At least 31 people are reported to have been killed in a blaze at a hospital in South Korea on Friday.
Video footage and pictures showed a helicopter flying above the building in Miryang, engulfed by heavy grey smoke and surrounded by multiple fire trucks.
The national news agency Yonhap reported the death toll at 31. Earlier, the national fire agency had said 15 people had been confirmed dead, 11 were in critical condition, and 40 more were injured.
“Two nurses said they had seen fire…
UN experts urge Philippines to allow independent news website Rappler to operate
UN human rights experts called on the Philippines government on Thursday to allow independent news website Rappler to operate, voicing concern at rising rhetoric against voices critical of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler’s licence on January 11 for ownership violations. Maria Ressa, chief of Rappler, met state investigators on Monday to answer what she called a suspicious complaint about a 2012 story.
“We are gravely…
Qualcomm fined €997m for abusing dominant market position
US technology company Qualcomm has been fined more than €997 million by the European Commission over a breach of EU competition rules.
US slaps China with sanctions amid North Korea nuclear crackdown
The United States has slapped new sanctions on Chinese and North Korean firms and individuals that it said support the Pyongyang regime of Kim Jong-un and his nuclear weapons programme. The move comes as the US seeks to choke the flow of goods and materials crucial to North Korea’s economy such as oil, electronics and metals, and pressure Kim to halt the development of nuclear weapons that threaten the region and potentially the US mainland. Following UN sanctions, US Treasury…
EU regulators provide guidance for digital ‘on-boarding’ by financial firms
Financial firms should consider requiring customers to provide proof of identity from documentation containing “high security features or biometric data”, such as passports, to ensure that digital-only ‘on boarding’ processes comply with anti-money laundering rules, EU regulators have said.
‘Spattered with blood and shaking with fear’: the Indonesian market where dogs are butchered and blowtorched
Disturbing video footage of dogs being butchered and their hair burnt off with blowtorches at markets in Indonesia has prompted howls of protest from animal rights activists.
Campaigners from the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia group are urging authorities to shut down the country’s live animal markets, where they say thousands of dogs and cats are bludgeoned to death each week.
Video filmed by the activists at markets in Tomohon and Langowan cities on Sulawesi island shows a stomach-churning…
Kim Jong-un, lacking good information, moves ‘ever closer’ to putting US at risk of nuclear attack: CIA director
The US believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is not getting good information to handle the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear missile programme and the country is moving “ever closer” to putting Americans at risk of attack, according to CIA director Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo said on Tuesday that he believes Kim will not rest until he is able to threaten multiple nuclear attacks against the US at the same time.
He cast doubt on whether Kim is well-briefed enough on developments to…
US may upset Beijing after it backs Indonesian claim on South China Sea near Natuna islands
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis accepted Indonesia renaming an area previously considered part of the South China Sea during his visit to the country – potentially upsetting China.
“Certainly Indonesia, as a fulcrum, a maritime fulcrum of the Indo-Pacific area, is critical,” Mattis told a joint press conference after bilateral talks with Indonesian defence minister Ryamizard Ryacudu.
He also expressed a readiness to embrace the name newly assigned by Indonesia to waters around…
Bonds with euro clause are qualifying corporate bonds, says Court of Appeal
A clause in sterling denominated loan notes which applied if the UK joined the euro did not prevent those loan notes from being qualifying corporate bonds (QCBs) for the purposes of UK capital gains tax (CGT), the Court of Appeal has decided, reversing a decision of the Upper Tribunal.
Tokyo digs out from heavy snow, but travel chaos remains, with thousands stuck at airport
The Japanese capital of Tokyo on Tuesday dug out from more than 20cm of snow that had snarled traffic, trapping cars on bridges and in tunnels, and serious transport delays remained around the metropolis.
The snow that began on Monday morning tapered off early on Tuesday after dumping some 23cm on a city that rarely has snow accumulate, with freezing temperatures keeping snow-choked roads slick and pedestrians wary. It was the heaviest snow to hit Tokyo in four years.
Most commuter lines were…