TUNIS/ANKARA/CAIRO, May 29 (Reuters): As Turkish drones helped drive eastern Libyan forces back from Tripoli this month, Russia was said to be reinforcing them with warplanes, raising the stakes in a stalemated civil war that has partitioned the country.   Recent weeks have marked a turning point in a complex conflict between two uneasy coalitions that are each backed by an array of foreign states whose competing regional agendas make them unwilling to countenance defea

NEW YORK, May 29 (Reuters): A spike in harassment of Asian-Americans since the coronavirus pandemic began has led community activists in the United States to fight back - forming street patrols, rallying on social media, and supporting each other online.   Asians of varying national backgrounds have suffered a surge of attacks this year, which activists linked to the pandemic's emergence in China. Some said they feared harassment could worsen in a U.S. election year

TOKYO, May 29 (Reuters): The phones at the Tokyo suicide hotline start ringing as soon as it opens for its once-weekly overnight session. They don't stop until the lone volunteer fielding calls from hundreds of people yearning to talk signs out early the next morning.   Both operating days and volunteer numbers at the volunteer-run Tokyo Befrienders call centre have been cut to avoid coronavirus infection, but the desperate need remains.   "There are

KATHMANDU, May 29 (Reuters): Had it not been for the coronavirus, Nepali climbing guide Tashi Lakpa Sherpa would have been on Mount Everest now, guiding clients and trying to add another feather in his cap - a ninth ascent.   But the 34-year-old is sitting in a Kathmandu apartment, worried about his future as a guide if climbing expeditions, a key source of employment and income for the Sherpa guides, remain closed.   Friday is the anniversary of the day

Reuters Twitter hid a tweet from President Donald Trump on Friday, accusing him of breaking its rules by "glorifying violence" in a message that said looters at protests in Minneapolis would be shot.   Twitter's decision to step in, at a time of racially charged civil unrest in cities across the United States, escalates a feud between Trump and tech companies.   It came just hours after Trump signed an executive order threatening Silicon Valley so

HONG KONG, MAY 29 (Reuters): - Hong Kong told the United States to keep out of the debate over national security legislation being imposed by China, and warned that withdrawal of the financial hub's special status under U.S. law could backfire on the U.S. economy.   President Donald Trump is due to announce later on Friday his response to the Chinese parliament's advancement this week of security legislation for Hong Kong, which many lawyers, diplomats and

BANGKOK, May 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation): Cases of online child sex abuse in the Philippines have tripled under coronavirus, the government said, with campaigners warning that the country's lockdown has left more children vulnerable to exploitation by human traffickers and cash-strapped relatives.   The spread of cheap, high-speed internet and the rise in mobile phone ownership has fuelled livestreamed abuse - known as cybersex trafficking - in recent years and

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation): Coronavirus is threatening to undo recent gains made toward gender equality as millions of women and girls are predicted to have unwanted pregnancies and fall into poverty, world leaders said on Thursday.   A "wake-up call" is needed to protect women's and children's rights amid the pandemic, said the president of Estonia and former prime minister of New Zealand who held a virtual summit with leaders from Can

Karachi, May 29 (IANS): The cockpit voice recorder of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane which crashed in Karachi on May 22 killing 97 people, has been found in the wreckage, the media reported on Friday.   "The search resumed this morning and the voice recorder was found buried in the debris," The Express Tribune quoted PIA spokesman Abdullah H Khan as saying in a statement on Thursday.   "The cockpit voice recorder recovery will

San Francisco, May 29 (IANS): Far from expanding the scope of free speech online, US President Donald Trump's executive order on "preventing online censorship" may have the opposite effect, social media giants Facebook and Twitter have said.   While Facebook said that it will "restrict more speech online, not less", Twitter called the executive order a reactionary and politicised approach to a landmark law.   Trump signed an executive order

Hong Kong, May 29 (IANS): Nearly 100 children were arrested during this week's protests in Hong Kong against China's plan to press ahead with a national security law for the city, and also the controversial national anthem bill, a media report said on Friday.   In total, 396 people were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday, the South China Morning Post quoted the police force as saying.   Those arrested were aged between 12 and 70, and comprised 234 men and

Sydney, May 29 (IANS): An Australian zookeeper has sustained critical injuries to her head and neck after being mauled by a lion at a zoo in New South Wales (NSW) state on Friday.   Ambulance personnel who entered the lion enclosure at the Shoalhaven Zoo described the situation as "harrowing", reports Xinhua news agency   The woman, believed to be in her 30s, was working within the lion enclosure when the attack occurred.   Police and several

Canberra, May 29 (IANS): An Australian court on Friday ruled in favour of historian Jenny Hocking and allowed her access to letters between Queen Elizabeth II and her representative in the country during the dismissal of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975 following a political crisis.   The release of the 211 "Palace Papers" exchanged between the Queen and then Governor-General John Kerr are expected to shed light on how much the monarch knew about the big

New York, May 29 (IANS): At least 40 people were arrested in New York City as people took to the streets to protest against the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis.   Over 100 people gathered in Manhattan's Union Square on Thursday afternoon to express their anger over what they called police brutality that led to George Floyd's death, reports Xinhua news agency.   The 46-year-old African-American man died on Monday after a white police o

Washington, May 29 (IANS) The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 5.8 million, while the deaths have increased to more than 360,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.   As of Friday morning, the total number of cases stood at 5,808,672, while the death toll increased to 360,289, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.   Currently, the US has 1,721,479 confirmed cases and 101,5

San Francisco, May 29 (IANS) Amid the growing tension with US President Donald Trump over fact-checking his tweets, Twitter has now flagged a couple of tweets posted by China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson.   According to media reports, the warning labels were added to tweets from spokesman Lijian Zhao, one of which read: "It might be the US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan."   Twitter added the warning more than two months after the tweets we

New Delhi, May 29 (PTI): United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that coronavirus was a 'very bad gift' from China to the rest of the world, as America surpassed the grim milestone of over one lakh COVID-19-linked deaths.   'All over the World the CoronaVirus, a very bad 'gift' from China, marches on. Not good!' Trump said in a tweet.   'We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reachin

SOFIA, May 28 (Reuters): Bulgaria’s highest appeals court on Thursday dismissed a request by the former chief prosecutor to review the parole granted to an Australian convicted of murder in 2009, meaning he is now free to leave the country.   Jock Palfreeman, who served 11 years of a 20-year sentence for murder and attempted murder in the 2007 stabbing of two Bulgarians, one of whom died, during a street melee in Sofia, was granted parole by a panel of three judge

KIGALI, May 28 (Reuters): A Rwandan court on Thursday handed a life sentence to a former politician found guilty of orchestrating the killing of tens of thousands of people during the 1994 genocide, a court spokesman said.   Ladislas Ntaganzwa, head of the commune of Nyakizu in southern Rwanda, was indicted in 1996 by the Arusha, Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on charges of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, murder and rape. &

MANILA, May 28 (Reuters): Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday approved a recommendation to ease the lockdown in the capital Manila from June 1, resuming much-needed activity in an economy on the brink of recession.   Strict restrictions on commerce and movement since mid-March have ravaged the economy, which is facing its deepest contraction in 34 years.