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DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday called for progress on a stalled buffer zone deal around jihadist-dominated Idlib region ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending his country’s eight-year war. Assad met envoy Alexander Lavrentiev from key ally Russia in Damascus to discuss the negotiations due April 25-26 in Kazakhstan. Iran and Russia are the major supporters of the Syrian regime, and along with rebel backer Turkey have sponsored repeated rounds […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A blind Japanese sailor completed his non-stop Pacific voyage on Saturday, local media reported, becoming the first sightless person on record to navigate a vessel across the vast ocean. Mitsuhiro Iwamoto arrived at port in Fukushima in his 12-meter (40-foot) sailboat on Saturday morning, around two months after he left California. Iwamoto, a 52-year-old San Diego resident, sailed from the US city on February 24 with Doug Smith, an American navigator […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said Friday leaders from 37 nations and North Korean representatives will attend a summit for its Belt and Road Initiative next week as it hit back at criticism of the massive trade infrastructure project. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pet project is a $1 trillion programme that includes maritime, rail and road projects in Asia, Africa and Europe. The Belt and Road Initiative has divided Europe, and Washington has called it […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A weapons test announced by North Korea was not of a ballistic missile, the US defense chief said Thursday, adding that US forces have not changed their posture in response. “There was a test,” Patrick Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, told reporters as he met his Albanian counterpart at the Pentagon. He declined to elaborate on the findings of US intelligence but said, “It’s not a ballistic missile.” “Also […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Friday once more dismissed the Mueller report, saying it failed to present clear evidence of any meddling by Moscow in the 2016 US election and called its impact on relations regrettable. “As a whole the report as before does not present any reasonable proof at all that Russia allegedly meddled in the electoral process in the US,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, saying it contained “no new […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — A schoolgirl was burned to death in Bangladesh on the orders of her head teacher after she reported him for sexually harassing her, police said Friday. The death of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi last week sparked protests across the South Asian nation, with the prime minister promising to prosecute all those involved. Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended where her attackers asked her to […]
by Harry PEARL Agence France-Presse JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) – Indonesia pulled off a complex yet peaceful election across its vast — and ethnically diverse — island territory this week, cementing its place as a democratic beacon in a sea of authoritarian governments, analysts say. But the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation still faces a spike in militant Islam and myriad other challenges. On Wednesday, the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago saw as many as 190 million voters […]
by Kang Jin-kyu Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Thursday demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from talks over its banned nuclear program, hours after the isolated state claimed to have tested a new kind of weapon. Describing Pompeo as “reckless” and immature, the foreign ministry said it wanted him replaced by another interlocutor, a demand that significantly ups the ante in a sensitive diplomatic […]
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Taiwan on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, shaking buildings and disrupting traffic. In the capital Taipei, highrises swayed while some panicked schoolchildren fled their classrooms in eastern Yilan county, according to reports. The quake was felt across the island and a highway connecting Yilan and Hualien was shut down due to falling rocks, authorities said. An official at the Hualien county fire department told AFP that two people, including […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new type of “tactical guided weapon,” the country’s state media reported on Thursday. It said the “advantages” of the weapon were “the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead”. The KCNA report did not provide further details about the weapon, but said Kim described its development as one “of very weighty significance […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Thunderstorms swept across western India killing at least 35 people and leaving widespread damage, officials said Wednesday. Strong winds barrelled through Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh states felling walls, trees and electricity lines. The storms have also been blamed for at least 25 deaths in Pakistan this week. At least 10 people were killed in the desert state of Rajasthan, where a wall of dust swept over several cities. Another […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Activity has been detected at North Korea’s main nuclear site, suggesting Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel since the collapse of a summit with Washington, a US monitor said Wednesday. The possible signs of fresh reprocessing activity last week come after a February summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended abruptly without agreement on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. Since then […]
