Category: WORLD NEWS

A Thai political party will obey a command from the king blocking the candidacy of a princess for prime minister, it said in a statement Saturday, in a dramatic reversal only a day after putting her forward for the position.”Thai Raksa Chart party complies with the royal command”, it said in a LINE message to reporters.The statement added that the party is ready to do its duty with respect to the “tradition and royal customs” under Thailand’s constitutional monarchy.The announcement effectively invalidates Princess Ubolratana’s unprecedented bid for prime minister in…

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The US has called for tougher sanctions against the Iranian regime following the reported second failed space launch by Tehran in defiance to the international community and the Security Council resolutions.Images released by the Colorado-based company DigitalGlobe have showed a rocket at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Iran’s Semnan province on Tuesday. Industry experts have suggested the launch failed just after liftoff.The US stated that Iran’s attempted launch is an ability to eventually build ballistic missiles to threaten America’s allies.”In defiance of the international community, the Iranian regime continues to…

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Cash-strapped Pakistan is set to receive an integrated Russian investment package of USD 14 billion for the country’s energy sector, including offshore gas pipeline and underground storage projects, a media report said Thursday. A Russian delegation headed by Gazprom Management Committee Deputy Chairman Vitaly A Markelov pledged to make the investment during a recent visit to Pakistan, the Express Tribune reported.The Russian companies would build a gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore to transport imported gas for meeting the needs of the Punjab province.Out of the USD14 billion, Russians would invest…

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US President Donald Trump will focus on key issues like immigration, national security and trade and call for unity in a hugely divided Congress in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday as he begins the second half of his first term in the White House.Contrary to his aggressive tweets and his frequent lashing out against the opposition Democratic leadership, Trump intends to portray a picture of national unity in resolving the challenges being faced by the country, officials familiar with preparations for the State of the Union…

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Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday said he is opposed to forming a national government only to expand the Cabinet of ministers, indicating that his rift with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was far from over. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe-led government on Friday sought the consent of the Speaker of Sri Lanka’s Parliament to form a ‘national government’, a move seen as a step to get a majority in the 225-member House. Addressing the nation at the 71st National Independence Day celebrations, Sirisena said the proposed national government is simply an…

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Buoyed by the defection of a top general, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido predicted Saturday the month of February would be “decisive” in determining the future of the nation as he and socialist leader Nicolas Maduro held competing mass rallies in the capital. National Assembly head Guaido, 35, had called Saturday’s protest to ramp up the pressure on Maduro to step down, ten days after stunning the world by declaring himself “interim president” of the oil-rich but crisis-wracked country. He received a boost before it began when an air force…

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President Donald Trump on Friday cheered the “great news” that Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn said it was going ahead with plans for a major factory in Wisconsin. The company announced that following a conversation between Trump and Foxconn chief Terry Gou it was “moving forward with our planned construction of a Gen 6 fab facility.” It was a reversal from news earlier this week that the company was scaling back its plans to open a factory and create manufacturing jobs.“Great news on Foxconn in Wisconsin after my conversation with Terry Gou!”…

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he will announce next week the site and date for the second summit he plans with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un around the end of February. Trump later said he would likely make the announcement during his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday.”They very much want the meeting,” Trump told reporters, and he asserted that his administration has made “tremendous progress” toward reining in the North’s nuclear ambitions.The president said that before he took office in January 2017, “it looked like we…

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The US President Donald Trump will make a significant announcement on the status of the fight against the ISIS in Syria during his State of the Union Address next week, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said. Trump is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union Address in a joint session of the US Congress on February 5. “The President will make a significant announcement, I think, in the State of the Union next week with respect to the status of the caliphate, the real estate, the grounds…

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 European leaders moved quickly Tuesday to reject an attempt by Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May to re-open talks on the Brexit divorce deal, as British lawmakers voted to demand changes.When May signed the withdrawal agreement in November, both she and the other 27 EU leaders hailed it as the only way to avoid Britain crashing out of the bloc on March 29 without a plan.But the embattled British premier failed to sell the agreement to her own parliament, which on Tuesday voted to send her back to demand that the…

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