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TAIPEI , Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan swore in Tsai Ing-wen as its first female president Friday as relations with rival China rapidly cool. Beijing-sceptic Tsai took the oath of office at the presidential palace in Taipei after winning a landslide victory in January signalling the end of an eight-year rapprochement with China. Public support for outgoing president Ma Ying-jeou plunged as voters felt he moved too close to Beijing, which still sees the island as […]
BEIJING ,China (AFP) — Beijing on Thursday rejected Pentagon accusations that a Chinese aircraft made an “unsafe” intercept of a spy plane in international air space, as tensions rise in the strategically vital South China Sea. Rivalry between China and the United States is mounting in the disputed waterway, an important shipping route thought to be home to vast energy deposits, and which Beijing claims almost in its entirety. The US Department of Defense (DoD) […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The Philippines must immediately return millions of dollars recovered from a high-profile hacking theft, Bangladesh’s ambassador said Thursday in Manila, but Filipino officials warned resolving the embarrassing case could take months. On February 5, unidentified hackers shifted $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account with the US Federal Reserve to a nondescript bank in Manila, from where it was funnelled into local casinos. Filipino authorities now say they have tracked […]
NEW DELHI , India (AFP) — India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party claimed victory in Assam elections Thursday, marking the first time the Hindu nationalist party has won control of a state in the country’s restive northeast. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a historic victory and promised to “fulfil the dreams and aspirations” of people in Assam, where ethnic and religious tensions and a myriad of rebel insurgencies have held back development. The win […]
Environmental and human rights groups gathered in front of the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo on Thursday (May 19), demanding that Japan stop investing in fossil fuels industries. The protest takes place a day before Group of Seven (G7) meetings of finance ministers and central bankers in Sendai from May 20-21. Fifteen demonstrators from Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam demanded that the G7 finance meeting will discuss stopping investment of future fossil fuel and nuclear projects, […]
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 69 people on board has vanished from radar, the airline said on its verified Twitter feed Thursday. A tweet on the airline’s official account said flight MS804 left Paris at 23:09 pm local time (2109 GMT), “heading to Cairo (and) has disappeared from radar”. Further tweets in Arabic said contact was lost at 02:45 Cairo time (0045 GMT), when the plane was just […]
Myanmar President Htin Kyaw and Philippines Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo arrived on Wednesday (May 18) in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) – Russia summit. According to Russian media the 10 leaders of Asian states are expected to discuss bilateral ties and economic cooperation. The summit’s official website says the aggregate turnover of commodities between Russia and ASEAN members in 2014 equalled $22.5 billion. The […]
TRIPOLI , Libya (AFP) — Thirty-two fighters loyal to Libya’s unity government were killed in clashes with Islamic State group jihadists and a car bombing Wednesday near the IS stronghold of Sirte, the military said. “The toll of today’s martyrs reached 32, and 50 others were wounded,” the operations room set up by the new Government of National Unity (GNA) said on its Facebook page and Twitter account late Wednesday, updating an earlier toll of […]
MOSCOW , Russia (AFP) — Russian special forces on Wednesday shot dead a man who had taken hostages at a Moscow bank, local media cited the police as saying. “A man wearing a balaclava entered the bank and threatened the employees with an object resembling a gun,” Interfax news agency quoted the police as saying. The man had requested 4.7 million rubles ($70,800) and 13,000 euros from a branch of the Moscow Credit Bank in […]
by Aaron TAM Dennis CHONG HONG KONG , China (AFP) — Hong Kong protesters angry at a visit by a top Beijing official shouted pro-democracy slogans Wednesday but were kept well away from a mission seen as an attempt to bridge the city’s growing political divide. The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official for four years. It comes as concerns grow that freedoms […]
BEIJING , China (AFP) — China’s Communist Party must ensure that philosophy and social science “unequivocally uphold” Marxist principles, President Xi Jinping told a high-level academic seminar, according to state media reports. Xi’s address to around 150 specialists was his latest move to exert greater authority over China’s cultural sphere, following two similar gatherings earlier this year on his vision for the news media and the Internet, and came as the ruling party also seeks […]
COLOMBO , Sri Lanka (AFP) — Rescue workers on Wednesday recovered the bodies of 16 villagers buried in landslides in Sri Lanka after three days of torrential rains. The disaster hit two small villages in Kegalle, a mountainous area north-east of Colombo, and take the overall death toll from flooding and landslides in recent days to 35. Sri Lanka’s government has deployed troops to evacuate people living on slopes or in flood-hit areas and the […]
