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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — World leaders kick off two days of G7 talks in Japan Thursday with the creaky global economy, terrorism, refugees, China’s controversial maritime claims, and a possible Brexit headlining their packed agenda. Heads of state and government from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and host Japan are meeting in Ise Shima, a mountainous, sparsely populated area about 300 kilometres (200 miles) southwest of Tokyo. The group, including US president […]
by Ben Dooley BEIJING, China (AFP) — The disputed rocks and reefs of the South China Sea are more than an ocean away from the landlocked African nation of Niger. But that has not stopped the strife-ridden, largely desert country of 17 million people adding its voice to a growing diplomatic chorus that Beijing says supports its rejection of an international tribunal hearing on the waters. Others apparently singing from the same hymn sheet include […]
by Huw GRIFFITH ISE-SHIMA, Japan(AFP) — World leaders began gathering in Japan Wednesday ahead of a Group of Seven summit set to be dominated by the lackluster global economy. The leaders were to make their way to Ise Shima, a mountainous and sparsely populated area 300 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Tokyo, whose mainly elderly residents rely chiefly on tourism and cultured pearls. Security was tight across the region, with thousands of extra police drafted […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Islamic State fighters are using civilians as human shields in the group’s de facto Syria capital Raqa, a Syrian activist said Tuesday, complicating things for a Kurdish-Arab alliance which has launched an offensive in the area. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a seven-month-old alliance between Kurdish and Arab forces, launched an offensive on Tuesday in areas north of Raqa. The operation is potentially one of the most serious ground efforts against IS […]
KABUL, Afghanistan(AFP) — The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday announced influential religious figure Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader after confirming supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s death in a US drone strike. “Haibatullah Akhundzada has been appointed as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) after a unanimous agreement in the shura (supreme council), and all the members of shura pledged allegiance to him,” the insurgents said in a statement. It added that Sirajuddin Haqqani, an […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Survivors of the American nuclear bombing of Hiroshima will be present when US President Barack Obama lays a wreath at ground zero this week, reports said Wednesday. Former United States prisoners of war captured by the Japanese will also attend the event, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, with US officials hoping their presence will remove any impression it is an apology. Obama will offer a floral tribute and make comments in front […]
by Ben Dooley BEIJING, China (AFP) — The disputed rocks and reefs of the South China Sea are more than an ocean away from the landlocked African nation of Niger. But that has not stopped the strife-ridden, largely desert country of 17 million people adding its voice to a growing diplomatic chorus that Beijing says supports its rejection of an international tribunal hearing on the waters. Others apparently singing from the same hymn sheet include […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP)– Plans by the Philippines’ controversial president-elect to give late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial triggered outrage on Tuesday, with martial law victims warning it would whitewash the strongman’s crimes. Rodrigo Duterte, who won this month’s elections in a landslide, announced on Monday he would allow Marcos to be buried at the Heroes’ Cemetery in Manila, in what would be another big win for the dictator’s family as it cements a remarkable […]
by Rim Haddad and Maher Al Mounes DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — More than 148 people were killed Monday in bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in northwestern Syria, the deadliest attacks to date in the regime’s coastal heartland. Seven near-simultaneous explosions targeted bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in the seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus, which until now had been relatively insulated from Syria’s five-year war. The attacks on strongholds of President […]
by Jérôme CARTILLIER Jerome TAYLOR HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — President Barack Obama urged communist Vietnam on Tuesday to abandon authoritarianism, saying basic human rights would not jeopardise its stability, after Hanoi barred several dissidents from meeting the US leader. In a sweeping speech, which harked back to the bloody war that defined both nations but also looked to the future, Obama insisted that “upholding rights is not a threat to stability”. Vietnam ruthlessly cracks down […]
JABLEH, SYRIA (Reuters) — Bomb blasts killed nearly 150 people and wounded at least 200 in Jableh and Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast on Monday (May 23) in the government-controlled territory that hosts Russian military bases, monitors and state media said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks in the cities that have up to now escaped the worst of the violence. It said it was targeting members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority. The […]
