A Montenegrin court has once again granted bail to Do Kwon, co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs accused of fraud in South Korea and the United States, dismissing an appeal by local prosecutors to revoke the decision. The district court in Podgorica, Montenegro, announced in a notice released Friday that it has agreed to grant bail to Kwon and his aide, known only by the surname Han, on condition they each pay 400,000 euros ($428,241) in bail money and are placed in confinement under

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- China strongly opposes the United States defense chief's comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue that Beijing was unwilling to engage on military crisis management, a senior People's Liberation Army official said on Saturday. Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng also said Beijing reiterates its indisputable sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea and adjacent waters. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had earlier told the conference in Singapore he was deeply conc

ANKARA (AFP) -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to be sworn in on Saturday as head of state after winning a historic runoff election to extend his two-decade rule for another five years as Turkey's economic woes worsen. The inauguration in parliament will be followed by a lavish ceremony at his palace in the capital Ankara attended by dozens of world leaders. Turkey's transformative but divisive leader won the May 28 runoff against a powerful opposition coalition, and despite an

India -- At least 288 people were killed and more than 850 injured in a horrific three-train collision in India, officials said Saturday, the country's deadliest rail accident in more than 20 years. Images from the crash site showed smashed train compartments torn open with blood-stained holes near Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha. Carriages had flipped over entirely in the crash late on Friday and rescue workers searched for survivors trapped in the mangled wreckage, with scores of

According to the 2023 Global Slavery Index, modern slavery is present in every country, regardless of its wealth status. The index, published by the human rights charity Walk Free, has indicated that in 2021, around 50 million people were living in situations of modern slavery, with approximately 27.6 million of those people being in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages. The index indicated that the countries estimated to have the highest modern slavery rates tend to be “conflic

By Jeffrey Sachs The key to economic development and ending poverty is investment. Nations achieve prosperity by investing in four priorities. Most important is investing in people, through quality education and health care. The next is infrastructure, such as electricity, safe water, digital networks and public transport. The third is natural capital, protecting nature. The fourth is business investment. The key is finance: mobilizing the funds to invest at the scale and speed required. In pr

Recorded executions worldwide reached 883 last year, the highest since 2017, according to an Amnesty International report that decried the Middle East and North Africa in particular. The 2022 figure for 20 countries known to have executed people is a 53 percent increase on the previous 12 months, the global rights monitor said. It excludes the “thousands” of prisoners put to death secretively in China, but does count the “staggering” 81 people executed in a single day in

The swift growth of artificial intelligence technology could put the future of humanity at risk, according to most Americans surveyed in a Reuters/Ipsos poll. More than two-thirds of Americans are concerned about the negative effects of AI and 61 percent believe it could threaten civilization. Since OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot became the fastest growing application of all time, the widespread integration of AI into everyday life has catapulted AI to the forefront of public discourse. ChatGPT h

South Korea ranked 47th in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced, falling by four places from last year. The index, based on an evaluation of the journalism environment in 180 countries and territories, is divided into four categories; “good,” “satisfactory,” “very serious,” “difficult,” and “problematic.” Korea was remarked as “satisfactory.” South Korea appreciates me

A dozen human rights advocacy groups led by the Switzerland-based MENA Rights Group have in an open letter called on World Expo organizers not to consider Riyadh as a potential host for the World Expo 2030. In the letter dated May 16, the groups cited concerns that the event could be used to "whitewash" the country's human rights record, which includes the continued use of the death penalty, crushing of human rights activism, silencing of women’s rights advocates and targeti

CHISINAU (AFP) -- Tens of thousands of Moldovans rallied on Sunday to demand European Union membership for their country, whose bid to join the bloc has been accelerated by the war in neighboring Ukraine. The former Soviet republic of 2.6 million people applied last year to join the EU and in June 2022 became a candidate country, alongside Ukraine. More than 75,000 people participated in the demonstration in the center of the capital, Chisinau, according to initial police estimates. They waved E

The 1945 bombing of Hiroshima is a big reason leaders from the world’s most powerful democracies descended on the city for this weekend’s Group of Seven summit