FRANKFURT, Germany, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of police Thursday raided properties across Germany over suspected links to the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah group, authorities said, as Berlin moves to stem a rash of anti-Semitism amid the Israel-Hamas war. The raids targeting 54 sites came after Germany banned Hamas activities and related organisations, in the wake of the deadly October 7 attack carried out by the Islamist group in Israel. “We have the Islamist scene […]
International
Israel presses Gaza hospital raid
By Mai Yaghi and Adel Zaanoun GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Israel renewed its military operation Thursday at Gaza’s largest hospital, targeting what it said was a Hamas command centre hidden beneath thousands of patients, medics and displaced people. “Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital,” said Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of army operations in Gaza. “We continue to move forward.” Both Israel and its top ally […]
China ready to be ‘partner and friend’ of US: Xi
By Beiyi SEOW SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – China is “ready to be a partner and friend of the United States,” President Xi Jinping told US business leaders on Wednesday, as concerns mount over the country’s slowing economy. If one country sees the other as a main competitor and most consequential geopolitical challenge, “this will only lead to wrong policymaking, misguided actions and unwanted results,” he told a dinner on the sidelines of […]
Man arrested after car crashes near Israeli embassy in Tokyo: media
TOKYO, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – A Japanese man was arrested on Thursday after crashing a car through a barrier near the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, police said. Mor Eliyahu, a spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy, told AFP that the incident “is suspected to be a targeted vehicle ramming attack, and it is currently under investigation by local police”. But police made no comment on the possible motives of the local unemployed man who drove […]
Xi warns Biden not to arm Taiwan, agrees to restart military talks
BEIJING, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned US President Joe Biden at a summit to stop arming Taiwan but agreed to restart high-level military-to-military talks, Beijing said Thursday. “The US side should… stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification,” Xi told Biden, according to a readout from China’s foreign ministry. “China will realise reunification, and this is unstoppable,” the Chinese leader said of the future of the self-ruled island, which […]
Biden hails ‘real progress’ as Xi summit ends with garden walk
By Brendan SMIALOWSKI with Danny KEMP in San Francisco WOODSIDE, United States, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden hailed “real progress” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday as the two leaders wrapped up talks to ease tensions with a stroll in the gardens of a California retreat. Biden said the four-hour talks had gone “well” and gave a double thumbs up, while he and Xi both waved at reporters as they […]
UN expert urges Philippines to disband anti-communist agency
A United Nations human rights expert urged the Philippines on Wednesday to abolish an anti-communist task force that has been accused of targeting government critics. Former president Rodrigo Duterte set up the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in 2018 to quash a decades-old insurgency. The task force, which includes the military, has frequently labelled human rights activists, environmental defenders, lawyers and journalists as communist sympathisers, without providing any evidence. The […]
Hospital in Haiti evacuated after gang mayhem erupts nearby
The main hospital in Port-au-Prince’s largest shantytown was completely evacuated on Wednesday after violent gang clashes broke out at its gates, its director told AFP. Jose Ulysse, founder and director of the Fontaine Hospital Center, denied reports that gang members had entered the facility and taken patients hostage. “There was no hostage-taking. There was a gang war, but the war is around the hospital. We’ve had neighboring houses burnt down,” he said in a telephone […]
India contacts Thai cave experts in bid to free trapped tunnel workers
DEHRADUN, India, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – India has sought advice from the Thai company that rescued children from a flooded cave in 2018 as it races to save 40 men trapped in a road tunnel, officials said Wednesday. Excavators have been removing debris since Sunday morning from the site in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand to create an escape tunnel for the workers, all of whom are still alive. Officials have “contacted the Thai […]
Russia admits Ukraine has positions on Russian-held bank of Dnipro river
KYIV, Ukraine, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – Russia said Wednesday for the first time that some Ukrainian troops had established positions on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro river, the vast waterway that splits the frontline in southern Ukraine. A sustained Ukrainian breakthrough across the river would be a significant tactical success, coming as Kyiv’s wider counteroffensive has failed to turn the tide of the 21-month war. “Small groups” of Ukrainian soldiers were stretched along […]
ASEAN defence chiefs call for end to Myanmar crisis, Israel-Hamas war
JAKARTA, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – Southeast Asian defence ministers called for an end to the Myanmar crisis and to the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday as they gathered for talks that will include meetings with regional counterparts and the Pentagon chief. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings in Jakarta were dominated by issues ranging from the Myanmar crisis to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as well as Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the […]
‘Raise your hands’: Israel raids hospital in centre of Gaza war
Israeli forces, some wearing facemasks and firing guns into the air, raided early Wednesday Gaza’s biggest hospital which was packed with thousands of Palestinian patients and displaced people, in the army’s battle against Hamas. “All men 16 years and above, raise your hands,” a soldier shouted in accented Arabic through a loudspeaker, to those sheltering inside Al-Shifa hospital, which has become the centre of fierce urban combat for days. “Exit the building towards the courtyard […]
