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by Amber WANG Agence France-Presse TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen left for the United States on Wednesday, a stop on her way to firm up ties with Guatemala and Belize after China snapped up another of the self-ruled island’s few diplomatic allies last week. “External pressure will not hinder our determination to go global,” Tsai told reporters at the airport before departing. “We are calm and confident. We will not succumb and […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday that its navy had fired test anti-ship missiles at mock targets in the Sea of Japan during military exercises. Russia’s Pacific Fleet drills came a week after Tokyo’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine. “In the waters of the Sea of Japan, missile boats of the Pacific Fleet fired Moskit cruise missiles at a mock enemy sea target,” the ministry said on Telegram early on Tuesday. […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for his country to expand production of “weapon-grade nuclear materials” and build more powerful weapons, state media reported Tuesday. Kim’s latest threat, a doubling-down on an earlier promise to “exponentially” ramp up nuke production, came as a US Navy carrier strike group arrived in South Korea on Tuesday. Kim was briefed by officials from the country’s nuclear weapons institute, the official Korean Central […]
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Monday 3/27/2023 North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles Monday, South Korea’s military said, the latest in its flurry of weapons tests in recent weeks. The launch comes as Seoul and Washington are carrying out a joint amphibious landing exercise, and just days after they wrapped up their largest combined military drills in five years. North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned […]
Jakarta, Indonesia | AFP | Indonesia’s Mount Ili Lewotolok erupted Friday, belching a tower of smoke and ash almost a kilometre into the sky and prompting authorities to impose a no-go zone in the area. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the eruption, which sent up a tower of volcanic smoke 700 metres (0.4 miles) high in a remote part of the Southeast Asian archipelago nation. But authorities imposed an exclusion […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The UN warned Friday it could be forced to slash support for children in Yemen without a funding boost, a war-torn country where it said dozens already die daily from “preventable causes”. “More than 540,000 children under the age of five (are) suffering life-threatening severe acute malnutrition, with one child continuing to die every 10 minutes from preventable causes,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF said. “If funding is not […]
North Korea has tested an underwater nuclear attack drone designed to unleash a “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy enemy naval vessels and ports, state media said Friday. During the drills from Tuesday through Thursday the North Korean military deployed and test-fired this new weapon system, the mission of which is to set off such a “super-scale” destructive wave, the KCNA news agency said. “This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Thursday 3/23/2023 A new species of orchid with delicate, glass-like blooms has been discovered by Japanese scientists, who found the pink and white plant hiding in plain sight. Despite its presence in Japan’s parks and gardens, it took researchers at Kobe University a decade to confirm that the plant — dubbed the “Spiranthes hachijoensis” — was a previously unknown species. “It was a surprise to discover a new species of spiranthes, […]
Thai police shot dead a gunman who killed three people and wounded three others, a senior officer said Thursday, after a 15-hour standoff. The shooter started firing in Phetchaburi, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Bangkok, at around 3 pm (0800 GMT) on Wednesday, before police surrounded a house he was in. The standoff ended early Thursday when armed police stormed the building and killed the gunman, who has not been named but was […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The Chinese military said it had tracked a US warship in the South China Sea on Thursday and “warned it to leave” waters claimed by Beijing. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea — a strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually — despite an international court ruling that the assertion has no legal basis. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have overlapping […]
by Shaun TANDON Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday brushed off China’s diplomacy with Russia as a “marriage of convenience,” and said Beijing had not yet provided military aid to “junior partner” Moscow to fight in Ukraine. President Xi Jinping on Wednesday closed a trip to Moscow that was closely watched in Washington, which considers China the greatest long-term adversary of the United States — and […]
by Shaun TANDON Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Few expect Chinese President Xi Jinping’s diplomacy to yield breakthroughs on the Ukraine war. But in Washington, there are fears Beijing may succeed elsewhere — in winning credibility on the world stage. Xi pushed forward positions on Ukraine during two days of talks in Moscow, a week after China announced the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia — rivals in a region where […]
