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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Falih said Thursday he was optimistic about a stabilization of the oil market following an OPEC deal to cut output. “We believe that the agreement that we refer to between us and OPEC and non-OPEC members will hold,” he said at an energy conference in the United Arab Emirates. Falih said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its pledges to cut production, without giving any figures. […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan rescued 26 North Koreans after they abandoned their sinking cargo vessel in the East China Sea, the coast guard said Thursday. Japan Coast Guard patrol boats plucked the ship’s entire crew out of the water in the early hours of the morning after they had abandoned the vessel and taken to life boats. A distress signal was received Wednesday from the 6,558-tonne Chong Gen which began sinking about 60 kilometres […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — China’s only aircraft carrier has entered the Taiwan Strait in a highly symbolic show of strength, but Taiwan insisted Wednesday there was no need for panic even as tensions boil over the island’s diplomatic status. Beijing has upped its military drills near the island in recent weeks after being incensed by a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen to US president-elect Donald Trump, and by a subsequent transit stop […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea now has enough plutonium to make 10 nuclear bombs, South Korea said Wednesday, a week after leader Kim Jong-Un said it was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile. The isolated communist state, which has carried out five nuclear tests and numerous missile launches, is thought to be planning a nuclear push in 2017 as it seeks to develop a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland. […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan is planning for Emperor Akihito to retire and be replaced by his eldest son on January 1, 2019, reports said Wednesday, as the country works on a legal framework for its first abdication in 200 years. Akihito, 83, expressed a desire in August to abdicate after nearly three decades on the Chrysanthemum Throne, citing his advancing age and weakening health. Major national newspapers — the Yomiuri, Asahi, Mainichi and Nikkei […]
by Usman SHARIFI Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Bombings across three Afghan cities including Kabul killed around 50 people and wounded 100 others Tuesday, in a day of carnage as Taliban insurgents escalate a deadly winter campaign of violence. At least 11 people died when explosives hidden in a sofa detonated inside the governor’s compound in southern Kandahar during a visit by the UAE ambassador to Afghanistan, who escaped the attack with injuries. […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Tens of thousands of mourners led by Iran’s supreme leader gathered at Tehran University early on Tuesday for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. State television showed people pouring on to the streets around the campus where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead the eulogies for Rafsanjani despite their “differences”. The heavyweight politician, who died on Sunday at the age of 82, will be buried inside the crypt of Ayatollah Ruhollah […]
(Eagle News) — Cybersecurity legend, John MacAfee has slammed allegations that Moscow was involved in hacking the US presidential election, insisting it was “not the Russians.”
SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korean defense ministry on Monday (January 9) called North Korea’s threat to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ‘provocative’ and said Pyongyang will face stronger sanctions if it is to launch it. North Korea declared on Sunday (January 8) it could test-launch the ICBM at any time from any location set by leader Kim Jong Un, saying a hostile U.S. policy was to blame for its arms development. Kim […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey’s parliament on Monday begins debating a controversial new draft constitution aimed at expanding the powers of the presidency under Recep Tayyip Erdogan that is expected to be put to a referendum by the spring. The new constitution, which would replace the basic law drawn up after Turkey’s 1980 military coup, seeks to set up for the first time a presidential system for ruling the […]
by Laurent Lozano Agence France Presse JERUSALEM, Israel (AFP) — A Palestinian rammed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers visiting a popular tourist spot in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four and wounding 17 others, authorities said. The driver was also killed at the location overlooking holy sites such as the Dome of the Rock and providing one of the most spectacular views of Jerusalem. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the […]
by Ali Noorani Agence France Presse TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pugnacious moderate who survived for decades despite challenging his own turbaned elite, died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. Rafsanjani, who was 82, was a pivotal figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979, and served as president from 1989 to 1997. “Despite the efforts of the doctors he died” at Shohadaa Hospital in northern […]
