Tag: WAR

Trump vetoes bill to end US support for Saudi-led Yemen war

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday vetoed a resolution from Congress directing him to end US participation in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the second such move of his presidency. “This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,” Trump said in a statement. He also claimed that US support was needed […]

Asian markets mixed as Trump threatens to ramp up trade war

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian markets were mixed Tuesday as dealers focused on crunch G20 talks between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, with the US president warning he will ramp up his trade war with China if the two do not reach a deal. With the economic superpowers in the middle of an increasingly bitter standoff, there are hopes the two leaders will be able to work out an agreement that brings them back […]

China nixes US warship port visit, recalls admiral from US

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — China has pulled the plug on a US warship’s scheduled visit to Hong Kong, and scrapped plans for a top admiral to meet with his US counterpart in Washington, officials said Tuesday. The moves come as trade tensions soar between Beijing and Washington, which this week enacted new tariffs against China covering another $200 billion of its imports. The USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship, was due to visit Hong […]

US, North Korea: face-to-face after decades of tension

(AFP)- With US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, poised to meet Tuesday, here is a recap of the decades of tensions between their countries: – Divided Korean peninsula – The Soviet Union declares war on Japan, Korea’s colonial power, in the closing days of World War II and Washington and Moscow agree to divide the peninsula into two zones of occupation along the 38th parallel. Two rival states emerge in […]

UNICEF issues blank statement slamming ‘war on children in Syria’

AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) — The UN children’s fund on Tuesday expressed “outrage” over the killings of children in Syria by issuing a blank statement, adding in a footnote that “no words will do (them) justice”. The statement came after a ferocious Syrian regime bombing campaign pounded the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Monday, killing 127 civilians, 39 of them children. “No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and […]

Seven decades of tensions between the two Koreas

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North and South Korea held their first talks for two years Tuesday, stirring hopes of a tentative rapprochement between the bitterly divided neighbors. Tensions soared last year as the North made rapid progress on its banned nuclear weapons programmes, while US President Donald Trump engaged in an increasingly bellicose verbal scrap with Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-Un. Here are some key moments in the decades-long standoff between the two Koreas: War […]

10 dates since Iran’s Islamic revolution

TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Here are key events that have marked Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the monarchy. Islamic republic proclaimed On January 16, 1979 the US-backed shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, leaves for exile after months of protests against him. On February 1 revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini makes a triumphant return from exile. Ten days later the shah’s government falls, public radio announces “the end of 2,500 years of despotism”. An […]

‘Don’t fear death’: China’s Xi urges blunt call to PLA

BEIJING, China (AFP) — President Xi Jinping has issued a blunt call for China’s military to be ready for war and unafraid to die defending the country, as geopolitical tensions mount in Asia. Xi’s exhortation to the world’s largest fighting force, parts of which were revealed only late Thursday, came during what state media characterized as a rare address by the Chinese leader to the country’s entire military. Xi cemented his status as China’s most […]

Aid enters besieged Syria region hit by hunger crisis

  by Hassan Mohammed Agence France-Presse   KAFR BATNA, Syria (AFP) – Dozens of trucks carrying aid for 40,000 people on Monday entered the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus, where residents and relief groups have warned a humanitarian crisis is escalating. Shocking AFP images from the region this month showed severely underweight children, and doctors reported two infants had died of malnutrition and related complications. The United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red […]

Hot water for dinner in hunger-hit besieged Syria town

by Abdulmonam Eassa and Amer Almohibany Agence France-Presse   HAMOURIA, Syria (AFP) – Manal boils water on the stove in the besieged Syrian town of Hamouria, hoping to convince her four children that she is cooking, but she has no food. She puts the pot on the flame as a ruse, waiting for the children to fall asleep in the dilapidated house before they realise there is nothing for dinner. In the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta […]

Mattis says US goal is ‘not war’ over N. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Washington’s goal “is not war” as it seeks to ease high military tension with Pyongyang, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday, standing at the heavily-fortified border between the two Koreas. Tension has flared on the Korean peninsula as US President Donald Trump and the North’s ruler Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults that sparked global alarm. But Mattis, who visited the tense Demilitarized Zone […]