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SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam met and shook hands Friday ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Kim Yong Nam, who is officially leading Pyongyang’s diplomatic delegation to the Games, met Moon at a leaders’ reception ahead of the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang. Moon and his wife received their guests one by one and the two men smiled as […]
by Jung Ha-won Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s increasingly influential sister has become one of his closest confidantes in a country where power has always been a family affair. Kim Yo Jong made history Friday as the first member of the North’s ruling dynasty to set foot in the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two sides technically remain at war since […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US government on Thursday was assured of careening into a shutdown at midnight after the Senate adjourned with no vote on a measure to extend federal funding beyond the 12:00 am deadline. The upper chamber of Congress struggled to overcome roadblocks to passing a government funding bill and budget plan when a conservative senator objected to a swift vote, and leadership opted to close up shop and then reopen […]
by Michelle Yun Agence France Presse HUALIEN, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwanese rescuers Thursday braved aftershocks coursing through a dangerously leaning apartment block that was partially toppled by a deadly earthquake, as their search for survivors uncovered three more bodies. At least 10 people have now been confirmed killed by the 6.4-magnitude quake that struck the popular eastern tourist city of Hualien on Tuesday — five locals, four Chinese mainland nationals and a woman from the […]
HUALIEN, Taiwan (AFP) — A rookie golden labrador on his first ever mission has won praise for helping Taiwanese search and rescue workers find two people trapped in a severely damaged building following a deadly earthquake. Four-year-old Tie Hsiung, whose name translates to “Iron Hero,” braved dangerous aftershocks on his first field test to search for survivors after a 6.4-magnitude quake struck the popular eastern tourist city of Hualien on Tuesday, killing 10 people. Thanks […]
by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House said Thursday it was preparing for a US government shutdown as Congress hit a stumbling block in its efforts to pass a stopgap spending bill before midnight. With just hours to go before current federal funding expires, the effort stalled in the Senate when one lawmaker blocked a quick vote on the compromise bill, which includes a major budget deal that […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Russia’s UN ambassador on Thursday slammed as “criminal” the US-led coalition strikes against pro-regime forces in Syria that left more than 100 dead. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that he protested the assault in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor during a closed-door Security Council meeting. “It was inadmissible for whatever reasons it was justified,” Nebenzia told reporters, adding that he told the United States “to remember that they […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Deadly air strikes by a US-led coalition on pro-regime forces in eastern Syria were purely an act of self-defense, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Thursday, in an apparent effort to tamp down controversy over the incident. “It was self-defense,” Mattis told reporters. “We are not getting engaged in the Syrian civil war.” More than 100 forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were killed in the attack by the US-backed […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — A Canadian submarine is patrolling the western Pacific for the first time in nearly 50 years, the navy said Thursday, amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Although HMCS Chicoutimi’s mission was scheduled a year ago, it comes after the United States and its allies agreed at crisis talks in Vancouver last month to tougher measures to halt North Korean sanctions violations, including naval security operations to prevent maritime […]
by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Top US lawmakers scrambled Thursday to rally support for a deal to keep the federal government open past a midnight deadline, as rebellion simmered among Republicans and Democrats over the bipartisan budget agreement struck to end the logjam. Senators were expected to take up and pass the breakthrough bill later Thursday, and then send it to the House of Representatives — which will barely […]
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AFP) — More than 500 North Koreans are converging on Pyeongchang in South Korea for the 2018 Olympics, in a historic cross-border exchange between two countries still technically at war. AFP looks at what we know so far about the visitors from the isolated, nuclear-armed state. Kim’s sister The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit South Korea for Friday’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony and meet with South […]
by Jung Ha-won Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea staged a military parade in Pyongyang Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on a show just a day before the Winter Olympics open in the South. The nuclear-armed North is on an Olympics-linked charm offensive — sending a troupe of performers, hundreds of female cheerleaders, and the sister of leader Kim Jong Un to […]
