00:00 Kazakhstan's President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev said on Friday that his government would hold
00:12 a referendum to decide whether to construct the country's first nuclear power plant.
00:16 Addressing Parliament, President Tokayev said that the development of nuclear energy has
00:19 become a particularly important economic and political issue.
00:22 Kazakhstan has long discussed the idea, citing the need for new power generation capacity.
00:27 The government even identified a planned location for the facility in the north-eastern Almaty
00:32 region and mentioned Russia's Rosatom as a potential partner.
00:35 However, activists have opposed the project due to safety concerns and the country's history
00:40 as home to the semi-nuclear weapons testing ground.
00:46 Typhoon Saola swept across southern China on Saturday after tearing down trees and smashing
00:49 windows in Hong Kong, although the megacity avoided a feared direct hit from one of the
00:53 region's strongest storms in decades.
00:55 Tens of millions of people in the densely populated coastal areas of southern China
00:59 had sheltered indoors on Friday ahead of the storm.
01:02 Saola triggered Hong Kong's highest threat level on Friday evening, issued only 16 times
01:06 since World War II, and registered winds of around 210 km/h at its peak.
01:11 It was downgraded before dawn on Saturday as the typhoon passed the city and tracked
01:15 towards coastal areas of mainland China, where it weakened into a severe tropical storm.
01:20 So far, Hong Kong has had no reported catchment and far less damage than that created by 2018
01:25 powerful typhoon Mangkhut.
01:28 But authorities want people to stay away from the shorelines as Saola was still whipping
01:31 up strong gaits.
01:37 Rare protests in Syria calling for the ouster of the authoritarian government have gathered
01:40 momentum over the past two weeks in scenes reminiscent of the Arab Spring uprising that
01:44 began more than 12 years ago and morphed into a multi-sided war.
01:47 Hundreds of people have protested in southern Syria to urge President Bashar al-Assad to
01:51 step down, capping nearly two weeks of demonstrations that had erupted over poor living conditions.
01:55 But have spiralled into renewed calls for political change.
01:58 The protests grew out of anger over increasing economic hardships that boiled over into demands
02:03 for a political settlement to the war, which is largely at a stalemate.
02:06 They have grown daily, drawing hundreds of people who at times have torn down the ubiquitous
02:11 posters of President Bashar al-Assad and shuttered officers of the political party loyal to him.
02:15 Bashar al-Assad, Syria-free, shouted a large crowd on Friday in the city of Swaida.
02:23 A road accident in northern Iraq has killed at least 16 people, mostly Shia Iranian pilgrims,
02:27 as millions of people converge on the holy city of Karbala for Arbaeen, one of the world's
02:31 biggest religious gatherings.
02:32 13 people were also injured in the accident, which occurred on a road linking two cities
02:36 of Dujail and Samarra in Iraq's northern Salahuddin province.
02:40 Burhan did not detail the circumstances of the crash but said most of the dead were visitors
02:43 from Iran.
02:44 Those hurt were taken to hospitals.
02:45 As per reports, two minibuses crashed into each other shortly before midnight on Friday.
02:49 Some reports suggest that one of the drivers fell asleep at the wheel, thereby leading
02:52 to the fatal crash.
02:53 Almost exactly a year ago, on September 11, Iranian Shiite pilgrims and their local driver
02:58 died when their minibus collided with a truck in Babi province, south of Baghdad, a health
03:02 official said at the time.
03:03 The crash occurred on a road linking two cities of Dujail and Samarra in Iraq's northern Salahuddin
03:09 province.
03:10 The crash occurred on a road linking two cities of Dujail and Samarra in Iraq's northern Salahuddin
03:11 province.
03:11 you
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