SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea on Friday accepted the South’s offer of talks next week, said Seoul’s Unification ministry, which oversees relations with Pyongyang. The meeting will take place in Panmunjom, the truce village in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula. Tensions have been high after the North carried out multiple missile launches in 2017, including a number of ICBMs, and its sixth atomic test, by far its most powerful […]
Tag: conflict
Palestinian shot dead in West Bank clashes with Israeli army: ministry
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — A Palestinian teenager was shot dead in clashes with the Israeli army on Wednesday near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Musab Firas al-Tamimi, 17, was shot in the village of Deir Nizam north of Ramallah, it said. His death took to 14 the number of Palestinians killed in unrest since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month. […]
Palestinians say Jerusalem ‘not for sale’ after Trump aid threat
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s office said Wednesday Jerusalem is “not for sale” after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut annual aid of more than $300 million to force them to the negotiating table. “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Palestine and it is not for sale for gold or billions,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP, referring to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s […]
Palestinians will not be ‘blackmailed’ by Trump funding threat: senior official
JERUSALEM, Israel (AFP) — The Palestinians will not be “blackmailed” by US President Donald Trump, a senior official said Wednesday, after he threatened to cut aid to them worth more than $300 million a year. “We will not be blackmailed,” senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement. “President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice. Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions!” […]
No US pressure behind Guatemala embassy move to Jerusalem: FM
by Edgar Calderon Agence France-Presse GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — The United States did not pressure Guatemala into announcing it will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the Central American state’s foreign minister said Wednesday. “There wasn’t any pressure. There wasn’t any overture from the United States to make this happen. This was a decision by the government, the state and the foreign policy of Guatemala,” the minister, Sandra Jovel, told a news conference in Guatemala City. […]
Defying Trump threat, UN rejects US decision on Jerusalem
by Carole Landry Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Defying President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off funding, the United Nations approved by a resounding vote on Thursday a motion rejecting the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution by 128 to nine with 35 abstentions, in what Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour called a “massive setback” for the United States. An additional 21 countries did not turn […]
220,000 children threatened by mines in Ukraine’s east: UN
KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Hundreds of thousands of children are at imminent risk of being hit by mines and other explosive weapons in war-torn eastern Ukraine, one of the most mine-contaminated places on earth, a UN report said Thursday. A bloody conflict between Ukraine’s army and Russian-backed rebels has endangered 220,000 children who live, play and go to and from school in areas littered with landmines and other deadly explosive devices, the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund […]
US vetoes UN resolution rejecting Trump’s Jerusalem decision
by Carole Landry Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The United States on Monday vetoed a draft UN resolution rejecting President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, after all 14 other Security Council members backed the measure. The veto cast by US Ambassador Nikki Haley highlighted Washington’s isolation over Trump’s announcement that the US embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively ignoring Palestinian claims on the city. The shift […]
Islamic State: What happened to all the foreign fighters?
by Michel Moutot © Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An estimated 40,000 people traveled from around the world to take up arms for the Islamic State group as it occupied territory in Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in 2014. A few hundred are believed to still be fighting as IS struggles to survive, having lost most of its territory to campaigns by Western-backed Syrian and Iraqi coalition armies. But what happened to the […]
US-led air strikes kill 23 civilians in Syria: monitor
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Air strikes by a US-led coalition killed 23 civilians Wednesday in a village held by the Islamic State group in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, a monitor said. “At least 23 civilians, among them eight children and six women, were killed Wednesday before dawn by air strikes carried out by the US-led coalition, targeting a village controlled by IS on the eastern banks of the Euphrates river,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory […]
IS long gone, but former Iraqi oil hub still dead
by Mahmoud Saleh © Agence France-Presse BAIJI, Iraq (AFP) — A white rocking horse and a child’s toy car lie abandoned on a dusty lane in the Iraqi city of Baiji, a small sign of the ruin that can be seen all around. Two years after the jihadists of Islamic State group were forced from this one-time industrial hub, Baiji remains a devastated ghost city as pledges of funds to help rebuild life have failed to […]
Palestinian president will not meet Pence: adviser
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will not hold a planned meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence following Washington’s controversial policy shift on Jerusalem, an Abbas aide said on Saturday. “There will be no meeting with the vice president of America in Palestine,” diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khaldi told AFP. “The United States has crossed all the red lines with the Jerusalem decision,” he added. The White House warned on Thursday that cancelling the […]





