Category: WORLD NEWS

A leading Financial Times journalist has been given seven days to leave Hong Kong as a backlash mounted Monday against an unprecedented challenge to freedom of the press in the city.Victor Mallet, the FT’s Asia news editor and a British national, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city’s press club by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party. Chan’s party has since been banned as Beijing cracks down on any pro-independence sentiment in the semi-autonomous city.Last week it emerged Mallet’s…

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Britain’s Communities Secretary James Brokenshire embarked on a three-day visit to India on Thursday to promote business and technology ties of the country with the Midlands region of England.The UK Cabinet minister, who is also the British government’s Midlands Engine Champion , is set to bring together senior British and Indian officials and businesses to re-affirm a post-Brexit commitment to the Midlands-Maharashtra Technology Partnership.The Midlands and Maharashtra are thriving tech hubs in their own right, and by bringing these two great regions together we are strengthening our technological and economic…

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  More than 1,200 people are now known to have died in the quake-tsunami that smashed into Sulawesi, Indonesia said Tuesday, as police pledged to clamp down on looting by survivors taking advantage of the chaos.There were reports of officers firing warning shots and tear gas to ward off people ransacking shops in Palu, a coastal city ravaged by a 7.5-magnitude quake and the tsunami it spawned. Almost 200,000 people are in need of urgent help, the United Nations says, among them thousands of children. Survivors are battling thirst and hunger,…

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The woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were students at Yale has agreed to cooperate with an FBI investigation, her lawyer says, and President Donald Trump says the bureau has “free rein” to conduct the inquiry. Deborah Ramirez’s lawyer, John Clune, said Saturday that agents want to interview Ramirez, who has alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in the early 1980s. Two other women have accused the appeals court judge of sexual misconduct.Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court,…

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 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to open one of Europe’s largest mosques in Cologne on Saturday as he wraps up a controversial visit to Germany, with police deploying in force amid planned protests. The inauguration will be the closing event of his three-day state visit, aimed at repairing frayed ties with Berlin after two years of tensions.After talks with Angela Merkel on Friday, both leaders signalled their interest in a cautious rapprochement, but the German chancellor stressed that “deep differences” remained on civil rights and other issues. Some…

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The Kremlin said Friday it expects Britain to say what it knows about the identity of the two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy so that Russian officials can launch an investigation.President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the allegations made by British-based investigative group Bellingcat and others can’t serve as a basis for such an inquiry, adding that Russia expects Britain to produce official information. Britain charged Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with trying to kill ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with…

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 India is willing to take the lead in combating climate change as it poses significant developmental challenges, especially for developing countries, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has told a high-level UN meeting on the issue. India is the sixth largest producer of renewable energy, and fifth largest producer of solar energy in the world, Swaraj said at the high level meeting on climate change convened by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. For its part to fight climate change, it…

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The US Congress has passed a crucial bipartisan bill that seeks to impose a visa ban on Chinese officials who deny American citizens, government officials and journalists access to Tibet.The legislation, passed by a unanimous voice vote, comes amidst the Trump administration imposing massive trade import duties on China that has started impacting the Chinese economy.The ‘Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act’, which seeks to ensure that Americans are given the same access to Tibet that Chinese citizens have to the United States, was passed by the House of Representatives on…

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China said on Tuesday it was impossible to hold trade talks with the United States while Washington is imposing tariffs that are like “holding a knife to someone’s throat”.Speaking a day after Washington activated tariffs on 200 billion in Chinese goods, vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen said China is open to negotiations but that the two sides must treat each other “equally and with respect”. “Now that the US has adopted this type of large-scale trade restrictions, they’re holding a knife to someone’s throat. Under these circumstances, how can negotiations…

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India’s reluctance to hold talks with Pakistan will not stop Islamabad from closing doors on its efforts to promote peace in the region, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said, days after New Delhi cancelled the foreign minister-level meeting in New York.Addressing a news conference at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington on Sunday, Qureshi said India used incidents that happened in July to cancel peace talks that it agreed to in September.India on Friday cited the “brutal” killing of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the release…

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