International

Battle rages at Gaza hospital as UN reports ‘catastrophic’ hunger

By Adel Zaanoun with Joshua Melvin in Jerusalem Fighting raged Monday in and around the besieged Gaza Strip’s largest hospital complex where Israel said its forces killed and arrested Hamas militants, as Palestinians fled by foot under heavy bombardment. The United States separately said Israel had killed the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing, making him the most senior militant killed inside the territory during the war. While the raid at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital […]

Blinken to meet Philippine leader on bolstering alliance

MANILA, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to hold talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday, as the countries seek to reinforce security and economic ties in the face of growing Chinese aggression. Blinken’s visit to Manila — his second since Marcos took office in June 2022 — is part of a brief Asia tour that also included South Korea. Washington is keen to improve relations with […]

Biden to host Philippines, Japan leaders to counter China

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden will hold the first three-way summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan next month, the White House said Monday, as the United States boosts alliances against China. Biden’s meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on April 11 is the latest in a series of meeting with Asia-Pacific […]

Lufthansa plane makes emergency landing in Greece after smoke in cabin

ATHENS, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – A Lufthansa flight with 190 passengers on board made an emergency landing Monday in Rhodes after reporting smoke in the cabin, according to the operator of Greek regional airports, Fraport. The pilot of the aircraft travelling from Frankfurt to Dubai requested permission to land on the southern Aegean island due to “the presence of smoke inside the plane”, said Fraport. The passengers were safely evacuated from the aircraft, which […]

EU and Philippines relaunch free trade talks

  BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – The European Union and the Philippines announced the resumption of negotiations for a free trade agreement on Monday, with Brussels saying the first round of talks should begin “later this year”. “The conditions are right to take our trade relations to the next level,” EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said at a press conference in Brussels. Talks began in 2015 under then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino but stalled […]

Biden tells Netanyahu Rafah operation would be ‘mistake’

By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday that a major ground offensive in Gaza’s Rafah would be a “mistake,” as the two leaders spoke for the first time in a month amid growing tensions. Netanyahu had also agreed to Biden’s request to send a delegation of senior Israeli officials to Washington to discuss Israel’s Rafah plans and a possible “alternative approach,” the […]

Bodies found in Haitian suburb as gang violence rages for third week

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Fourteen bodies were found in an affluent suburb of Haiti’s capital Monday, as international efforts accelerated to fill a political vacuum created by weeks of gang violence that has forced the impending departure of the prime minister. Local residents told AFP they did not know the circumstances of the deaths but said that the Laboule and Thomassin neighborhoods, in the suburb of Petion-Ville, had been under attack by what […]

Paris suburb beefs up security after police station attack

By Wafaa ESSALHI, Alexandre HIELARD PARIS, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Security forces deployed in numbers in a Paris suburb on Monday following an attack on a police station near major venues for this summer’s Paris Olympics. The Sunday evening attack in the northern suburb of La Courneuve came days after a teenager riding a moped was killed in a car chase with police, echoing a June killing that triggered days-long riots. “Around 50 people […]

Israeli military tells Gazans to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital

Israel’s military on Monday called on Gazans to evacuate the area in and around the territory’s largest hospital as battles raged at the complex crowded with patients and displaced people. “In order to maintain your security, you must immediately evacuate the area,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X, instructing “all those present” to head west and then south to a “humanitarian area”.

China congratulates Putin on election victory

By Matthew WALSH, James EDGAR BEIJING, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Key Russian ally China on Monday congratulated President Vladimir Putin on his election victory. With 99 percent of polling stations having submitted results, Putin had secured 87.33 percent of all votes cast, official election data showed Monday, according to state news agency RIA. “China expresses its congratulations on this,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said when asked about the poll at a regular press […]

Daughter of North Korea’s Kim might be heir apparent: Seoul

Seoul’s Unification Ministry on Monday added its voice to growing speculation around Kim Jong Un’s succession plans, saying they have not “ruled out” that his daughter could be next in line to lead North Korea. Pyongyang state media on Saturday referred to Kim’s teenage daughter as a “great person of guidance” — “hyangdo” in Korean — a term typically reserved exclusively for top leaders and their successors. Analysts said it was the first time Kim’s […]

Israeli PM says civilians can leave crowded Rafah before invasion

By Adel Zaanoun with Robbie Corey-Boulet in Jerusalem GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, March 17, 2024 (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday that civilians crammed into the southern Gaza Strip would be able to leave before troops enter in pursuit of Hamas militants. His comments, alongside visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, follow international fears over the fate of the roughly 1.5 million people sheltering in Rafah, most of them displaced by Gaza’s war. […]