Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 362

South Korea: End to Korean War agreed to in principle

North and South Korea, the US, and China agree in principle to declare a formal end to the Korean War which ended in an armistice, says the South's President Moon Jae-in. But talks have yet to begin because of North Korea's demands, he added. The Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, split the peninsula into two.North and South Korea have technically been at war ever since - backed by China

Nicaragua receives China vaccines after cutting ties with Taiwan

Nicaragua has received one million Covid vaccines from China, days after it cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of Beijing. Government representatives returned to the Central American state on Sunday with news of the donation. Local media broadcast clips showing an Air China plane landing with the first 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.Officials said they were "extremely grateful" for

Hong Kong: Media tycoon Jimmy Lai gets 13 months jail for Tiananmen vigil

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 13 months in jail for participating in a vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing. The 74-year-old was found guilty last week of inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly. He was among thousands who defied a ban to attend last year's vigil marking the killings in the Chinese capital. More than two dozen Hong Kong

Myanmar coup: The women abused and tortured in detention

Women in Myanmar have been tortured, sexually harassed and threatened with rape in custody, according to accounts obtained by the BBC. Five women who were detained for protesting against a military coup in the country earlier this year say they were abused and tortured in the detention system after their arrests. Their names have been changed in the following accounts to protect their safety.

Afghan women: Secret diaries of changing lives

When the Taliban swept into Kabul on 15 August the only shots they fired were in celebration. For Afghan women, the salvos represented the loss of all their rights and freedoms. Five of them have been sending the BBC daily diaries, which provide a portrait of their rapidly changing lives.There's a scene in The Handmaid's Tale, the TV series based on Margaret Attwood's dystopian novel, where the

Omicron: India aims to avoid 'pandemic roulette'

It's a frantic time at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in the western city of Pune, India's oldest genome sequencing facility. As the country tries to contain the spread of the Omicron variant, laboratories like the NIV are working round the clock to identify people who might be infected by it.Every day it receives about 100 throat and nasal swabs sealed in small boxes. That's roughly

US dignitaries shun Olympics. What about sponsors?

Refusing to send an official U.S. delegation while U.S. athletes compete at the Beijing Olympics is like dropping off dessert at a party you plan to protest by staying away. Your absence might cause a stir at the start, but it will be pretty much ignored by the time people tuck into their pie.To be sure, refusing to rub elbows with tyrants and assorted swells from the International Olympic

US envoy conveys concerns to Cambodia about Myanmar, China

A U.S. State Department envoy conveyed concerns to top Cambodian officials on Friday about bilateral and regional issues, including the crisis in Myanmar and the construction of Chinese military facilities at a Cambodian naval base. The visit by Counselor Derek Chollet to Phnom Penh came days after the United States ordered an arms embargo on Cambodia, citing deepening Chinese military influence,

As Inflation Soars China Trolls US for Disparity Between the 1 Percent and Rest of America

As inflation continues to rise across the United States, a new report from China on Friday appeared to mock the increasing disparity between the extraordinarily wealthy one percent and the rest of the country. The report was issued by a think tank on behalf of the Xinhua News Agency, the state-run media organization of China. Entitled "Ten Questions for American Democracy", it was accompanied by

102 Journalists Imprisoned in China in 2021, International Group Says

According to a report from The International Federation of Journalists, imprisonments of journalists were "on the rise," as 365 journalists are behind bars across the world, compared to 235 last year. "The world needs to wake up to the growing violations of journalists' rights and media freedoms across the globe," Anthony Bellanger, IFJ General Secretary said.The report released on Thursday, one