Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Daphné Benoit Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – France on Wednesday announced plans to boost defense spending by more than 40 percent, bringing it into line with NATO targets after complaints from US President Donald Trump that Europe is not pulling its weight. European NATO members have come under pressure from Trump to relieve the burden on the US, which currently accounts for about 70 percent of combined NATO defense spending. The French government unveiled a bill […]
by Abdulmonam Eassa Agence France-Presse ARBIN, Syria – Regime bombardment killed nearly 30 people in a rebel enclave near Damascus on Monday, as Syria’s seven-year conflict left civilians paying a heavy price. Residents across several Syrian battlefronts have reported escalating bombardment and have accused Syrian troops of deploying toxic chemicals against rebel-held zones. The United States on Monday said there was “obvious evidence” of multiple chlorine gas attacks in recent weeks, including in the opposition-held enclave of Eastern […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Five people were treated for “suffocation” Sunday after Syrian regime air strikes on the northwestern town of Saraqeb, a monitor said, adding that 10 civilians were killed in southern Idlib province. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a “foul smell after regime helicopters struck several areas of the town in Idlib province, causing five civilians to suffer from suffocation.” It quoted residents and medical sources as saying “toxic gas” […]
by Omar Haj Kadour with Maya Gebeily in Beirut Agence France Presse SARAQIB, Syria — A Russian pilot was killed Saturday in fighting with Islamists after his warplane was downed over northwest Syria, Russia’s defence ministry and a monitor said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful jihadist-dominated alliance said, on an affiliated media channel it had shot down the plane but made no mention of the pilot. “We were able to bring down the […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – North Korea is flouting UN sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel and other commodities banned under UN sanctions, earning nearly $200 million in revenue last year, a UN report said Friday. A UN panel of experts also found evidence of North Korea’s ongoing military cooperation with Syria to develop its ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs, and with Myanmar. North Korea “continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the […]
by Raziye AKKOC Agence France-Presse ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) – Turkey on Tuesday detained all the top members of the country’s main medical association, including its chief, after they criticized Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria. The arrests came after the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), which represents 80 percent of the country’s physicians, issued a statement saying that conflicts lead to “irreparable problems” and that “war is a man-made public health problem”. The TTB ended its statement […]
ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (AFP) — UN goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie urged the UN Security Council to “find a way” to solve Syria’s nearly eight-year war during a tour Sunday of a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. “It is heartbreaking to return to Jordan and witness the levels of hardship and trauma among the Syrian refugees as this war enters its eighth year,” the Hollywood star said at the Zaatari camp. Jolie, a special envoy […]
by Fulya Ozerkan with Raziye Akkoc in Ankara © Agence France-Presse ANTAKYA, Turkey (AFP) — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday vowed Turkey’s campaign against a Kurdish militia in northern Syria would press on for as long as required, after telephone talks with Donald Trump failed to douse soaring tensions with Washington. The six-day campaign against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) has seen Washington’s fellow NATO member Ankara attacking a US-allied force, even raising fears […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Russia rejected Tuesday fresh US accusations that it bears responsibility for recent chemical attacks by the Syrian government, calling instead for a new “truly impartial” international investigation. During a last-minute United Nations Security Council meeting he called, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia lashed out at American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for having “hastily accused the Syrian — as they call it — ‘regime’” of the reported attack in Eastern […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday said Russia bore responsibility for recent chemical attacks by the Syrian government, which Moscow backs in the country’s civil war. “Only yesterday more than 20 civilians, most of them children, were victims of an apparent chlorine gas attack,” Tillerson said of the reported attack in Eastern Ghouta that left its victims struggling to breathe. “Whoever conducted the attacks, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for […]
by Kadir Demir with Stuart Williams in Istanbul Agence France-Presse HASSA, Turkey (AFP) — The Turkish army on Tuesday clashed with Kurdish militia in Syria in an operation that has already left three of its soldiers dead, as the United States voiced alarm that the offensive could endanger attempts to end the Syrian civil war. Amid growing international concern over the four-day-old cross-border campaign into Turkey’s neighbour, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Ankara would emerge victorious. […]
by Joseph Schmid Agence France-Presse PARIS, France – Two dozen countries agreed Tuesday to push for sanctions against perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying Russia “ultimately bears responsibility” for such strikes. Twenty-four nations approved a new “partnership against impunity” for the use of chemical weapons, just a day after reports they were used in an attack that sickened 21 people in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, which Tillerson said was suspected to […]
