Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
SHENZHEN, China (AFP) — World number one Simona Halep began the year in emphatic style with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Nicole Gibbs as Maria Sharapova also romped through her first-round match at the Shenzhen Open on Monday. Romania’s Halep, who will be seeking her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in two weeks’ time, struck 12 winners to blitz the 110th-ranked American in one hour and nine minutes. “We had a big crowd, which […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – China on Friday rejected accusations that it had helped Pyongyang skirt sanctions after US President Donald Trump claimed on Twitter that Beijing was turning a blind eye to oil transfers to North Korea. Trump’s tweet was the latest salvo in his battle to persuade China to tighten the economic screws on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear programmed, in a campaign that has seen him heap both praise and criticism on Beijing. “Caught […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump — who has often hailed China’s efforts to put pressure on North Korea — hit out at Beijing Thursday for failing to cut off Pyongyang’s oil supply, saying such moves prevented a “friendly solution” of the crisis. “Caught RED HANDED – very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea,” Trump said on Twitter. “There will never be a friendly solution to the […]
by Philippe RATER Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Thursday denied international port access to four North Korean ships suspected of carrying or having transported goods banned by international sanctions targeting Pyongyang, diplomats told AFP. The ban of the four vessels — the Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Sam Jong 2 and Rye Song Gang 1 — brings the UN’s total number of blocked ships to […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States’ top diplomat defended his country’s foreign policy record on Wednesday, saying progress had been made in the last year to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and to counter the “immense challenges” posed by Russia, China and Iran. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said some 90 percent of Pyongyang’s export earnings had been cut off by a series of international […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The United States and Germany urged China to free an outspoken government critic known as “Super Vulgar Butcher” on Wednesday after he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Wu Gan, who refused to plead guilty to charges of “subverting state power,” was on Tuesday handed one of the harshest punishments meted out to a group of lawyers and activists swept up in a major crackdown two years ago. “The embassies […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese court is auctioning a skyscraper on the country’s largest e-commerce website — with a sky-high starting price of 553 million yuan ($84.2 million). The 39-floor building in Taiyuan, northern Shanxi province, along with the land on which it sits, goes on the block January 2 on Taobao, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform. Construction on the skyscraper began in 2006. Standing 156 meters high and with over 76,000 square meters of […]
TIANJIN, China (AFP) — A Chinese court sentenced an activist known by the online pseudonym “Super Vulgar Butcher” to eight years in prison Tuesday after he refused to plead guilty to charges of “subverting state power.” Wu Gan, who was taken into police custody in May 2015, attracted authorities’ attention with performance art and caustic commentary on Chinese society and politics that he published online. He was “dissatisfied with the current system of governance, and […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — New archaeological research has shed fresh light on China’s first emperor — creator of the world-famous terracotta army — and his quest for eternal life, state media reported. A set of wooden slips found in the central province of Hunan contain an executive order from Emperor Qin Shihuang for a nationwide search for the elixir of life, along with replies from local governments, according to Xinhua news agency on Sunday. It […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — An artist that could not be reached for more than a week after he painted a politically charged mural in southern China wrote on Twitter Monday that he has been “released”. “I was released a few days ago and we are in my hometown now,” the Twitter account of painter Hu Jiamin read days after Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported that the couple had been taken away by plainclothes men. Hu noted […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s home-grown AG600, the world’s largest amphibious aircraft in production, took to the skies on Sunday for its maiden flight. The plane, codenamed “Kunlong” according to state news agency Xinhua, took off from the southern city of Zhuhai and landed after roughly an hour-long flight. With a wingspan of 38.8 metres (127 feet) and powered by four turboprop engines, the aircraft is capable of carrying 50 people and can stay airborne […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – At least 10,000 people were killed in the Chinese army’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, according to a newly released British secret diplomatic cable that gives gruesome details of the bloodshed in Beijing. “Minimum estimate of civilian dead 10,000,” the then British ambassador Alan Donald said in a telegram to London. The document, made public more than 28 years after the event, was seen by AFP at Britain’s […]
