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NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — China and India have agreed to reduce tensions a week after clashes on their disputed Himalayan border left 20 Indian troops dead in brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The June 15 battle, reportedly fought with fists, clubs and rocks, was the first time troops have been killed on their border since 1975 and marked a major deterioration in ties between the two Asian giants. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that […]
by Mohamad Ali Harissi with Isabelle Tourne in Paris DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The World Health Organization sent out a fresh warning on Monday over the dangers of the new coronavirus even as France returned to life by staging an annual music festival and sending millions of children back to school. In spite of numerous European countries further easing their lockdown restrictions, cases around the world are rising especially in Latin America with […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia on Sunday ended a nationwide coronavirus curfew and lifted restrictions on businesses, including hair salons and cinemas, after three months of stringent curbs, despite a spike in infections. International flights and religious pilgrimages, however, remain suspended and social gatherings of more than 50 people are prohibited, according to the interior ministry. But Saudi Arabia’s General Commission for Audiovisual Media announced the reopening of cinemas across the kingdom with […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iranian health authorities reported over 100 new deaths from the novel coronavirus Sunday for the third day running, stressing that the outbreak had not yet peaked in the hard-hit country. Iran reported its first coronavirus cases on February 19 and has since struggled to contain the outbreak, the deadliest in the Middle East. The Islamic republic recorded its lowest single-day death toll in early May, before seeing a new rise in […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said on Monday it has readied thousands of balloons and millions of leaflets in preparation for “retaliatory punishment” against South Korea. The detail, in a state media report, came a day after the North said it was preparing to begin an anti-South leaflet campaign following a series of vitriolic condemnations of Seoul because of anti-North leaflets floated over the border. Defectors in the South send such leaflets which […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has formally charged two Canadians with spying, officials said Friday, more than 18 months after they were arrested in a spat between Beijing and Ottawa. The pair were detained shortly after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on a US warrant, in what is widely believed to have been a retaliatory move from China. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate said ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were “suspected […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s Unification Minister, its point man for relations with the North, resigned on Friday over heightened tensions on the peninsula, days after Pyongyang blew up its liaison office with the South. President Moon Jae-in “accepted Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul’s offer to resign”, the presidential Blue House said in a statement, without giving further details. Kim had offered to step down on Wednesday, a day after the North demolished the […]
WASHINGON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Thursday questioned China’s credibility on reporting fresh coronavirus cases in Beijing and called for neutral observers to assess the extent of the outbreak. China has locked down the capital as it seeks to prevent a second wave of COVID-19, reporting 158 cases since a fresh cluster was detected last week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an outspoken critic of China, urged greater transparency during talks […]
by Jing Xuan Teng with AFP bureaux BEIJING, China (AFP) — China imposed travel restrictions on nearly half a million people near its capital on Thursday to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak as deaths surged in other parts of the world. The threat of a second wave hitting China, which had largely brought the virus under control, and rising tolls in Latin America and South Asia underscore the global challenge in slowing down the pandemic […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — China has freed 10 Indian soldiers seized in a high-altitude border clash in the Himalayas which left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead, media reports said Friday. The release follows several rounds of talks between the two sides in a bid to ease tensions after the battle on Monday, in which scores of troops from the two sides fought with nail-studded batons and hurled rocks at each other. The 10 […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran test-fired a “new generation” of cruise missiles Thursday, the navy said, in the first such military exercises since 19 sailors were killed last month in a friendly fire incident. The armed forces’ website published pictures of the drill in the Gulf of Oman showing missiles being fired from a warship and the back of a truck, and a vessel exploding out at sea. A statement said both short- and long-range […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese prosecutors on Thursday arrested the country’s former justice minister — a close ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — and his lawmaker wife over allegations of vote-buying during her electoral campaign last year. The scandal is the latest headache for Abe, who has seen his approval ratings sink over his handling of the coronavirus crisis and faced criticism over alleged attempts to name a favoured candidate to the role of […]
