International

NATO commander tells Russia: ‘stop meddling’

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The commander of NATO forces in Europe, US General Curtis Scaparrotti, on Thursday demanded that Russia “stop meddling” in European elections, amid concerns about Kremlin interference in the Catalan crisis. Spanish media have accused Moscow-backed outlets such as Russia Today and Sputnik — which have Spanish language services — of playing a destabilizing role in the crisis triggered by Catalonia’s banned October 1 referendum. Moscow is also suspected of interfering in […]

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Chinese ‘love’ Trump’s Mandarin-speaking granddaughter

BEIJING, China (AFP) – While media coverage of Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Thursday focused on trade and North Korea, it was the wide-eyed crooning of the US leader’s granddaughter that stole Chinese netizens’ hearts. In a video that Trump showed Xi during their stroll through the historic Forbidden City Wednesday, his granddaughter, Arabella Kushner, greets “Grandpa Xi and Grandma Peng (Liyuan)” with several Mandarin ballads and a recitation of ancient Chinese poetry. […]

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Delhi restricts vehicles as smog envelopes India and Pakistan

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – New Delhi banned all construction, barred lorries from entering the city and announced stringent restrictions on private car use on Thursday, seeking to combat a massive spike in pollution across large swathes of India and Pakistan. Tens of thousands of schools in Delhi and surrounding states remained closed as a hazardous fog of toxic pollution cloaked the region for a third day, bringing growing calls for urgent government action to tackle […]

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29 civilians ‘will die’ if not evacuated from Syria’s Eastern Ghouta: UN

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – Some 400 civilians are in urgent need of medical evacuation from Syria’s Eastern Ghouta region, including 29 who will die if they are not allowed to leave immediately, the United Nations warned Thursday. “Around 400 men, women, children… need to be evacuated now,” Jan Egeland, head of the UN’s humanitarian taskforce for Syria, told reporters in Geneva, adding that 29 of them, including 18 children “will die if they are not […]

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Xi gives Trump a Chinese history lesson

BEIJING, China (AFP) – As President Xi Jinping led his US counterpart Donald Trump around Beijing’s Forbidden City on Wednesday, he made time to teach the American billionaire a bit of Chinese history. Trump has been given the red carpet treatment on his three-day state visit, beginning with a tour of the ancient imperial palace where he sipped tea with Xi and showed the Chinese leader a video of his granddaughter singing in Mandarin. Chinese […]

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Thousands of schools close as smog envelopes India, Pakistan

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – Schools closed across large swathes of north India on Thursday as pollution hit hazardous levels for the third day, with growing calls for urgent government action to tackle what doctors are calling a public health emergency. Punjab’s government said it was closing all 25,000 schools in the state for the rest of the week due to the acrid air blanketing north India and parts of neighboring Pakistan. The decision came […]

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Trump says trade surplus unfair, adds ‘I don’t blame China’

BEIJING, China (AFP) – US President Donald Trump decried his country’s “one-sided and unfair” trade deficit with Beijing on Thursday, but he told Chinese President Xi Jinping: “I don’t blame China.” At a signing ceremony for over $250 billion in US-Chinese business deals in Beijing, Trump said: “After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the sake of its citizens?” However, he pointed the blame at […]

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China signs $37 billion deal to buy 300 Boeing planes

BEIJING, China (AFP) – China signed a $37 billion agreement on Thursday to buy 300 airplanes from US airspace giant Boeing. The deal for the single-aisle and twin-aisle aircraft was among the $250 billion in agreements announced during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. (Agence France-Presse)

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Warmer US-China relations vowed as US President Trump meets China’s President Xi for the first time

    (Eagle News) — United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping both promised greater cooperation and stronger friendship between the two countries when they met for the first time in Beijing, China. Xi and his first lady, warmly welcomed Trump who was with First Lady Melania Trump in Beijing. China’s sincere welcome for US President was marked with regal fluorish, rolling out the red carpet for Trump at the Forbidden City, […]

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Trump urges China, Russia to act fast on N. Korea

(Agence France Presse) — US President Donald Trump urged China and Russia on Thursday to act fast to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, warning that “time is quickly running out.” “We must act fast. And hopefully China will act faster and more effectively on this problem than anyone,” Trump said as he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. Trump thanked Xi for his efforts to restrict trade with North Korea and cut […]

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Refugees flee to Zambia, accusing DR Congo troops of killings

by Obert Simwanza Agence France-Presse NCHELENGE, Zambia (AFP) — Recounting horrific stories of rape and murder allegedly by government soldiers, thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have sought safety on the Zambian side of Lake Mweru. About 6,000 Congolese residents have fled across the border since late August, triggering an emergency response from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) which has struggled to provide basic food rations and shelter. DR Congo’s huge eastern region has […]

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US carriers in rare Pacific op amid N. Korea tensions

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Three US aircraft carriers will stage joint drills in the western Pacific for the first time in a decade, the US Navy said Thursday, as tensions in the region over North Korea reach fever pitch. The USS Ronald Reagan, USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt will conduct “coordinated operations in international waters,” the navy said, as US President Donald Trump’s high-stakes trip through Asia takes him to China. The operation shows Washington’s “ironclad […]

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