Asia

Second victim of rare Hong Kong shooting dies of injuries

  Hong Kong, China (AFP) — The death toll from a brazen daylight shooting in a Hong Kong park — reportedly over sharing the inheritance of a US$1 million apartment — rose to two Wednesday after an uncle of the suspect died in hospital, police said. A 44-year-old woman shot four people with a semi-automatic pistol at Quarry Bay Park in eastern Hong Kong Island on Tuesday, a rare gun attack in a city with […]

Items worth $273 mn seized from premises linked to Malaysia ex-PM: police

  KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) – Items seized from six premises linked to ousted Malaysian leader Najib Razak, including cash, a vast stash of jewellery and luxury handbags, are worth up to $273 million, police said Wednesday. “The total cost of all the items, the retail price, will be touching 910 (million) to 1.1 billion ringgit,” Amar Singh, the police’s head of commercial crime, told a press conference. That is equivalent to $225 million to […]

UN Palestinian refugee agency struggles to meet deficit

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency needs more than $200 million to fund projects until the end of the year, with extra pledges so far unable to minimize a massive slash in donations from the United States. “Schools may not be able to open on time in August,” Miroslav Lajcak, the president of the General Assembly, told a pledging conference for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian […]

US defence chief visits China as tensions simmer

  by Paul Handley © Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) – US Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived in Beijing on his first ever visit to China on Tuesday, aiming to find room for military cooperation as security tensions between the two superpowers edge higher. With Washington and Beijing locked in an escalating trade war, and the Pentagon alarmed over China’s placement of weapons on disputed islands in the South China Sea, Mattis said he would seek […]

Koreas hold talks on connecting railway

SOUL, South Korea (AFP) – North and South Korea held talks Tuesday on connecting the railways that run across their border, a physical link that would transform the relationship between the two sides of the divided peninsula. The discussions, the first on the issue for 10 years, took place in the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. A rail line already exists from Seoul to Pyongyang and on to Sinuiju on the Chinese […]

Mnuchin rebuts reports on new China investmernt restrictions

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday denounced media reports detailing plans to impose restrictions on Chinese investment in US companies and on tech exports to China. The reports were widely cited Monday as helping to spark a global stocks selloff, with investors increasingly gloomy about the prospects of de-escalation in the emerging US-China trade war. The White House in late May announced plans to impose steep tariffs on Chinese […]

World reaction to Erdogan’s election victory

PARIS France (AFP) — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a decisive victory in an election that will give him five more years in office with sweeping new powers. Here are some of the first reactions on Monday from foreign governments: Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin “stressed that the results of the vote fully speak of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s great political authority (and) mass support of the course conducted under his leadership to solve Turkey’s […]

Mattis visits China amid Korea talks, strategic tensions

by Paul HANDLEY Agence France-Presse EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, United States (AFP)–US Secretary of Defense James Mattis will make his first visit to China this week amid rising tensions between the two countries but also a deep need for Beijing’s support in nuclear talks with North Korea. Mattis told reporters Sunday he wants to “take measure” of China’s strategic ambitions after it positioned weaponry on disputed islets in the South China Sea and is seeking […]

Koreas discuss reunions for war-separated families

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North and South Korea on Friday held Red Cross talks to discuss resuming reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, the latest step in the diplomatic thaw on the peninsula. Millions of people were separated during the conflict that sealed the division between the two Koreas nearly 70 years ago. Most died without having a chance to see or hear from their relatives on the other side of […]

N. Korea ‘already starting’ denuclearization: Trump

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — North Korea has already begun its denuclearization, US President Donald Trump said Thursday, after many observers greeted with skepticism the results of his historic meeting with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un. “They’ve already blown up one of their big test sites. In fact, it was actually four of their big test sites. And the big thing is, it will be a total denuclearization, which is already starting,” Trump said at a cabinet […]

Japan halts missile drills after Trump-Kim summit: reports

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has halted evacuation drills simulating a North Korean missile attack in the wake of historic talks between Washington and Pyongyang, local media reported Thursday. Government officials did not immediately confirm the reports, but authorities in one town told AFP they were suspending a drill planned for next week on orders from Tokyo. The decision comes after US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un met last week […]

Moon suggests Russian gas be piped to Koreas, Japan

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — New pipelines could be laid to bring Russian gas through North Korea to the South and even on to Japan following the diplomatic thaw with Pyongyang, Seoul’s leader suggested Wednesday. President Moon Jae-in was speaking to Russian news media before a three-day visit to Moscow starting Thursday, with the presidential Blue House releasing the transcript. Russia and South Korea agreed in 2008 to lay gas pipelines through the North to […]