[Graphic News] Iran pushes global list of imprisoned journalists to record high

Iran’s protest crackdown has helped push the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to a record high of 533 in 2022, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders. The figure is up from 488 in 2021, already a record, according to the France-based NGO. More than half are detained in just five countries: China, which remains “the world’s biggest jailer of journalists” with 110, followed by Myanmar (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31). Iran is the only cou

Jan. 11, 2023

[Graphic News] Nearly 8 in 10 S. Koreans believe social media leads to more political division: survey

Nearly eight out of 10 South Koreans believe social media leads to more political division, with nearly as many people saying social media makes it easier for people to manipulate others, a survey showed. However, more than 60 percent of those surveyed said social media is still a good thing for the country’s democracy, according to the survey conducted by Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington. In South Korea, 77 percent of those surveyed said social media leads

Jan. 5, 2023

[Graphic News] 4 in 10 S. Koreans believe country’s global influence is growing

Four out of every 10 South Koreans think their country’s influence in the world stage grew stronger in recent years, a survey showed. In an annual survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, 40 percent of those surveyed answered South Korea’s global influence was getting stronger. The reading marks the third highest among 19 countries surveyed after Israel and Singapore. The research said people satisfied with the current state of their

Jan. 3, 2023

Ukrainian air defence missile lands in Belarus - BelTA

Belarus' state-run BelTA news agency reported that a Ukrainian S-300 missile had fallen onto the territory of Belarus on Thursday during one of Russia's largest missile attacks against Ukraine since the start of the war. The Minsk defence ministry was investigating whether Belarus' air defence systems had shot down the rocket or it was a misfire. The incident occurred between 10 and 11 a.m. (0700-0800 GMT) - around the time Russia was firing scores of missiles towards Ukraine. B

Dec. 29, 2022

[Newsmaker] Frigid monster storm across US claims at least 34 lives

BUFFALO, New York -- Millions of people hunkered down against a deep freeze Sunday to ride out the winter storm that has killed at least 34 people across the United States and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. The scope of the storm has been nearly unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60

Dec. 26, 2022

Kremlin says Biden, Zelensky refusing to hear 'Russia's concerns'

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine and the United States of turning a deaf ear to its concerns after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a historic visit to Washington. Zelensky enjoyed a hero's welcome on a lightning trip on Wednesday in which US President Joe Biden committed nearly $1.8 billion in military supplies including, for the first time, the Patriot missile defence system. "We can say with regret that so far neither President Biden nor President Zelensk

Dec. 22, 2022

Elderly Covid patients fill hospital wards in China's major cities

CHONGQING, China (AFP) - Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China Thursday as the country battled a wave of COVID cases. The virus is surging across China in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing. Attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets, an old man racked with COVID-19 lay groaning on a stretcher in the emergency department of a hospital in central China Thursday. A paramedic at Chongqing Medical Uni

Dec. 22, 2022

China limits how it defines COVID deaths in official count

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 death toll, a Chinese health official said, in a narrow definition that limits the number of deaths reported, as an outbreak of the virus surges following the easing of pandemic-related restrictions. Deaths that occur in patients with pre-existing illnesses are not counted as COVID-19 deaths, said Wang Guiqiang, the head of infectious disease at Peking University's No. 1 Hospital. C

Dec. 21, 2022

[Graphic News] Workplace violence, harassment is widespread: global survey

The first attempt to survey the extent of violence and harassment at work around the globe has found that workplace abuse is widespread, and particularly pronounced among young people, migrants, and wage earners, especially women. More than 22.8 percent of the nearly 75,000 workers in 121 countries surveyed last year reported having experienced at least one type of violence or harassment, according to the report released by the UN International Labor Organization, the Lloyds Register Foundation

Dec. 21, 2022

[Newsmaker] House Jan. 6 panel urges Trump prosecution with criminal referral

WASHINGTON -- The House Jan. 6 committee urged the US Justice Department on Monday to bring criminal charges against Donald Trump for the violent 2021 Capitol insurrection, calling for accountability for the former president and “a time of reflection and reckoning.” After one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are recommending criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a

Dec. 20, 2022

[Graphic News] New York, Singapore top ‘world’s costliest city’ survey

New York and Singapore are jointly the world’s most expensive cities after inflation soared this year, an annual survey showed. The pair displaced last year’s number one Tel Aviv, which fell to third place this time round in the Worldwide Cost of Living index from London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. New York hit the top spot for the first time, while Damascus and Tripoli remained the cheapest cities. In addition to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco moved into the top ten.

Dec. 20, 2022

[Graphic News] Three-quarters of people over 10 own a mobile phone: UN

Nearly three-quarters of people over the age of 10 now own a mobile phone, potentially opening the way to broader internet use, the United Nations said. The UN’s International Telecommunication Union has provided its first estimate of regional and global ownership, revealing that 73 percent of the world’s population over 10 years of age owned a cellphone in 2022. But it cautioned that mobile phone ownership remains higher than internet use — especially in lower-income countries

Dec. 14, 2022

[Newsmaker] NASA Orion capsule safely blazes back from moon

NASA’s Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby. The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 2,760 degrees Celsius before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupa

Dec. 12, 2022

[Graphic News] International student enrollment at US colleges rebounds after pandemic

US colleges and universities are seeing more international students enroll following a sharp decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new survey, released from the Institute of International Education and the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, found first-time international student enrollment was up by 80 percent last year compared to the year before. During the last academic year, 948,519 international students from more than 200 countries studied at a US college

Dec. 6, 2022

[Graphic News] Record number of people repatriated from IS camps in Syria

Repatriations of foreign women and children affiliated with Islamic State from detention camps in northeast Syria hit a record high in 2022, Kurdish authorities said. Thousands of foreigners including women and children had gone to Syria to live in IS' so-called "caliphate" until 2019, when US-backed Kurdish forces snatched the last pocket of Syrian territory from the jihadists. Fleeing women and children were housed in overcrowded detention camps run by Kurdish authorities and in

Dec. 1, 2022

Former China leader Jiang Zemin dies, aged 96

BEIJING (AFP) -- Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin died Wednesday at the age of 96, state media reported, hailing him as a great communist revolutionary who helped quell the 1989 pro-democracy protests. Jiang took power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, in which the military used deadly force to end the uprising, and led China towards its emergence as a global economic powerhouse. The major bodies of China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) bodies announced his death through a

Nov. 30, 2022

China's Xi confronts Canada's Trudeau at G20 over media leaks

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday criticised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in person over alleged leaks of their closed-door meeting at the G20 summit, a rare public display of annoyance by the Chinese leader. In video footage published by Canadian broadcasters, Xi and Trudeau can be seen standing close to each other and conversing via a translator at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali. "That is not appropriate, and we didn't do it that way," Xi said in Mand

Nov. 17, 2022

Poland: Russian-made missile fell on our country, killing 2

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland said early Wednesday that a Russian-made missile fell in the country's east, killing two people, though US President Joe Biden said it was “unlikely” it was fired from Russia. The blast, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried as “a very significant escalation,” prompted Biden to call an emergency meeting of G-7 and NATO leaders. A deliberate, hostile attack on NATO member Poland could trigger a collective military response by t

Nov. 16, 2022

Biden calls 'emergency' meeting after missile hits Poland

NUSA DUA -- President Joe Biden convened an "emergency" meeting of the Group of Seven and NATO leaders in Indonesia Wednesday morning for consultations after NATO-ally Poland said a "Russian-made" missile killed two people in the eastern part of its country near the Ukraine border. Biden, who was awakened overnight by staff with the news of the missile explosion while in Indonesia for the Group of 20 summit, called Polish President Andrzej Duda early Wednesday to express his

Nov. 16, 2022

Biden discusses Taiwan with Xi in effort to avoid ‘conflict’

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) -- President Joe Biden objected to China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions” toward Taiwan and raised human rights concerns about Beijing’s conduct in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong during his first in-person meeting on Monday with President Xi Jinping, the White House said. In a news conference following the meeting, Biden reiterated U.S. support for its longstanding “One China” policy. He also said that despite China&rsq

Nov. 14, 2022