AFP, Sydney
A notorious Australian immigration detention camp on remote Christmas Island has been shut, the government said Friday, hailing the success of its hardline policies in ending a flood of asylum-seeking boat people.
The facility on the Indian Ocean territory some 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) northwest of the Western Australia city of Perth had been the site of riots, deaths and alleged rapes and self-harm since it was opened in 2008.
Airstrike kills four in Afghan wedding convoy
Reuters, Kabul
An airstrike by security forces killed four people and wounded eight others who were part of a wedding procession in the southeast province of Kandahar, officials said on Friday. Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar police chief, said Taliban militants had mounted an attack in the Maroof district when security forces responded with an airstrike on Thursday.
“They (Taliban) tried to flee and got mixed up with villagers at a wedding procession. The airstrike killed four civilians, including women and children, and 10 Taliban militants,” Raziq told Reuters.
China rejects Pence’s ridiculous
poll meddling charge
AFP, Beijing
China on Friday rejected US Vice President Mike Pence’s charge that Beijing was meddling in American elections as “unwarranted” and “ridiculous”.
In a blistering speech, Pence on Thursday accused China of military aggression, commercial theft and rising human rights violations as he cast the Asian power as a villain bent on interfering in upcoming US polls.
Netanyahu undergoes new graft questioning
AFP, Jerusalem
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent a new round of questioning on Friday over one of several graft cases that have threatened to topple him, Israeli media reported.
The veteran premier’s 12th round of questioning as a suspect in various cases comes two days before his wife Sara appears in court on charges of misusing state funds for catering at their official residence.
