Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
(Reuters) Barack Obama became the first incumbent U.S. president to visit Hiroshima on Friday, laying a wreath at the site of the world’s first atomic bombing in a gesture Tokyo and Washington hope will showcase their alliance and invigorate efforts to end nuclear arms. Even before it occurred, though, the visit stirred debate, with critics accusing both sides of having selective memories and pointing to paradoxes in policies relying on nuclear deterrence while calling […]
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) — Barack Obama arrived at Hiroshima’s atomic bomb park Friday on a historic first visit by a sitting US president. Obama was greeted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where he was due to lay a wreath at the cenotaph to victims of the 1945 nuclear strike. jca-hg/aph © 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said on Friday that Japan’s World War II violence is more worthy of remembrance than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, ahead of a historic visit by US President Barack Obama. The trip is the first visit to the city by a sitting American President since the world was first shown the potential key to its own destruction in a bombing that claimed the lives of 140,000 people. Chinese foreign minister […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China will turn contested islands in the South China Sea into pleasure-trip destinations for “patriotic” tourists, state-media said Friday, in a move likely to further stoke regional tensions. China claims almost all of the strategically vital South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbors and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes. But the Asian giant hopes to turn the area around Woody Island […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) –About 300 passengers and crew members were evacuated from a Korean Air Boeing 777 at Tokyo’s Haneda airport after one of the engines caught fire, officials said Friday. TV footage from the airport showed the plane, which was bound for South Korea’s Gimpo International, surrounded by red fire trucks and with the area around its left wing doused in foam. The plane’s inflatable emergency evacuation slides had all been deployed. […]
ISE-SHIMA, Japan (AFP) — From the country that gave the world “Bieber Fever”, Canada’s “other Justin” — heartthrob Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — has made quite a splash on his visit to Japan for the G7 summit. Japanese media and his growing legions of female fans have been swooning over the 44-year-old PM, who celebrated his 11th wedding anniversary on Wednesday by taking the day off to spend it with wife Sophie. Social media lit […]
by Shingo Ito HIROSHIMA, United States (AFP) — President Barack Obama is set make history on Friday as he travels to Hiroshima — becoming the first sitting US leader to visit the site that ushered in the destructive power of the nuclear age. The trip comes more than seven decades after the world was first shown the potential keys to its own destruction when an American plane, the Enola Gay, dropped its payload, dubbed “Little […]
ISE-SHIMA, Japan (AFP) — The leaders of the Group of Seven advanced democracies on Friday said they are worried over rising maritime tensions in Asia and called for disputes to be resolved without resort to force. “We are concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas, and emphasise the fundamental importance of peaceful management and settlement of disputes,” they said in a statement at the end of a two-day summit, though refrained from […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese state media warned the Group of Seven nations on Thursday not to “meddle” in South China Sea disputes, as leaders from the bloc gathered for talks in Japan. The commentary came as European Council President Donald Tusk said on the sidelines of a summit in Ise-Shima that the bloc should take a “clear and tough stance” on China’s contested maritime claims. Beijing has angered several Southeast Asian neighbors by claiming […]
ISE-SHIMA, Japan (AFP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will Thursday take fellow world leaders on a tour of Ise Shrine, an ancient spot that sits at the heart of Japan’s native Shinto religion. The trip is part of the cultural program on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit, a two-day gathering that kicks off later Thursday. Here are some things to know about Ise Shrine. It’s old. But not really The shrine […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A group representing Korean victims of the US atomic bombings of Japan protested Thursday that their suffering was being neglected ahead of President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima. The Association of Korean Atomic Bomb Victims estimates that anywhere between 40,000 and 70,000 Koreans died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki when atomic bombs laid waste to the two cities in August 1945. The Korean peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule at […]
by Anuj CHOPRA KABUL, Afghanistan(AFP) — The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday announced Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader, elevating a low-profile religious figure in a swift power transition after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike. The surprise announcement coincided with a Taliban suicide bombing that targeted court employees near Kabul, killing 11 people in an assault that illustrated the potency of the insurgency despite the change of leadership. Akhundzada, […]
