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U.N. pushes cash handouts to avert mass poverty in Afghanistan

Kabul – December 1 (Online): The United Nations said on Wednesday that a program to pay $300 million a year in cash to Afghan families with children, elderly or people with disabilities is the best way to target increasing poverty. In what the U.N. Development […]

Lebanon Christian politician says vote delay would lead to country’s ‘slow death’

Beirut – December 1 (Online): One of Lebanon’s main Christian politicians accused foe Hezbollah and its allies of working to postpone a parliamentary election set for March over fears of electoral losses, warning such a move would condemn Lebanon to a “slow death”. Western donors […]

Russia says some U.S. embassy staff must leave in January

Moscow – December 1 (Online): Russia’s foreign ministry has ordered U.S. embassy staff who have been in Moscow for more than three years to leave Russia by Jan. 31, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. The move comes after Russia’s ambassador to the United […]

Baby, toddler among four dead in Barcelona squat fire

Barcelona, Nov 30 (AFP/APP):A four-month-old baby and his three-year-old brother died with their parents on Tuesday when a fire ripped through an abandoned bank where the family was squatting in Barcelona, in a blaze denounced as “horrific” by the Spanish city’s mayor. Chief firefighter Angel […]

Honduras ruling party accepts election defeat

Tegucigalpa, Nov 30 (AFP/APP):Honduras’s ruling rightwing National Party (PN) on Tuesday accepted defeat as partial election results showed leftist Xiomara Castro with a commanding lead over her rivals for the presidency. With just over 52 percent of votes counted, former first lady Castro led with […]

Germany gives first verdict to call out IS ‘genocide’ against Yazidis

Frankfurt, Nov 30 (AFP/APP):A German court on Tuesday issued the first ruling worldwide to recognise crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide, in a verdict hailed by activists as a “historic” win for the minority. The court in Frankfurt sentenced an Iraqi man to life […]

Japan confirms 1st case of Omicron COVID-19 variant

TOKYO, Nov. 30 (Xinhua/APP):Japan confirmed the first case infected with the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 in the country, the Japanese government said Tuesday. The infected person is a man in his 30s arriving from Namibia, who tested positive for the COVID-19 at Narita airport […]

5.5-magnitude quake hits Izu Islands, Japan: USGS

HONG KONG, Nov. 30 (Xinhua/APP):An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 jolted Izu Islands, Japan, at 06:53:32 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 7.86 km, was initially determined to be at 31.2289 degrees north latitude and 142.4773 […]

Australia “not going back to lockdowns” in wake of Omicron COVID-19 variant: PM

CANBERRA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua/APP):Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that he will not allow the country to go back into lockdown in response to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Morrison on Tuesday afternoon met with state and territory leaders to discuss the national response […]

400-year-old stone tablet discovered in China’s Hebei

SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 30 (Xinhua/APP):A stone tablet dating back to the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) was unearthed in a village in north China’s Hebei Province, local authorities said Tuesday. The stone tablet was found when villagers in Nanyutai Village, Ningjin County, […]

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