AFP UK

Bangkok (AFP) – Thai capital Bangkok, home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, has been blanketed for days by an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning. More than 1.3 million people have fallen sick in Thailand since the start of the year as a result of air pollution, with nearly 200,000 admitted to hospital this week alone, according to the public health ministry. +COMPLETES VIDI33AT97N_EN+

Hamburg (AFP) – German police are at a Jehovah’s Witnesses centre in Hamburg where a shooting killed several people, with the gunman believed to be among the dead. IMAGES

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russia unleashed a barrage of high-precision missile and other attacks on Ukraine Thursday, triggering a wave of power cuts, including at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation that “no matter how treacherous Russia’s actions are, our state and people will not be in chains”.

Fukushima (Japan) (AFP) – The Japanese region of Fukushima is hoping to attract more visitors to its snow resorts and try to shed the stigma that lingers more than a decade since the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster.

Beijing (AFP) – Xi Jinping was handed a third term as Chinese president on Friday, capping a rise that has seen him become the country’s most powerful leader in generations. IMAGES

Nations unies (Etats-Unis) (AFP) – UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner says the United nations has bought a ship to remove oil and avoid a potentially catastrophic spill from a tanker decaying for years off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen. SOUNDBITE

Tbilisi (AFP) – Georgians rally outside the parliament in capital Tbilisi despite the ruling party’s promise to drop a controversial “foreign agent” bill reminiscent of Russian legislation used to silence critics. IMAGES

Athens (AFP) – Protesters, many among them students, take to the streets in Greece’s capital to express their anger in the aftermath of the country’s deadliest train tragedy, which has sparked accusations of government mismanagement and calls for the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to quit.

Vienna (AFP) – “I am astonished by the complacency” says Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — is left running on emergency power “for the sixth time” after a wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine. Speaking in Vienna to the IAEA’s board of governors, Grossi warns “if we allow this to continue time after time, one day our luck will run out.”

Stockholm (AFP) – EU Development Ministers pose for a group photo during an informal meeting in Stockholm. IMAGES

Tbilisi (AFP) – Georgia’s ruling party has announced it is halting plans to introduce a “foreign agent” law similar to Russia’s, but the opposition vowed to step up protests. Concern has been growing that the ex-Soviet nation, which aspires to join the EU and NATO, is taking an authoritarian turn and maintaining links with Moscow.

Brussels (AFP) – European Union interior ministers meet in Brussels to discuss migration and asylum. IMAGES