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Prince William confuses Japan with China, and Trump sees conspiracy in hurricane death toll

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France acknowledges torture in Algerian war, and Aung San Suu Kyi defends crackdown on Reuters journalists 

Now, Prince William mixes up Japan and China

Britain’s Prince William confused Chinese food with Japanese at the opening of a cultural centre in London this week, reports CNN.

Footage from the launch shows William talking to school students about learning how to use chopsticks.”Have you guys had much Chinese food?” he asked them. He quickly corrected himself and asked, “Sorry, Japanese food. Have you had much Japanese food?” he asked.

It’s the second time in six weeks that a British representative has confused the two countries, the report added. In July, British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt reportedly tried to impress officials in Beijing by talking about his Chinese wife, but ended up identifying her as Japanese.

Trump says ‘large’ Hurricane Maria toll a conspiracy against hin 

Hurricane Maria is estimated to have claimed 3,000 lives in Puerto Rico, but US President Donald Trump says the number is the result of a conspiracy to “make me look bad”, reports CNN.

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000,” he said in a tweet.

As Trump’s claim triggered criticism from both sides of the political divide, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley released a statement seeking to clarify his remarks. “President Trump was responding to the liberal media and the San Juan mayorm who, sadly, have tried to exploit the devastation by pushing out a constant stream of misinformation and false accusations,” he said.

Following a study by the George Washington University to estimate Maria’s toll, the Puerto Rican governor formally raised the official figure from 64 to around 2,975. The controversy comes as Americans on the east coast grapple with another superstorm, Hurricane Florence.

Suu Kyi defends jail sentences for Reuters journalists 

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has defended the jail sentences awarded to two Reuters journalists convicted of breaching a colonial-era law on state secrets, reports Al Jazeera. The two were arrested for the coverage on Rohingya people, a minority Myanmar is accused of subjecting to grave persecution.

“They were not jailed because they were journalists; they were jailed because … the court has decided that they have broken the Official Secrets Act,” Suu Kyi said at a conference of the World Economic Forum in Hanoi.

“I wonder whether many people have actually read the summary of the judgement, which had nothing to do with freedom of expression at all, it had to do with an Official Secrets Act,” Suu Kyi added.

Outraged by her comments, Amnesty International’s Minar Pimple said, “This is a disgraceful attempt by Aung San Suu Kyi to defend the indefensible”.

France acknowledges torture during the Algerian independence war

France has acknowledged for the first time ever that it was responsible for systematic torture of Algerians during the African country’s war of independence from 1954-62, Al Jazeera reported.

Algeria was a French colony for 130 years before it gained independence in 1962. The war for independence claimed around 1.5 million Algerian lives.

Visiting the widow of Maurice Audin, a communist pro-independence activist who disappeared in 1957, French President Emmanuel Macron said he (Audin) “died under torture stemming from the system instigated while Algeria was part of France”, the report added.

Macron also announced “the opening of archives on the subject of disappeared civilians and soldiers, both French and Algerian”.

Why students of this French art school appeared dark in promo photo 

A private art school in France has been accused of altering a school-trip photo to project racial diversity in its classrooms, BBC reported.

The skin tone of many students was made dark and black students “inserted” in a photo shared on a promotional US website ahead of the launch of a school branch in Los Angeles. Lyon’s Émile-Cohl college has blamed the episode on an American PR company, the report added.

College director Antoine Rivière said the image was changed without their knowledge.


Contributed by Anagha Deshpande, Sankalita Dey and Soniya Agrawal

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