Tokyo, Japan The US ambassador to Japan skipped a ceremony on Friday marking the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in protest at Israel not being invited. Rahm Emanuel instead attended a prayer meeting at a Tokyo temple with Israeli ambassador Gilad Cohen and Britain’s Julia Longbottom, who also boycotted the Nagasaki event. On...
Bangkok, Thailand To Lam, named Vietnam’s top leader on Saturday, is a powerful former public security minister who has been swiftly elevated by a corruption crackdown that swept away other contenders. He was confirmed as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam after the death of his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s most powerful leader in...
Jamundi, Colombia Weary of gunfire and bombs, Ana Munoz recently closed her shop in a hamlet near the city of Cali, which will host a UN biodiversity summit in October that has been threatened by Colombian guerrillas. Residents of the small town of Robles, some 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Cali, say violence has reached...
Sydney, Australia Australian children with potentially deadly peanut allergies will be offered life-saving treatment in a nationwide programme touted as a world first. Eligible babies will receive daily doses of peanut powder for two years to build up their tolerance, said officials announcing the initiative on Wednesday. Over time, the infants will be given increasing doses in...
Jerusalem, Undefined The Israeli military said Monday nine soldiers were being held in a case of suspected abuse of a Palestinian detainee at a facility holding Palestinians arrested from Gaza during the war. Israeli civilians protested outside a military base where the nine soldiers were being held, while several others — also in an attempt to show...
Manila, Philippines The Philippines said it carried out a resupply and rotation mission to troops on a South China Sea reef Saturday without “untoward incidents”, more than a month after a violent clash with Chinese forces in the area. It said the mission to Second Thomas Shoal was the first since Manila and Beijing reached a...
Washington, United States Two top leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, including its co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, were arrested on Thursday in Texas, the US Department of Justice said.“Ismael Zambada Garcia, or ‘El Mayo,’ cofounder of the Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other cofounder, were arrested today in El Paso, Texas,” Attorney...
Nouakchott, Mauritania At least 25 migrants have died and dozens are missing after their boat capsized off Mauritania, the country’s news agency AMI said Wednesday, in the latest in a string of migrant tragedies off the coast of West Africa. The Mauritanian coastguard “saved the lives of 103 illegal immigrants and recovered 25 bodies, following the...
Sydney, Australia Australia vowed Wednesday to hold Russia to account for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 ten years ago that killed nearly 300 people.On July 17, 2014 the Boeing 777 — en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur – was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people aboard...
Washington, United States It’s well known that as far as the climate crisis goes, time is of the essence. Now a study out Monday shows that the melting of the polar ice caps is causing our planet to spin more slowly, increasing the length of days at an “unprecedented” rate. The paper, published in Proceedings...