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By Sara HUSSEIN Agence France-Presse HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 18, 2023 (AFP) – On August 6, 1945, four-year-old Masao Ito was riding a tricycle near his home in Hiroshima when a bomb fell from the sky and changed his life forever. He survived the US nuclear attack and made it home to his mother, but the horror was just beginning. His father, at work closer to the center of the western Japanese city, searched the […]
By Amber WANG Agence France-Presse TAIPEI, May 17, 2023 (AFP) — Britain’s former prime minister Liz Truss on Wednesday urged her successor Rishi Sunak to get tough with China on Taiwan, describing the democratic island as “an enduring rebuke to totalitarianism”. China considers self-ruled Taiwan to be its territory, to be taken one day by force if necessary, and strongly opposes any formal engagement with the island, including by high-profile foreign political figures. Truss, who […]
By Ella IDE Agence France-Presse ROME, Italy (AFP) — When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets fellow G7 leaders this week, her allies will be looking for reassurances that Rome is ready to quit Beijing’s Belt and Road (BRI) initiative. Debt-ridden Italy in 2019 became the only one of the group of leading developed democracies to sign up to China’s trillion-dollar investment scheme, which critics denounce as a predatory “Trojan horse” aimed at buying political […]
By Oliver HOTHAM Agence France-Presse BEIJING, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – China is renewing its push for massive infrastructure projects in Central Asia as Beijing aims to fill the vacuum left in former Soviet states by Russia, which is ensnared in a widening net of Western sanctions over the Ukraine war. Central Asia has become key to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, a defining geopolitical project for President Xi Jinping. Around 150 countries […]
By Sara HUSSEIN Agence France-Presse HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – Japan hosts G7 leaders in Hiroshima this week hoping to drive home the dangers of nuclear weapons and push for progress on disarmament. But with North Korea and Russia making nuclear threats, and China growing its arsenal, there may be little appetite for bold action on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s stated goal of a “world free of nuclear weapons.” Here are […]
PARIS, May 12, 2023 (AFP) – Iran on Friday released two French citizens, including one also holding Irish nationality, as Paris urged Tehran to free other foreigners jailed by the Islamic republic. French-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan, held since October, and Frenchman Benjamin Briere, whose ordeal in Iran lasted two years, were freed from their prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the French foreign ministry said. They rapidly boarded a special flight to Paris and […]
WASHINGTON, May 11, 2023 (AFP) – US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met in Vienna this week, Washington and Beijing announced Thursday, as the two powers seek to maintain communication amid soaring tensions, especially over Taiwan. The two held eight hours of talks stretching over Wednesday and Thursday in the Austrian capital, ending an unofficial pause in high-level contacts since the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon […]
LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia, May 10, 2023 (AFP) – Southeast Asian nations vowed Wednesday tougher action on human trafficking as criminals increasingly use social media and other online platforms to recruit and exploit victims. International alarm is growing over internet scams in the region that are often staffed by trafficking victims tricked or coerced into promoting bogus crypto investments. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have emerged as “countries of destination” for victims, according to the International Organization […]
LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia, May 10, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo called Wednesday for “unity” among Southeast Asian nations, as they come under growing pressure to end the violence ravaging Myanmar or risk irrelevance. Turmoil in junta-ruled Myanmar has dominated talks at this week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia, as the regional bloc faces criticism for its perceived inaction. ASEAN has led diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis, but […]
By Martin Abbugao and Allison Jackson Agence France-Presse LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia (AFP) — Junta-ruled Myanmar is set to dominate a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Indonesia starting Tuesday, after an airstrike on a village last month reportedly killed at least 170 people. Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent. The Association […]
By Michel COMTE Agence France-Presse OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Ottawa announced Monday the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat accused of having sought to intimidate a Canadian lawmaker critical of Beijing, plunging the two nations into a new diplomatic row. “We will not tolerate any form of foreign interference in our internal affairs,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement declaring the diplomat “persona non grata.” “We remain firm in our resolve that defending our democracy […]
YANGON, May 8, 2023 (AFP) – A convoy of diplomats travelling in Myanmar came under fire from an unknown armed group, a military official and a diplomat said Monday. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration in February 2021. On Sunday a convoy of several vehicles travelling in Taunggyi township in eastern Myanmar’s Shan State was attacked by an unknown armed group, a foreign diplomat based in […]
