BEIJING: China’s military said it carried out more exercises near Taiwan on Monday as a group of US lawmakers visited the Chinese-claimed island and met President Tsai Ing-wen, in what Beijing said was an infringement of its sovereignty. The five US lawmakers, led by Senator Ed Markey, arrived in Taipei on an unannounced visit late […]
COLOMBO: The security of India and Sri Lanka is enhanced by mutual understanding, mutual trust and cooperation, the Indian envoy here said on Monday, as India handed over a Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft to the Sri Lanka Navy to further boost bilateral defence partnership. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe was present at the handover ceremony. […]
BANGKOK: A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on more corruption charges on Monday and sentenced her to an additional six years in prison, a legal official said. The trial was held behind closed doors, with no access for media or the public, and her lawyers were forbidden […]
WASHINGTON: There is an “uneasy peace” in the Indo-Pacific due to recent Chinese actions, an influential US Congressman said on Saturday, observing that India and the United States working together with countries such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and other Indo-Pacific nations is indispensable for maintaining stability in the region. Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who […]
WASHINGTON: The United States will boost trade with Taiwan in response to China’s “provocative” behaviour, the White House said on Friday, as it insisted on the right of air and sea passage through the tense strait. A new trade plan will be unveiled within days, while US forces will transit the Taiwan Strait in the […]
DHAKA: United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet arrived in Bangladesh on Sunday for a four-day visit that will include a trip to squalid camps housing nearly a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. The exodus of Rohingya was sparked by a 2017 Myanmar army offensive against the mostly Muslim minority, with the UN’s highest court last […]
Jerusalem: A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in an attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said. Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and […]
Washington: China’s actions to “intimidate and coerce” Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei are fundamentally at odds with the goal of peace and stability, the White House has said, asserting that the US would take “calm and resolute” steps to support the self-ruled island. China’s ruling Communist party has long claimed […]
BANGKOK: The Chinese air force is sending fighter jets and bombers to Thailand for a joint exercise with the Thai military on Sunday. The training will include air support, strikes on ground targets and small- and large-scale troop deployment, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its website. China’s expanding military activities […]
New York: The 24-year-old man detained in connection with the stabbing of Mumbai-born controversial author Salman Rushdie was sympathetic to “Shia extremism” and the causes of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a media report. Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing “The Satanic Verses”, was stabbed on stage on Friday […]