The United Nations has abruptly suspended its anti-torture mission to Australia after inspectors were barred from several jails, with a key oversight body condemning on Monday the "embarrassing debacle".. Australia will now have to answer for this embarrassing debacle in front of the United Nations Committee against Torture."
In a raucous cockpit in the Philippines, Dennis de la Cruz grins from ear to ear as he watches his roosters slash their opponents to death in a frenzy of blood and feathers.. The son of a longtime cockpit operator, de la Cruz said he had never held a regular job.
British Conservative Rishi Sunak was on Monday poised to become prime minister and the country's first leader of colour, after the dramatic decision by Boris Johnson to abandon an audacious political comeback.. Onetime Johnson allies, such as interior minister Grant Shapps, switched to Sunak.
China's economy grew 3.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, according to official data released Monday, beating forecasts a day after President Xi Jinping was re-elected to a historic third term as leader.. But Monday's data, published six days later than scheduled, showed a slight rebound, with China posting growth higher than the 2.5 percent predicted by a panel of experts surveyed by AFP. It did, however, show a marked rise in unemployment from last month, a figure officials blamed on the pandemic.
South Korea's military said Monday it had fired warning shots at a North Korean ship that crossed the countries' de facto maritime border, prompting the North to fire a warning in return.. A North Korean merchant vessel crossed what is known as the Northern Limit Line at 3:42 am (1842 GMT) but retreated north after Seoul's navy fired warning shots, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The Communist Party Congress has laid bare the striking gender imbalance in the upper echelons of Chinese politics, with not a single woman making the 24-person Politburo for the first time in at least a quarter of a century.. Even though women make up about 29 percent of the total Communist Party membership, vanishingly few of them manage to ascend from grassroots positions.
Costa Rican authorities on Sunday confirmed that German millionaire Rainer Schaller and his family were on board a small plane that crashed in the Caribbean, as recovery efforts were hindered by bad weather.. On Sunday, coast guard vessels departed in the early morning but bad weather complicated the search and it was suspended about 12 hours later.
When humanitarian officials in Haiti try to describe their concerns over a new, fast-spreading cholera epidemic, they struggle to find words strong enough: "alarming," "chaotic," even "a catastrophe.". - Humanitarian corridors - The return of cholera has revived nightmarish memories of the epidemic introduced by blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers in 2010, after a major earthquake ravaged the country.
South Korea's military fired warning shots at a North Korean ship before dawn on Monday, deeming the vessel had crossed the adversaries' disputed maritime border, prompting the North to return warning fire, state and local media reported.. A North Korean merchant vessel crossed what is known as the Northern Limit Line at 3:42 a.m. but retreated northwards after the South's navy fired warning shots, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday attacked the EU over its Russia sanctions policy, while in Budapest, tens of thousands protested what they say is his neglect of the education sector.. - Anti-government protest - In Budapest meanwhile, tens of thousands marched against Orban's education policies, angry at what they say is the underfunding of schools and the intimidation of teachers pressing for better conditions.
