Xinhua Asia-Pacific News Summary at 1000 GMT, Jan. 11
Xinhua,January 11, 2018 Adjust font size:
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan -- Five personnel of Afghan Local Police (ALP) were killed and two others wounded following a brutal attack from the Taliban militants in the country's troubled northern province of Kunduz, a local official said Thursday.
"The incident took place in Archi, a restive district on the outskirts of the provincial capital Kunduz city Wednesday night, after Taliban stormed ALP checkpoints, triggering clashes lasting for hours," district administrative Chief Nasruddin Nazari told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Attack)
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SYDNEY -- A University of Tasmania-led study has unlocked the secrets of the largest ever volcanic eruption in the ocean on Thursday, after successfully mapping the remote location with submersible vehicles.
"When this rock was produced by the volcano, it rose through the water column onto the sea surfaced and then it was dispersed by wind and sea currents," University of Tasmania volcanologist and lead author of the study, Dr Rebecca Carey, told Xinhua. (Australia-Volcanic Eruption)
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CANBERRA -- The world's largest solar-thermal power plant has been given development approval by the South Australian government.
Construction on the 150-megawatt Aurora plant, to be built by utility-scale solar power company SolarReserve, will begin in 2018 at an estimated cost of 509 million U.S. dollars. (Australia-Solar-thermal Power Plant)
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VIENTIANE -- The tradition for women to start a family while still in their teens could hamper government's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2020 and Sustainable Development Goals by 2025, local daily Vientiane Times on Thursday quoted a senior Lao official as saying.
Deputy Director of the Lao National Center for Maternal and Child Health, Kobkeo Souphanthong, told the daily this week that even though most women get married and have children later than in the past, traditional beliefs mean that some ethnic women in rural areas of the northern Lao provinces get married at a very young age. (Laos-Woman) Enditem