Myanmar’s military has defended air strikes on a concert organised by an ethnic minority force as a justified response to attacks in the area, after opponents accused the junta of targeting civilians and conducting war crimes. The air strikes late on Sunday (Oct 23) in Kachin State in the northContinue Reading
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican said Saturday (Oct 22) it had renewed a secretive 2018 deal with Beijing allowing China to choose bishops on the mainland and then have Rome approve them. It said the deal had, as widely expected, been renewed for two years. “After appropriate consultation and assessment, theContinue Reading
ISLAMABAD: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, starts a two-day meeting in Paris on Thursday (Oct 20), and is expected to take up the removal of Pakistan from a list of countries under “increased monitoring”. In a meeting in June, the FATFContinue Reading
WASHINGTON: The US government is considering a plan to jointly produce weapons with Taiwan, a business lobby said on Wednesday (Oct 19), an initiative intended to speed up arms transfers to bolster Taipei’s deterrence against China. US presidents have approved more than US$20 billion in weapons sales to Taiwan sinceContinue Reading
“We would like to invite UN experts to visit Ukraine at the earliest possible opportunity to inspect recovered Iranian-origin UAVs in order to facilitate implementation of UN Security Council resolution 2231,” Ukraine’s ambassador to United Nations said in a letter distributed to Council members on Tuesday. The letter, dated OctContinue Reading
SEOUL: North Korea fired artillery shells off of its east and west coasts in Tuesday (Oct 18), the South Korean language military said. The N . fired about 95 shells into the sea off its west coast around 10pm local time and taken a further 150 rounds off its farContinue Reading
BEIJING: China’s foreign ministry, speaking after a Hong Kong protester was allegedly assaulted in the grounds of its consulate in the British city of Manchester on Sunday (Oct 16), said on Tuesday that “disturbing elements” had illegally entered the consulate. During a regular media briefing, ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin alsoContinue Reading
Police in Manchester said “due to our fears for the safety of the man, officers intervened and removed the victim from the consulate grounds”. The victim spent the night in hospital for treatment and an investigation is ongoing, police added in a statement. Alicia Kearns, a lawmaker in the rulingContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japan and Australia seek to reach a new security agreement with particular regard to China’s maritime expansion when the two countries’ prime ministers meet in Perth on Saturday (Oct 22), Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday. The two US allies have been fortifying security ties as a counterbalanceContinue Reading
KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign minister said on Saturday (Oct 15) he had summoned the US ambassador after President Joe Biden questioned the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear programme. In a speech on Thursday, Biden said Pakistan is “maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world” as it has “nuclear weapons withoutContinue Reading