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China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defence zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters. Taiwan’s defence ministry said late Monday it had scrambled its own aircraft and deployed air defence missile systems to monitor the latest Chinese activity. In recent years, Beijing has begun sending large sorties into Taiwan’s defence zone to signal dissatisfaction, and to keep Taipei’s ageing fighter fleet […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalisation of relations in 2020. Israel’s ambassador to the UAE, Amir Hayek, tweeted “mabruk” — or congratulations in Arabic — alongside a photograph of Emirati and Israeli officials holding documents at a signing ceremony in Dubai. Israel has described as “historic” the deal abolishing customs duties […]
POKHARA, Nepal (AFP) — Nepali rescuers have retrieved the bodies of all 22 people on board a plane that crashed in the Himalayas, authorities said Tuesday. “All bodies have now been found,” Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Deo Chandra Lal Karn told AFP. “Processes will take place to identify the bodies.” Air traffic control lost contact with the Twin Otter plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air shortly after it took off from Pokhara in […]
by Matthew WALSH Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with Hong Kong’s next leader in Beijing, telling John Lee he has the full trust of the central government, state media said Monday. Lee travelled to the capital on Saturday to receive Beijing’s blessing as he prepares to take office in a month. The 64-year-old former security chief, who oversaw a crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy movement, was chosen as the next chief executive by a small […]
by Sagar GHIMIRE Nepali rescuers have retrieved the bodies of all but one of 22 people on board a plane that crashed into a Himalayan mountainside over the weekend, the army said Monday. Air traffic control lost contact with the Twin Otter plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air shortly after it took off from Pokhara in western Nepal on Sunday morning headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination. Resuming a search on Monday […]
Talks between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and 10 Pacific Island nations failed to reach an agreement on a wide-ranging security deal Monday, after sharp warnings the proposal would push the region into “Beijing’s orbit”. A virtual summit of leaders and foreign ministers was expected to discuss proposals to radically increase China’s involvement in the security, economy and politics of the South Pacific. But the effort appeared to have fallen short after some regional leaders […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) – A record one billion methamphetamine pills were seized in East and Southeast Asia last year, the UN said Monday, as crime gangs exploited the Covid-19 pandemic and instability in coup-hit Myanmar to boost their activities. Southeast Asia’s so-called Golden Triangle has long been an infamous hotspot for drug trafficking, with Myanmar, Laos and Thailand’s porous borders and lax local policing allowing illegal substances to slip across. The UN Office on […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Thirty-one people have been rescued and 11 are still missing after a ferry ran out of fuel and sank in bad weather off the coast of Indonesia, an official said Monday. Local tugboats and fishermen brought many of the survivors ashore after the KM Ladang Pertiwi sank while sailing through the Makassar strait in South Sulawesi province on Thursday. “Until now 31 people have been rescued alive and we are […]
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of East Timor on Friday, the US Geological Survey said. A tsunami advisory group said the earthquake “may be capable of generating a tsunami affecting the Indian Ocean region”. The quake struck at a depth of 51.4 kilometres (32 miles) off the eastern tip of Timor Island, USGS said, which is split between East Timor and Indonesia. The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) issued the […]
Moscow is ready to make a “significant contribution” to averting a looming food crisis if the West lifts sanctions over Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin told Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday. Russia was slapped with unprecedented sanctions after Putin ordered troops into neighbouring Ukraine on February 24. The sanctions and military action have disrupted supplies of fertiliser, wheat and other commodities from both Russia and Ukraine. The two countries produce 30 percent of the […]
by Philippe Rater with Shaun Tandon in Washington © Agence France-Presse United Nations, UNITED STATES (AFP) — China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a US-led bid at the United Nations to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its missile launches, laying bare divisions that Western envoys fear would be exploited by Pyongyang. The Security Council resolution put forward by the United States would have reduced the amount of oil North Korea could legally import as […]
Japan announced Thursday it will reopen to tourists from 36 countries starting June 10, ending a two-year pandemic closure, but travellers will only be allowed in with tour groups. The decision comes after the government last week said it would test allowing small group tours with visitors from the United States, Australia, Thailand and Singapore from this month. On Thursday, the government revised border controls to resume accepting package tours from 36 countries and regions […]
