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At least 12 people were killed after an earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Monday, an official said. The victims died when roofs of their residential houses collapsed in Qadis district in the western province of Badghis, district governor Mohammad Saleh Purdel told AFP.

Source: france24.com

Organisers of this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing have cancelled plans to sell tickets to the general public as part of strict Covid-19 restrictions in the Chinese capital. The Games organisers previously said there would be no international spectators but had promised to allow domestic audiences. But tickets will now be distributed to invited "groups of spectators" only.

Source: bbc.com

North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles from an airport in its capital city of Pyongyang on Monday, South Korea’s military reported, in the fourth test this month. Japan’s government also reported the launch, with chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno condemning them as a threat to the region’s peace and security.

Source: france24.com

At least three people have been killed and six others wounded when three oil tankers exploded in Abu Dhabi in a suspected drone attack, according to Emirati authorities, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they had launched an operation “deep” in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi police said on Monday three fuel tanker trucks had exploded in the industrial Musaffah area, near storage facilities of oil firm ADNOC, and that a fire had also broken out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Source: aljazeera.com

Mainland China’s birth rate dropped to a record low of 7.52 per 1,000 people in 2021, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Monday, accelerating a downward trend that led Beijing last year to begin allowing couples to have up to three children. The birth rate was the lowest since 1949 when the statistics bureau began collating the data.

Source: aljazeera.com

Karim Benzema has threatened to leave Real Madrid next summer if the club signs Erling Haaland, according to reports, with the prolific striker said to be unhappy over Florentino Perez's attempts to bring in a new forward. The 34-year-old has scored 24 goals in just 27 appearances this season, but Madrid are widely expected to be at the front of the queue in the race to snap up Haaland, when he leaves Borussia Dortmund over the summer.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Celine Dion has announced the cancellation of the remaining 16 shows of her world tour, due to ongoing health issues. The Canadian singer said she was recovering from "severe and persistent muscle spasms," that were hindering her ability to perform, according to a post published from her verified Instagram account on Saturday.

Source: cnn.com

Japan's richest football club Vissel Kobe want to build a bronze statue of World Cup-winning star player Andres Iniesta -- and are launching a crowdfunding project to pay for it. Former Barcelona maestro Iniesta joined Kobe in 2018 in a deal worth a reported $30 million a year, and signed a two-year contract extension last spring. Now Kobe are looking to raise 15 million yen ($130,000) to pay tribute to the 37-year-old midfielder with a statue outside their stadium.

Source: france24.com

Tonga is calling for “immediate aid”, with an urgent need for fresh water and food, as it assesses the damage caused by Saturday’s eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai. The volcano exploded in a massive eruption on Saturday – said to be the biggest since Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 – triggering a tsunami and blanketing the Pacific island nation in volcanic ash.

Source: aljazeera.com

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he is returning to Ukraine to fight treason charges — even though he views them as politically motivated — because he believes that fighting them is part of his defense of national unity. Poroshenko spoke Sunday at a news conference in Warsaw hours before he is to fly Monday from the Polish capital to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he is to face the allegations in court.

Source: apnews.com

Judges rejected a challenge by the unvaccinated tennis star after the government cancelled his visa on "health and good order" grounds. Djokovic said he was "extremely disappointed" but accepted the ruling. He has left on a flight to Dubai. It marks the end of a 10-day saga, in which the Serb fought to stay to defend his title in the Australian Open.

Source: bbc.com

Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has died, Malian state media channel ORTM reported on Sunday. Keita was in office for seven years, from September 2013 to August 2020, before being ousted in a military coup.

Source: cnn.com

Several high school students sitting their university entrance exam in Tokyo were wounded on Saturday in an apparent knife attack, Japanese media said. Public broadcaster NHK said three people were conscious after being injured in the morning when another student attacked them with a bladed object as they gathered to take their entrance exam. The alleged assailant, a 17-year old high school student, was arrested, the Asahi newspaper said.

Source: chinadailyhk.com

Sinéad O'Connor has been admitted to the hospital, one week after her 17-year-old son was found dead. The "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer told fans on Thursday night that she was heading to hospital to receive help after sharing in a series of disturbing Twitter posts that she planned to take her own life.

Source: cnn.com

North Korea on Friday fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles in its third weapons launch this month, officials in South Korea said, in an apparent reprisal for fresh sanctions imposed by the Biden administration for its continuing test launches.

Source: apnews.com

A Canadian doctor has told of her joy after delivering a "Miracle" baby on an overnight flight to Uganda. Dr Aisha Khatib, a professor at the University of Toronto, was about one hour into her Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Entebbe when the call went out. A Ugandan migrant worker travelling home from Saudi Arabia was about to deliver her first child. The baby, early at 35 weeks, was born healthy, and was named Miracle Aisha, after the doctor.

Source: bbc.com

A 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement signed between Iran and China last year has now entered the implementation stage, according to Iran’s foreign minister. Hossein Amirabdollahian, in his first visit to China as foreign minister, announced the news late Friday after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The agreement includes economic, military and security cooperation.

Source: aljazeera.com

Netflix Inc has raised its monthly subscription price by $1 to $2 per month in the United States depending on the plan, the company said on Friday, to help pay for new programming to compete in the crowded streaming TV market. The standard plan, which allows for two simultaneous streams, now costs $15.49 per month, up from $13.99, in the United States. Prices also rose in Canada, where the standard plan climbed to C$16.49 from C$14.99.

Source: reuters.com