Asia

Russia launches missile strikes in Syria: ministry

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia said Thursday it had bombed jihadist groups in Syria using cruise missiles launched by strategic bombers deployed from Russian territory. The defence ministry said its bombers on Thursday “launched cruise missiles against targets of the Islamic State terrorist group and Jabhat al-Nusra”, referring to Al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate, now known as Fateh al-Sham Front. The cruise missiles were launched from above the Mediterranean Sea, the statement said. The planes left […]

Continue Reading →

Japan’s Abe heads for New York for first talks with Trump

by Kyoko HASEGAWA TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s premier Shinzo Abe headed to New York Thursday for talks with Donald Trump, the first leader to meet with the president-elect whose campaign pledges provoked anxiety over US foreign policy. The brash billionaire is set to receive Abe at his Trump Tower headquarters on Thursday evening, in an encounter that will be closely watched for hints on long-standing security pacts that he has called into question. “I’m […]

Continue Reading →

IS tightens grip in Syria bastion Raqa as assault nears

by Rouba El Husseini BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Internet cafes closed down, travel bans and new checkpoints: residents say jihadists are trying to tighten their grip on power in Raqa as US-backed forces near the Islamic State group’s Syrian bastion. A Kurdish-Arab alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an operation to recapture the northern city on November 5. Since then, residents say IS has tried to seal its stronghold off from the outside world, […]

Continue Reading →

Assad says Trump a natural ally if he fights ‘terror’

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Syria’s Bashar al-Assad said in an interview aired on Tuesday that Donald Trump will be a “natural ally” if the US president-elect fulfils his pledge to fight “terrorists”. In his first reaction to Trump’s election victory last week, the Syrian president struck a note of caution and said he was unsure the American billionaire would be able to keep his word and step up the fight against jihadists. “We cannot tell […]

Continue Reading →

Peru increases security forces for APEC 2016

(CCTV) — Peru has increased the security guards to 11,500 who will serve around the Lima Jorge Chavez International Airport, summit venue and the accommodations for delegations during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2016 in Lima, the capital city of Peru. Four main events are scheduled to be held through this week, including the APEC Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting on Nov. 14-15, the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Nov. 17-18, the APEC CEO Summit on Nov. […]

Continue Reading →

Obama leaves US on final foreign trip – to Greece, Germany and Peru

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Barack Obama headed across the Atlantic late Monday on his final foreign trip while in office — a farewell tour of Europe and a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders to reassure concerned allies after Donald Trump’s election. Obama will first go to Greece, his first trip to the birthplace of democracy, where he will visit the Parthenon and hold talks with the country’s leaders. Security will be tight in […]

Continue Reading →

Japan street swallowed by giant hole reopens

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese city on Tuesday reopened a busy street that collapsed into a giant sinkhole, with the efforts of workers who toiled around the clock for a week drawing praise on social media. The gigantic sinkhole, measuring around 30 metres (98 feet) wide and 15 metres deep, appeared last Tuesday in a bustling business district in the southwestern city of Fukuoka, swallowing part of a five-lane street. The sinkhole, apparently triggered […]

Continue Reading →

Skygazers gawp at extra bright ‘supermoon’

by Sam Reeves Jakarta, Indonesia (AFP) — Skygazers took to high-rise buildings, observatories and beaches Monday to get a glimpse of the closest “supermoon” to Earth in almost seven decades, and snap dramatic pictures. The unusually big and bright moon appeared at its most impressive just as night fell over Asia, but astronomy enthusiasts will be able to see Earth’s satellite loom large anywhere in the world shortly after sunset, weather permitting. The phenomenon happens […]

Continue Reading →

China’s Xi, Trump agree to meet ‘at an early date’: CCTV

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and the US president-elect Donald Trump agreed in a telephone call Monday to meet “at an early date” to discuss the relationship between their two powers, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Monday. Xi told Trump — who frequently savaged China on the campaign trail and threatened to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese exports — that the world’s top two economies “need cooperation and there are a […]

Continue Reading →

First woman to fly China’s J-10 fighter killed in crash

BEIJING, China (AFP) — The first woman to fly China’s J-10 fighter plane was killed in a crash during an aerobatics training exercise, state-run media reported Monday. Yu Xu, 30, a member of the Chinese air force’s “August 1st” aerobatic display team, ejected from her aircraft during a training exercise in the northern province of Hebei at the weekend, the China Daily newspaper said. She hit the wing of another jet and was killed, it […]

Continue Reading →

Pro-Russian candidate set to win Moldova presidency

by Anatol Golea CHISINAU, Moldova (AFP) — Pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon was on the brink late Sunday of being declared winner of Moldova’s presidential runoff, viewed as an East-West choice in the impoverished ex-Soviet country. With 97 percent of ballots counted, Socialist Party chief Dodon had 55.3 percent of the votes, according to the electoral commission, with pro-European rival Maia Sandu on 44.7 percent. “We have won, everyone knows it,” Dodon told a late-night press […]

Continue Reading →

‘Million’-strong protest tells South Korea president to quit

  by Park Chan-Kyong / Hwang Sunghee SEOUL, South Korea | AFP |– Pressure on South Korea’s scandal-hit president to resign escalated sharply Saturday, with organisers claiming a million-strong turnout at one of the largest — and loudest — anti-government protests the country has ever witnessed. Chanting “Step down Park Geun-Hye!” enormous crowds, including high school students, Catholic nuns, labourers, farmers, retirees and young couples with babies, massed in the streets of central Seoul in […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 678 679 680 681 682 … 842