additional reporting by Mark MagnierMore from South China Morning Post:What can China bring to the climate change summit table?Earth Summit 2021: Global funds sign on to turn trillions of dollars of investments into muscle to push for action to avert climate changeEuropean Union agrees to go carbon-neutral by 2050 ahead of Biden climate summitTop polluters US and China cannot ignore vulnerable countries in climate change fightHow do we meet the Paris climate goals when the rich are still spending? The wealthiest 1 per cent of the world produce more emissions than the poorest 50 per centThis article They pledged to work together but China and US disagree on division of climate change responsibility first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Musk met with the astronauts before they headed to the pad, wishing them well from a safe social distance. SpaceX aimed for a split-second liftoff at 5:49 a.m., an hour before sunrise. Good weather was forecast, not only at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center but all the way up the East Coast in the event of a launch abort and emergency splashdown.
Jidu Auto, the electric vehicle venture between China's tech giant Baidu and Chinese automaker Geely, aims to pour 50 billion yuan ($7.70 billion) into making smart cars over the next five years, Jidu's chief executive told Reuters on Friday. Xia Yiping said Jidu would aim to launch its first electric vehicle (EV) in three years, as is standard for the industry, but would make efforts to speed up that process. Its first model would look like a "robot" and would target young customers, Xia said, adding that Jidu would analyse big market data before deciding on a final model.
A Hong Kong woman was assaulted in a terrifying encounter with an intruder in the early hours of Friday after she woke to find the man sitting on top of her in her bedroom, according to police. The 36-year-old woman was punched repeatedly as she put up a fierce struggle with the man in her 15th-floor flat at the Heng On Estate in Ma On Shan just before 1.30am. The assault only ended when the victim stopped struggling and yelling for help, a police source said. According to the source, the man fled empty-handed from the public housing flat after briefly ransacking the living room. The police force confirmed no valuables or cash were stolen.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Officers from the Emergency Unit searched the area for the intruder after receiving a report from the woman, but were unable to find him. Four arrested in crackdown on Hong Kong syndicate tied to market misconduct, fraud Police described the man as being of medium build with short hair. He was wearing a surgical mask, a dark-coloured T-shirt and blue shorts at the time of the assault. The woman suffered minor injuries to her neck, mouth and left shoulder, and was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin for treatment. At the time of the break-in, the flat’s wooden front door was half-open, but its security gate was locked with a padlock, which the suspect was believed to have prised open, according to the source. The victim, he added, was very emotional following the attack, and was unfit for an interview. Hong Kong man jailed for groping 7 women under pretext of brushing off a bug Detectives from the Sha Tin criminal investigation unit have pored over security camera footage to gather evidence. In 2020, police handled 2,095 reports of burglary across the city, down 12.5 per cent from 2,394 in 2019, which saw 52 per cent more break-ins than the year before. The number of break-ins is said to have dropped last year after some 6,000 officers who had been deployed to handle 2019’s anti-government protests returned to their normal duties.This article Hong Kong woman beaten by intruder in early morning break-in at Ma On Shan flat first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
The actor hopes to be a considerate producer in his first attempt to produce a TV series
Footage posted on Facebook on April 20 shows a rare koala with a blue eye and a brown eye sitting on a tree in Port Stephens, New South Wales.Port Stephens Koalas wrote on the Facebook post that the koala, named as Toohey, has heterochromia, which is very rare in local wild populations.Toohey has been undergoing treatment for chlamydia after it was rescued recently, Port Stephens Koalas wrote on a March 25 Facebook post. Credit: Port Stephens Koalas via Storyful
David Peralta went 5-for-6 with a home run and a career-high seven RBIs as the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks claimed a 14-11, 10-inning victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, closing out a three-game sweep. Arizona extended its winning streak to four games when Asdrubal Cabrera opened the 10th on second base and scored on Josh Rojas' single up the middle off Lucas Sims (0-1). A hit, a walk and two outs later, Peralta delivered a bases-clearing triple off Cionel Perez and Carson Kelly added an insurance run with a solo homer.
Japan will hold a joint military drill with US and French troops in the country's southwest next month, the defence minister said Friday, as China's actions in regional waters raise concern.
The Indian internet is currently flooded with "toolkits" that provide details about the availability of life-saving medicines, oxygen supplies, the status of beds in hospitals, among other things.
Sirens wailing, a police convoy escorting a tanker carrying oxygen reached a hospital in India's capital just in time, to the huge relief of doctors and relatives of COVID-19 patients counting on the supply to stave off death. India on Friday posted the world's largest daily COVID-19 caseload for a second day, with 332,730 new cases and 2,263 deaths, as the pandemic spiralled out of control. A dire shortage of oxygen - essential for the survival of critical COVID patients - has meant states are closely guarding their supplies and even posting armed police at production plants to ensure security.