WORLD

Palestinian Territories | AFP | Police blocked dozens of women from attending a football match Sunday in the Gaza Strip, in what activists said they hoped would have been the first such permission under Hamas’s rule. Authorities in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas told the women they …

Muscat, Oman | AFP | Qatar signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman on the development of bilateral investment and trade Sunday, nearly eight months into a crisis between the emirate and its Arab neighbours. The Omani news agency ONA said the agreement signed in Muscat covers a wide range …

Washington, United States | AFP | A prominent US senator on Saturday fired his chief of staff for improper relations with subordinates, as US lawmakers increasingly grapple with the issue of sexual harassment. Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he received by Saturday “sufficient evidence to conclude that while employed by this …

Phnom Penh, Cambodia | AFP | Cambodia has charged 10 foreigners arrested for “singing and dancing pornographically”, officials said Sunday, as the kingdom cracks down on racy behaviour at popular tourist sites. The group appeared in court three days after police arrested them Thursday at a villa in Siem Reap, …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | President Donald Trump said the United States “deeply respects” Africans and will dispatch its top diplomat to the continent, in a letter to African leaders seen by AFP on Sunday. The letter sent last week comes after Trump provoked a firestorm of indignation among …

Kabul, Afghanistan | AFP | Afghanistan Sunday declared a day of national mourning as the toll for those killed by a huge bomb hidden in an ambulance in Kabul topped 100 people and tensions remained high after insurgents struck in the city for the second time in a week. At …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Defective wiring is suspected to have caused the deadly South Korean hospital fire that killed dozens and injured more than 150, police said, as public anger swelled over the country’s worst fire disaster in a decade. The huge blaze that erupted at the hospital …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | At least 14 people were killed in an early Saturday shootout at a nightclub in Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil, officials said. “We can confirm 14 deaths,” Andre Costa, security secretary for the state of Ceara — of which Fortaleza is the capital — …

Miryang, South Korea | AFP | The deadly hospital blaze in Miryang killed 37 people and injured more than 100 in South Korea’s worst fire disaster in a decade. But witnesses said Friday’s toll could have been far higher without the heroic acts of ordinary citizens and medical staff who …

Miryang, South Korea | AFP | Distraught relatives of those killed in a deadly South Korean hospital fire voiced anger Saturday at what they perceived as another man-made disaster in Asia’s fourth largest economy, just as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics. The huge blaze that erupted at the …