Organisers of next month's world swimming championships in South Korea are facing the prospect of half-filled grandstands, figures showed Friday, with only around one-third of tickets sold.A total of 419,000 tickets are available for the FINA World Championships taking place in the southern cities of Gwangju and Yeosu, from July 12-28.But only about 149,000 have been taken up since they went on sale in January, organisers said Friday -- just over 35 percent. Around 140,000 of those were block-bo

LONDON (AFP) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May steps down as leader of her Conservative Party on Friday, formally triggering the race for a successor who will try where she failed to deliver Brexit.May will remain prime minister until a new leader is chosen, likely in late July, but has relinquished control over the direction of Britain's tortuous departure from the European Union.Brexit is still scheduled for October 31 but while her rivals thrash it out, the project remains stuck, with the

VER-SUR-MER (AFP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron looked beyond the current tensions with Britain over Brexit on Thursday as he paid tribute to the neighbours' shared history and "common future" on the 75th anniversary of D-Day."Whatever it takes, we will always stand together because it's our common destiny," Macron said in English at commemorations with British Prime Minister Theresa May in northern France.The two leaders launched the construction of a new British memor

BUDAPEST (AFP) -- Hungarian police confirmed Monday the discovery of two more victims of a sightseeing boat's collision with a river cruise ship in Budapest last week raising the toll to nine tourists killed.Only seven of the 35 people on board have survived so far, leaving 19 still missing with the prospect of finding any more passengers alive seen as very slim.The Mermaid boat carrying mainly South Korean tourists overturned and sank last Wednesday seconds after colliding with the Viking Sigyn

BEIJING (AFP) -- China marked 30 years since the deadly Tiananmen crackdown on Tuesday with a wall of silence and extra security after arresting activists and tightening internet censorship ahead of the politically sensitive anniversary. On a grey, overcast day, police checked the identification cards of every tourist and commuter leaving the subway near Tiananmen Square, the site of the pro-democracy protests that were brutally extinguished by tanks and soldiers on June 4, 1989.Foreign journali

SAN JOSE (AFP) -- Apple on Monday announced the demise of its groundbreaking iTunes platform in favor of three more tailored apps, as it refines its offerings to be a stage for digital music, films, podcasts and more.iTunes transformed the way people buy and listen to music after its launch in 2001, but is now being phased out, Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said, while helping kick off the technology giant's annual gathering of developers in Silicon Valley.&

PYONGYANG (AFP) -- Tens of thousands of performers took part in a stunning gymnastics show Monday night in Pyongyang as North Korea's spectacular "Mass Games" propaganda displays began their 2019 run.Following rehearsals over several months, vast numbers of people in colourful costumes took part in a precision synchronised performance at the cavernous May Day Stadium, portraying moments from Korean history and modern life.North Korean artistic performances are closely watched by observ

A municipal employee sprayed gunfire "indiscriminately" in a government building complex on Friday in the US state of Virginia, police said, killing 12 people and wounding four in the latest mass shooting to rock the country.The shooter was also killed after an extended gun battle with responding officers, in a scene that "best could be described as a war zone," Virginia Beach police chief James Cervera told a news conference. The shooting happened just after 4:00 pm (20

The United States warned China on Saturday against threatening its neighbors’ sovereignty and said Washington was investing in new military technology in the next five years to keep Asia stable.Washington and Beijing have been vying for influence in the region, which hosts potential flashpoints such as the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait.Ties between the two powers are once again taking center stage at the weekend Singapore conference known as the Shangri-La Dia

South Korean relatives of victims of the Budapest boat tragedy on Friday visited the scene of the accident which left seven dead and 21 missing after a sightseeing boat sank.The ill-fated Mermaid carrying mainly South Korean tourists overturned and capsized in pouring rain late Wednesday, seconds after colliding with a much larger cruise ship on the Danube river. Rescuers looking for the missing are battling strong currents with Seoul requesting that the search be extended further south alo

TOKYO (AFP) -- Two people, including a child, were feared dead Tuesday in a mass stabbing attack that also injured 17 people in the Japanese city of Kawasaki, the local fire department said."One man and one female child are showing no vital signs, said fire department official Yuji Sekizawa, employing a phrase commonly used in Japan to mean the victims have died but the death has not yet been certified by an official medical professional.Footage broadcast on local TV stations showed multipl

PARIS -- French automaker Renault said Monday that it would study "with interest" a 50-50 merger proposal from Fiat Chrysler, a deal that could reshape the industry as Renault reviews its options following the arrest in Japan of its chief executive.Renault had for years tied its strategy to a partnership with Japanese automaker Nissan but this has come into question after the arrest and subsequent ouster of Carlos Ghosn at both companies.After a board meeting over what it termed a &quo

French and Italian-US auto giants Renault and Fiat Chrysler are set to announce talks on an alliance, with a view to a potential merger, informed sources said on Sunday.Renault and FCA are likely to unveil the move "within hours, perhaps tomorrow (Monday), before the (Paris) bourse opens," one of the sources told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding an eventual "merger" was on the agenda.The same source added a statement would cover "the possibility of a convergence bet

A strong 8.0-earthquake struck northern Peru in the early hours of Sunday, sending residents fleeing their homes and cutting off power to at least one town, with the impact felt as far afield as neighboring Ecuador.There were no immediate reports of injuries following the quake which the US Geological Survey said struck at a depth of 110 kilometers (68 miles).  The quake hit at 2:41 a.m. local time about 75 kilometers southeast of the town of Lagunas, along the Amazon basin near the border

TAIPEI (AFP) -- Taiwan made history on Friday with Asia's first legal gay weddings as same-sex couples tied the knot in jubilant and emotional scenes, the culmination of a three-decade fight for equality.The weddings, which came a week after lawmakers took the unprecedented decision to legalise gay marriage despite staunch conservative opposition, places Taiwan at the vanguard of the burgeoning gay rights movement in Asia.Some dozen couples were among the first to arrive at a government office i

PHNOM PENH (AFP) -- Black-clad students reenacted the horrors of the Cambodian genocide at the "Killing Fields" on Monday to commemorate the two million people killed by the Khmer Rouge's murderous, Maoist regime.(Yonhap)Hundreds gathered at the notorious site in Phnom Penh to mark the annual Day of Remembrance with prayers and performances, including students wielding wooden rifles, knives and bamboo sticks in mock attacks."We performed these scenes in order to remember the genocidal Pol Pot re

The Netherlands won the 2019 Eurovision song contest early Sunday at a show in the seaside Israeli city of Tel Aviv that featured a performance from Madonna, plenty of glitz and some controversy.The oh-so-glamorous and famously kitschy finale gave Israel a chance to showcase its credentials as a culturally progressive nation, but politics lurked in the background as pro-Palestinian activists called for a boycott. Duncan Laurence of the Netherlands celebrates after winning the 2019 Eurovision Son

TAIPEI (AFP) -- Taiwan's parliament legalised same-sex marriage on Friday in a landmark first for Asia as the government survived a last-minute attempt by conservatives to pass a watered-down version.The island's lawmakers comfortably passed a law allowing same-sex couples to form "exclusive permanent unions" and a second clause that would let them apply for a "marriage registration" with government agencies. (AP=Yonhap)The vote is a major victory for the island's LGBT community who have campaig

SEOUL (AFP) - Ever more South Koreans prefer peaceful co-existence with the nuclear-armed North to reunification of the peninsula, a survey found Monday.　Despite sharing a common language and ethnicity and centuries of history, North and South Korea have become radically different societies in recent decades.　Ruled with an iron grip by three generations of the Kim family, the North has turned itself into a nuclear power -- at the cost of international isolation -- while the South has embraced de

Forty-one people including at least two children have died after a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing and erupted in a huge ball of fire and black smoke at Moscow's busiest airport on Sunday, investigators said.Dramatic footage that went viral on social media showed Aeroflot's Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crash-landing and then speeding along the runway at Sheremetyevo international airport, flames pouring from its fuselage.Passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide