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PORT VILA, Vanuatu (AFP) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was vital “to save the Pacific to save the world” as he wrapped up his brief South Pacific tour in Vanuatu on Saturday. Guterres has spent the past week in the region pushing for urgent action ahead of a UN summit in September billed as a last chance to prevent irreversible climate change. According to the UN, Vanuatu is the world’s most at-risk […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Federal Aviation Administration has warned US airlines flying over the Gulf to exercise caution “due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region.” The advisory, which also covers airspace over the Gulf of Oman, comes amid rising tensions between the US and Iran. Increased tensions in the region “present an increasing inadvertent risk to US civil aviation operations due to the potential for miscalculation or […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is experiencing its worst drought in over a century, official media reported Friday, days after the World Food Programme expressed “very serious concerns” about the situation in the country. The isolated, impoverished North — which is under several sets of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs — has long struggled to feed itself and suffers chronic food shortages. It recorded its worst harvest for a […]
by Paul Handley with Kyoko Hasegawa in Tokyo WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Amid rising tensions in the Gulf, Iran on Thursday rejected negotiations with the US and said it was showing “maximum restraint” after Washington sent extra military forces to the region against what it claimed was an imminent threat from Tehran. US officials meanwhile said the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf, one of the world’s […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has formally arrested two Canadians who have been detained for months on national security grounds, a Canadian newspaper reported on Thursday, in a case that has inflamed tensions between Ottawa and Beijing. A Canadian government source told The Globe and Mail that neither Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, nor Michael Spavor, a China-based businessman who organized trips to North Korea, have been formally charged. “Canada strongly condemns their arbitrary arrest […]
by Shaun Tandon Agence France Presse SOCHI, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday meets US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the highest-level talks between the rival powers in nearly a year as they see if they can make headway on a raft of disagreements from Venezuela to Iran to arms control. Pompeo will visit Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi less than two weeks after US President Donald […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — North Korean missile launches over the past week have not affected Donald Trump’s relationship with Kim Jong Un, the US president said Friday, in a change of course after initially expressing his dissatisfaction. Pyongyang fired two short-range missiles Thursday following an earlier drill the previous Saturday — the first in 18 months. The North had not launched any missiles since November 2017, shortly before once reclusive Kim embarked on diplomatic […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea fired a number of unidentified projectiles Thursday, the South’s military said, as a US envoy visited Seoul for discussions on how to break the nuclear deadlock. “North Korea fired unidentified projectiles eastward” from Sino-ri in North Pyongan province, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The launch came just days after North Korea carried out a military drill and fired multiple projectiles, with at […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese court was expected to hold a hearing Thursday on a Canadian man’s appeal against a death sentence for drug smuggling in a case that has deepened a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Ottawa. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, 36, was sentenced to death in January after a court deemed his previous 15-year prison sentence too lenient. The appeal hearing comes a day after a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Emperor Naruhito urged Japan to work together for world peace as he made his first public appearance Saturday in front of a cheering, flag-waving crowd of tens of thousands. “I sincerely wish that our country, hand-in-hand with foreign countries, seeks world peace and further development,” said the 59-year-old Naruhito, who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne Wednesday. Japan’s 126th emperor wore a morning coat to make the brief appearance on a glass-covered […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese court sentenced a second Canadian man to death for drug trafficking on Tuesday amid diplomatic tensions between Ottawa and Beijing. The court in southern Guangdong province said the Canadian, Fan Wei, and 10 others — including an American and four Mexicans — had been part of an international narcotics syndicate working out of Taishan city between July and November 2012. The group produced and sold 6.34 kilos (14 pounds) […]
by Maria Panina VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met face-to-face for the first time on Thursday, vowing to seek closer ties as they look to counter US influence. The summit in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok came with Kim locked in a nuclear stand-off with Washington and Putin keen to put Moscow forward as a player in another global flashpoint. The two leaders shook hands […]
