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HONG KONG, China (AFP) — President Xi Jinping expressed his affection for Hong Kong as he arrived in the politically divided city Thursday to mark 20 years since it was handed back to China by Britain. “After nine years I am once again stepping on Hong Kong soil. I feel very happy. Hong Kong has always had a place in my heart,” he said in a brief speech on the tarmac at Hong Kong’s main […]
by Sebastien Berger Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea threatened on Wednesday to impose the death penalty on the South’s former president Park Geun-Hye over an alleged plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong-Un. Park had “pushed forward” a supposed plan by Seoul’s intelligence services to eliminate the North’s leadership, Pyongyang’s security ministries and prosecutors said in a joint statement carried by its official Korean Central News Agency. “We declare at […]
JERUSALEM, Israel (AFP) — Israel hit a Syrian regime position on Wednesday night after stray mortar fire from the war-torn country struck the occupied Golan Heights, in the third such exchange within a week. A military spokesperson said a mortar round had hit open ground in the Israeli-controlled zone of the plateau and “forces responded and targeted the Syrian army position that fired the mortar.” She did not say if the Israeli retaliatory fire had […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In arrived in Washington Wednesday on his first overseas trip since taking office, for planned talks with his United States counterpart Donald Trump. Moon, who backs engagement with nuclear-armed North Korea, was to meet Thursday with Trump during his first foreign outing since being sworn in last month after a landslide election win. Late Wednesday, he was scheduled to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — North Korea on Wednesday delivered a rare statement at the United Nations Security Council, accusing the United States of attaching “unjust” conditions to its offer of talks on Pyongyang’s military programs. Deputy Ambassador Kim in Ryong said it would be a “fatal miscalculation” by countries to believe that the latest sanctions imposed by the council will deter North Korea from developing its nuclear forces. “Their mean and indiscreet act […]
by Joanna Chiu Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The new United States ambassador to Beijing, known for his friendship with China’s president, said Wednesday he wanted terminally-ill dissident Liu Xiaobo to get treatment abroad, as Taiwan offered to care for the Nobel laureate. Ambassador Terry Branstad arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, one day after Liu’s lawyer revealed that prison authorities granted the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate medical parole after diagnosing him with […]
CHINA (Reuters) – A Chinese mainland spokesman on Wednesday condemned Taiwan authorities for attempting to distort history in textbooks. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a media briefing on Wednesday that Taiwan’s history is an organic component of the history of China and the separatist de-Sinicizing activities have aroused strong indignation from the people in Taiwan. It was earlier reported that Taiwan authorities want to put the history of China […]
SHANGHAI, China (AFP) – An elderly passenger who threw coins at the engine of a plane at a Shanghai airport for good luck will not face police action, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. The superstitious 80-year-old woman delayed the China Southern Airlines flight on Tuesday for nearly six hours after she tossed nine coins at the engine from the tarmac while boarding, with one nestling inside. Police at Shanghai Pudong International Airport said the […]
by Natsuko Fukue Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) – Three former executives at Fukushima’s operator stand trial this week on the only criminal charges laid in the 2011 disaster, as thousands remain unable to return to homes near the shuttered nuclear plant. The hearing on Friday comes more than a year after ex-Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 77, and former vice presidents Sakae Muto, 66, and Ichiro Takekuro, 71, were formally charged with professional […]
CHINA (Reuters) – More than 2,500 professional rescuers and 25 sniffer dogs are working against time to search for 93 persons still missing in a landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. One-year-old sniffer dog named Gege is one of those. This is the dog’s first time to participate in a rescue operation. Once he finds possible signs of life, Gege, the dog’s handlers said, would bark at rescuers. Sniffer dogs like Gege are working for […]
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) – Japan’s youngest professional shogi player, Sota Fujii, set a historical record of 29 consecutive victories on Monday (June 26) after sitting through an 11-hour game held in Tokyo. The 14-year old has gone undefeated ever since he made his debut last December, stirring renewed public excitement over the traditional game. The board game, often described as “Japanese chess,” is played on a nine-by-nine board with 20 tiles, where the goal is […]
YOKOSUKA, Japan (Reuters) – More than two thousand people in Yokosuka participated in a memorial service held on Tuesday (June 27) for the seven sailors who died when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship. Participants, who included local residents, United States and Japanese military personnel, lined the streets and saluted a row of buses and cars carrying the family members and shipmates of the seven dead sailors, according to the US Navy. Multiple US […]
