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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — China would not have exclusive access to a Cambodian naval base, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday, despite Beijing chipping in for upgrades after a US-funded facility was razed at the site last month. The Ream base is strategically located in the Gulf of Thailand, providing ready access to the fiercely contested South China Sea — a key global shipping route. Beijing claims the majority of the resource-rich sea — […]
by Hiroshi HIYAMA Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Tuesday of Beijing’s “malign activity in the region” as he met with key Asia-Pacific allies in Tokyo, presenting a united front against an increasingly assertive China. The top US diplomat is meeting his Japanese, Australian and Indian counterparts on a trip that was scaled back after President Donald Trump and a raft of staff and advisors contracted […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered a nationwide drive to boost the ailing economy ahead of a key party congress in January, state media reported Tuesday. The decision was made during a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party and comes as the coronavirus pandemic and recent floods have added yet more pressure on the isolated country’s flagging economy. Mandatory mass mobilisation drives, featuring extra-long work hours and additional […]
by Salima Lebel KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) — Kuwait prepared Wednesday to swear in its new emir, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and to receive the body of his half-brother, the late ruler Sheikh Sabah who died in the US at the age of 91. The body of Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, an acclaimed diplomat and mediator who ruled for 14 years, is expected to arrive in Kuwait City later on Wednesday. He died the day […]
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) — Kuwait’s emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, regarded as the architect of the nation’s modern foreign policy, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, according to the royal court. “With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn… the death of Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait,” said Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, the minister in charge of royal affairs, in a televised statement. State television had cut […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is violating international sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program by exceeding a cap on petroleum imports and sending its workers overseas, including a former Juventus footballer, the United Nations said. Pyongyang is subject to a range of restrictions imposed since 2017 that limit its oil imports and ban exports of coal, fish and textiles. It has nonetheless continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal, analysts […]
by Aishwarya KUMAR Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India on Monday reported the number of coronavirus cases in the country had passed six million, as the pandemic rages across the vast South Asian nation. With 6.1 million infections according to the health ministry, India is on course to pass the United States in the coming weeks as the country with the most cases. It has also recorded close to 100,000 deaths. […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Friday ordered the elderly to stay at home and recommended employers allow home working after the Russian capital saw a sharp rise in virus cases. Sobyanin’s message came after virus figures that had remained steady for several months climbed steeply in recent days in Russia, the world’s fourth most affected country, and particularly in Moscow, where current case numbers are the highest since late June. […]
by Claire LEE Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare apology Friday over what he described as the “unexpected and disgraceful” killing of a South Korean at sea, Seoul’s presidential office said. Apologies from the North — let alone attributed to Kim personally — are extremely unusual, and the message comes with inter-Korean ties in deep freeze as well as a stand-off in nuclear […]
by Philippe Rater with Valerie Leroux in Paris Agence France Presse UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — China on Thursday lashed out at the United States at a high-level UN meeting over its criticism on the coronavirus, with its envoy declaring, “Enough is enough!” Two days after President Donald Trump used his annual address to the General Assembly to attack China’s record, the US ambassador to the United Nations also took an outraged tone — after […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday called for better ties with South Korea in talks with President Moon Jae-in, the first in months between leaders of the countries. Suga, who took office last week, said he told Moon in a phone call that the countries must repair their “difficult” bilateral relations, which are mired in a long-running dispute over issues dating back Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula. “To […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean forces shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who disappeared off a patrol vessel and ended up in Pyongyang’s waters, Seoul’s defense ministry said Thursday, calling it an “outrageous act”. The 47-year-old man had been on board a vessel near the western border island of Yeonpyeong, the ministry said in a statement. After analyzing intelligence, the South Korean military had “confirmed that the North fired at a South […]
