LOMBOK ISLAND (AFP) -- Multiple earthquakes -- including a powerful and shallow 6.9-magnitude tremor -- have rocked the Indonesian holiday island of Lombok, killing at least five people and setting off fresh waves of panic.A series of quakes were recorded by seismologists throughout Sunday, the first measuring 6.3 shortly before midday which triggered landslides and sent people fleeing for cover. It was followed nearly twelve hours later by a quake measuring 6.9 and at least five more significan

Park Sung-hyun took advantage of an early tee time to shoot her best round of 2018 on Friday and grab a share of the clubhouse lead during the LPGA Tour's Indy Championship.The South Korean fired a nine-under 63 on Friday to finish in a tie with Lizette Salas at 13-under 131 as they completed their second rounds before heavy rains caused a four-hour delay.The second round will resume early Saturday at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Yonhap)Park said her superb perfo

Japan should do more for victims of wartime sexual slavery, UN rights experts said at a hearing on Friday, insisting Tokyo had yet to provide full redress and reparations.Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea but also other parts of Asia including China and the Philippines, were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II. (Herald DB)During a two-day review of Japan's record before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which

Son Heung-min's hopes of avoiding military service by securing Asian Games gold suffered a blow Friday as South Korea were stunned 2-1 by minnows Malaysia. (Yonhap)The Tottenham Hotspur forward came off the bench just before the hour-mark but couldn't help the defending champions overturn a two-goal deficit, after Safawi Rasid's first-half double for 171st-ranked Malaysia.Son is skipping Premier League action for the regional Olympics, where victory would mean an exemption from South Korea's 21

Two women accused of assassinating the half-brother of North Korea's leader in a brazen hit that shocked the world face a key court ruling Thursday, with their families hopeful they will be acquitted and return home.After months hearing the prosecution's case about the Cold War-style killing at Kuala Lumpur airport, a judge will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to support a murder charge against Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam.  This file photo taken on Octo

LONDON, (AFP) -- A car crashed into barriers outside Britain‘s Houses of Parliament in a suspected terror attack on Tuesday, injuring a “number of pedestrians” yards from where five people were killed last year.　Police said they had arrested the driver, in his late 20s, and were holding him on suspicion of terrorist offences.　“At this stage, we are treating this as a terrorist incident,” said Scotland Yard, adding that none of the injuries are believed to be “life-threatening”.  Police officers

At least 100 security forces have been killed in the ongoing struggle to push the Taliban from the embattled Afghan city of Ghazni, a government minister said Monday, four days after the fighting began.The announcement came as fresh reinforcements were deployed to the provincial capital and air strikes targeted Taliban positions, according to defence minister Tariq Shah Bahrami."About 100 security forces have lost their lives and between 20 and 30 civilians have been killed," Bahrami told a pres

ST. LOUIS (AFP) -- Now Tiger Woods is back.The 14-time major winner fired his lowest final round in a major, a six-under par-64, Sunday to finish second at the PGA Championship -- and a career once seen as over might just have some magic left in it after all.“He just kind of ho-hummed 64,” said playing partner Gary Woodland. “The putter was awesome. He had a lot of putts that didn’t go in as well -- 64 looked pretty easy, to be honest. Could have shot a lot (lower).”From grinding out pars and tu

Two investors filed suit against Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the electric car company after he tweeted he wanted to take the firm private, causing the share price to inflate and short-selling investors to lose millions.On Tuesday, Musk said he could finance the buyout of Tesla, founded in 2003, at a large premium to current valuation, at a price of $420 a share. As a result, Tesla shares jumped 11 percent, causing so-called short-sellers who have been betting on the stock crashing for years to lose

SEATAC, Washington (AFP) -- A 29-year-old "suicidal" airport worker who commandeered an empty plane from Seattle's main airport and took it on an hour-long flight chased by F-15 fighter jets before crashing into a small island did not commit any security violations, officials said Saturday.Horizon Air employee Richard Russell told an air traffic controller he was "just a broken man" minutes before dying late Friday in the Bombardier Q400 twin-engine turboprop plane, appearing to apologize for hi

TOKYO - Japan Friday launched an unprecedented probe into gender discrimination at all the nation's medical universities after a Tokyo medical school admitted altering the entrance test results of female applicants to exclude them.The education ministry has asked all 81 private and public medical schools to check their admission procedures for possible discrimination against female applicants.Authorities said they would also check the gender ratio of successful applicants for the past six months

MONTREAL - Four people were killed on Friday in a shooting in the eastern Canadian town of Fredericton, police said.Police urged people in the area of the shooting to remain in their homes, describing it as an "active incident" on Twitter around an hour after giving first word of the killings.The circumstances of the shooting in the capital of New Brunswick province were not immediately known.The Canadian broadcaster CBC said that the shooting happened in a residential area of the city and that

DAHYAN, Yemen - The remains of victims and children's clothing were strewn across a market in northern Yemen on Friday, as the US and UN called for an investigation into an air strike the previous day by a Saudi-led coalition that killed 29 children on a bus. A Yemeni child stands on August 10, 2018 next to a destroyed bus, the target of a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen's rebel-held Saada province. (AFP)Thursday's strike on a bus filled with children at the Dahyan market in the Huthi re

Salt consumption exceeds national and World Health Organization guidelines in most countries, but only the highest-sodium diets, such as in China, are linked to clear health risks, researchers said Friday.Only individuals with a daily salt intake of at least 12.5 grammes -- about two-and-a-half teaspoons -- were associated with increased blood pressure and a greater risk of stroke, they reported in The Lancet, a medical journal.WHO recommends capping salt consumption at five grammes per day, but

New Zealand became the latest country Friday to outlaw single-use plastic shopping bags, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they will be phased out over the next year as a "meaningful step" towards reducing pollution.New Zealand uses "hundreds of millions" of single-use plastic bags each year, many of which end up harming marine life, Ardern said."We need to be far smarter in the way we manage waste and this is a good start," she said. "We're phasing-out single-use plastic bags so we can

North Korea lashed out at the US for risking stability on the Korean peninsula Thursday, even as Pyongyang and Seoul push towards a third leadership summit.The uneasy neighbours will hold high-level talks next week to prepare for a meeting between the South's President Moon Jae-in and the North's leader Kim Jong-un, Seoul said on Thursday, as a diplomatic rapprochement takes hold.But the North Korean foreign ministry issued an angry statement hours later warning that Washington's push for full s

North Korea on Thursday accused the United States of acting in bad faith, saying Washington's push for full sanctions pressure against Pyongyang would stall progress on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.During landmark talks with US President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong-un signed up to a vague commitment to denuclearization, far from the longstanding American demand for the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal.Trump has

Thousands of firefighters, backed by US troops and crews from as far away as Australia and New Zealand, were on Wednesday making progress battling the biggest wildfire on record in California -- but the weather forecast for the rest of the week is not promising, officials said.Nearly 20 major fires have ravaged the sprawling western state over the past two weeks, fanned by strong winds and sweltering temperatures.The wildfires have left at least nine people dead, including four firefighters, and

Officials from South Korea's top rights body have met some of the 12 North Korean waitresses at the centre of a blazing row between Seoul and Pyongyang to determine whether they were tricked or coerced into coming to Seoul in 2016.The National Human Rights Commission announced a probe into the high-profile case last month, after the top UN human rights official on North Korea met some of the women and urged an investigation. (Yonhap)The issue has long been controversial, with Pyongyang saying th

SYDNEY (AFP) -- Australia has pressed North Korea over the remains of 43 soldiers still missing after the Korean War in a rare encounter between the two nations, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Tuesday.Some 17,000 Australians fought as part of the United Nations multinational force defending South Korea from communist North Korea during the 1950-1953 conflict.Of these, 340 were killed and over 1,216 wounded. Forty-three were listed as missing in action and presumed dead. Australian Foreign Mi