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102 Rohingya refugees rescued at sea by Sri Lankan navy

Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) (AFP) – 102 Rohingya refugees have been rescued by the Sri Lankan navy after their boat was spotted adrift in the Indian Ocean. The mostly Muslim ethnic group face heavy persecution in Myanmar and thousands face dangerous sea journeys each year, with the majority trying to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

©AFP

Healthcare comes by sea to isolated Greek isles

Síkinos (Greece) (AFP) – Coming ashore after eight hours at sea, medical professionals arrive on Sikinos, one of Greece’s smallest inhabited islands, where locals would otherwise struggle to get treatment. The initiative is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to provide free healthcare in a country where the sector suffered heavily from the debt crisis of 2010-2018, leaving per capita spending at less than half the EU average.

©AFP

China’s ice hackers income hit by a warmer autumn

Harbin (China) (AFP) – Every winter, dozens of workers brave subzero temperatures to hack ice from the mighty Songhua River in northeastern China. The ice forms the building blocks for the massive sculptures at Harbin’s Ice and Snow World, an annual festival that draws tens of thousands of visitors. But this year, a warmer autumn has delayed the freeze and left the river ice thinner than normal.

©AFP

Rescuers race to find survivors after Vanuatu earthquake

Port Vila (Vanuatu) (AFP) – Rescue operations are ongoing on the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, where a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday December 17. As of December 19, nine deaths are reported, but officials say this figure is set to rise. International disaster response teams and resources have been sent to the low-lying archipelago, which is located in the quake-prone Pacific Ring of Fire.

©AFP

Teenage window painter brings the Christmas spirit to the Kosovar capital

Pristina (AFP) – Renea Morina’s decoration skills are in high demand in the Kosovar capital, Pristina, this holiday season. The 16-year-old window painter is bringing a festive touch to businesses around the city in the run-up to Christmas, a venture she began to help her mother financially.

©AFP

Georgia’s tourism-reliant economy under threat as protests rage

Tbilisi (AFP) – Sitting in the empty dining room of the central Tbilisi hotel he owns, Shalva Alaverdashvili is one of those whose business is suffering under Georgia’s ongoing political crisis, with the country’s vital tourism industry feeling the impact. The 46-year-old’s hotel has been right in the midst of the regular pro-EU protests that have gripped the city since disputed October elections and Alaverdashvili says the unrest has triggered a wave of cancellations that has cost hoteliers around “3.5 million euros” collectively.

©AFP

Russian President Putin ‘will definitely’ speak with Syria’s Assad

Moscow (AFP) – “I haven’t yet seen president Assad since his arrival in Moscow,” says Russian President Vladimir Putin, “but I plan to, I will definitely speak with him”. The toppled Syrian leader fled to Moscow as Islamist-led rebels took over the country earlier in December, an event that Putin says is not “a defeat for Russia.”

©AFP

Hanoi karaoke bar fire kills 11 after suspected arson

Hanoi (AFP) – A fire in a Hanoi karaoke bar has killed 11 people and left another two in hospital, in what police believe is an act of arson. Police in the Vietnamese capital say they received reports of the fire at 11:00pm and arrested a suspect around midnight.

©AFP

US report on Chinese military corruption ‘ignores facts’: Beijing

Beijing (AFP) – Responding to a Pentagon claim that corruption in China’s military could hamper its modernisation, Beijing urges the US to “abandon its Cold War mentality”. Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian says the report “ignores facts, is full of bias and spreads the theory of the China threat”. According to the US report, at least 15 high-ranking military officers and defence industry figures were removed from their posts between July and December after “a new wave of corruption-related investigations.”

©AFP

Indian Ocean Tsunami: The body collector’s torment 20 years on

Banda Aceh (Indonesia) (AFP) – Djafaruddin still breaks down when thinking about the children orphaned by the world’s deadliest tsunami two decades ago. At least 225,000 people were killed when waves unleashed by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake ravaged coastal communities in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Djafaruddin was in one of the worst hit areas, Banda Aceh, and shifted dozens of dead bodies.

©AFP

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