Author: National Tone

South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeok issues pardons for more than 1,300 people in bid for ‘national unity.’South Korea’s former President Lee Myung-bak has received a presidential pardon, cutting short his 17-year prison sentence for corruption. South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol issued the pardon for Lee on Tuesday as part of mass pardons that are common in the East Asian country around national holidays. South Korean Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon told reporters that Yoon, a former chief prosecutor, had issued pardons for more than 1,300 people to foster “national unity through reconciliation, tolerance and consideration”. Yoon had earlier this year expressed…

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Torrential rains forced more than 45,000 people into evacuation centres, most of the missing believed to be fishers.The death toll from Christmas day rains and flooding in the southern Philippines has risen to 13, according to the country’s disaster management council, with a further 23 people still missing. Most of the deaths were caused by flash floods after two days of heavy rains over Christmas, which affected more than 166,000 people and forced more than 45,000 to take shelter in evacuation centres, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Tuesday. Images on social media show coast guard,…

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Fulfil Moscow’s demands, ‘otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army’, Russia’s foreign minister said.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has given Ukraine an ultimatum: Fulfil Moscow’s demands — including surrendering Ukrainian territory that Russia now controls — or the Russian army will decide the fate of Ukraine. Speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin once again said he was open to peace talks — and which the United States has described as disingenuous — Lavrov told Kyiv that it should, for its “own good”, comply with Moscow’s wishes. “Our proposals for the demilitarisation and denazification of the…

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Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James was ejected during the first half of Monday night’s game against Indianapolis after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Colts wide receiver Ashton Dulin. .acf-block-preview .instagram-twitter-container width: 340px; margin: 0 auto; This was his second personal foul during the drive after he was called for a facemask two plays earlier, ripping wide receiver Michael Pittman’s helmet off. Dulin didn’t take too long to get up, but gestured and shook his head as he walked towards the sideline. The fourth-year wide receiver had to be looked at by team staff after the hit but was able to…

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Former international striker said his wife and daughter were travelling from Tehran to Dubai when flight was diverted.Iranian football legend Ali Daei said a plane travelling from Tehran to Dubai had been rerouted, and his wife and daughter ordered off, according to Iranian news organisations. Daei — one of Iran’s most famous footballers and a former German Bundesliga striker whose 109 goals at the international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him — said his wife and daughter had flown on a Mahan Air flight, taking off from the Iranian capital’s Imam Khomeini Airport on Monday, headed to…

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A deadly arctic blast that whipped through the United States starting last week has left the country’s Deep South region grappling with the scourge of burst pipes, threatening leaks that could spill millions of litres of water. The situation has left residents of cities such as Jackson, Mississippi — long troubled by a water crisis — boiling water over the Christmas holiday and into Monday. In the US South, where long stretches of freezing temperatures are rarer than in other parts of the country, water pipes are more likely to be found in uninsulated areas. And with temperatures throughout the…

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has returned to the NFL’s concussion protocol, Miami coach Mike McDaniel said Monday. Tagovailoa met with doctors a day after the Dolphins’ 26-20 loss to Green Bay and was experiencing concussion symptoms. Teddy Bridgewater is expected to get most of the first-team reps in practice this week, but McDaniel said it is too early to name a starter for Miami’s game at New England on Sunday. It is the second time this season that Tagovailoa has been in the concussion protocol. He took a scary hit that knocked him unconscious during…

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Russia’s pre-dawn attack on February 24 shocked the world and confounded the near-universal expectation that Russian forces would quickly prevail. Ukraine put up fierce resistance, and Russian troops were bogged down on the journey to the capital. Russia pulled back from the area around Kyiv in April, leaving blasted buildings, traumatised people and hundreds of corpses that Ukraine and its allies allege are evidence of war crimes. Fighting also raged in Ukraine’s south and east, where Russia pushed outward from territory held by pro-Moscow forces since 2014. The port of Mariupol fell after a brutal three-month siege that reduced the…

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Phone call between Ukrainian president and India PM Narendra Modi comes as India is seeking to strengthen trade relations with Russia.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has sought India’s help with implementing a “peace formula” in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The conversation on Monday came at a time when India is seeking to strengthen trade relations with Moscow while Western nations introduce new measures to limit Russia’s funding of its war in Ukraine. “I had a phone call with PM Narendra Modi and wished a successful G20 presidency,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. “It was on this…

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‘This is not the end yet,’ official in hard-hit area of western New York where huge blizzard killed at least 25 people.The death toll from a devastating winter blizzard that left much of the United States in a deep freeze has risen to at least 25 in a hard-hit region of western New York state, authorities said, as tens of thousands remain without power. During a news conference on Monday, Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said at least 25 people had died as a result of the storm, which pummeled the area during the Christmas holiday weekend. The entire county,…

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