Quake kills 12

AT least 12 people were killed and many others injured after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit Afghanistan’s western province of Badghis on Monday, a local official said.

“The worst-hit areas were Badruk, Darband-e-Safed and Khak Polak localities in Qadis district, east of the provincial capital Qala-e-Naw,” district chief Mohammad Saleh Purdil told Xinhua.

9 detained

TURKISH police yesterday detained nine suspects over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office said the suspects had various roles in the Gulen movement, which the Turkish Government accuses of infiltrating the state bureaucracy and then attempting a coup July 15, 2016.

162 projects inked

A TOTAL of 162 business cooperation projects worth US$25 billion had been inked under the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity by the end of 2021.

The information was revealed in the government work report delivered Monday at the fifth session of the 5th People’s Congress of the Chongqing Municipality.

Launched in 2015, the initiative mainly targets sectors including financial services, air transportation, logistics and information communication.