After South Korean officials concede that there were errors in crowd control on Halloween, AFP uses official data, media reports and eyewitness testimony to examine the timeline of the disaster that left 156 people dead.. It is one of the worst-ever disasters in South Korean history. tk/ceb/lb
Marshall Islands officials say they are ready to resume talks with the United States this week on renewing a long-standing economic and security deal, provided Washington addresses grievances stemming from the testing of nuclear weapons on the Pacific archipelago more than 70 years ago. . The Marshall Islands said it would also be ready to resume talks with Yun if Washington tackled health and environmental issues stemming from their nuclear testing.
Tokyo began issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples who live and work in the capital on Tuesday, a long-awaited move in a country without marriage equality.. "Through this Tokyo partnership system, I sincerely hope we can accelerate efforts to create a society where the rights of sexual minorities can be protected, and made more equal," campaigner Soyoka Yamamoto told a press conference on Tuesday.
Pope Francis will become the first pontiff in history to visit Bahrain, in a trip this week that is hoped to cement ties with Islam, but is also marked by accusations of human rights abuses in the Gulf state.. That visit marked the first ever by a pope to the Gulf region, where Islam was born.
South Korea's police chief said Tuesday that officers had received multiple urgent reports of danger ahead of a deadly crowd crush at a Halloween event but their handling of them was "insufficient".. Police knew "a large crowd had gathered even before the accident occurred, urgently indicating the danger," he said, acknowledging the way this information was handled had been "insufficient".
Israelis will vote Tuesday in their fifth election in less than four years, with the hawkish ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu campaigning for a comeback alongside far-right allies.. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption and breach of trust, has addressed party faithful from a bulletproof campaign bus, seeking to convince them that only he can keep the country safe.
Filipinos clutching flowers and umbrellas poured into cemeteries across the Catholic-majority Philippines Tuesday to pay tribute to their dead loved ones on All Saints' Day for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that cemeteries were open on November 1 for the ancient Christian tradition, which honours all saints and martyrs who died for the faith.
Denmark votes on Tuesday in what promises to be a tight parliamentary election in which incumbent Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's survival in the face of the far-right depends on a new centrist party.. With neither bloc looking likely to gain their own majority, they will not be able to govern without the help of the Moderates, a centrist party founded this year by former Liberal Party leader and two-time prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who is polling at 9.3 to 10 percent of the vote.
Arab leaders meet in the Algerian capital on Tuesday for their first summit since a string of normalisation deals with Israel that have divided the region.. "The Arab states which have normalised with Israel are not enthusiastic about the idea of a coming together to condemn their position," said Abidi.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes a high-stakes trip to China this week, walking a tightrope between shoring up a key economic relationship and facing heightened concerns about over-reliance on authoritarian Beijing.. Some in government will view shoring up the economic partnership with China as crucial at a time Germany, battered by the energy crisis, is hurtling towards a recession.
