Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi speaks during a press conference at the foreign ministry in Kabul on Sept 14, 2021. (HOSHANG HASHIMI / AFP) A US delegation held talks with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend to discuss wide-ranging issues including security, terrorism and human rights in the first official meeting […]
An environmental activist from Extinction Rebellion holds up a placard during a protest against the Adani coal mine project, outside the GHD engineering office building in Sydney on Aug 13, 2019. (SAEED KHAN / AFP) MELBOURNE – Australia’s energy minister on Monday rejected a call from the lobby group for the country’s biggest companies to […]
Election officials count ballots as they close a polling station at the end of voting in parliamentary elections, in Baghdad, Iraq on Oct 10, 2021. (HADI MIZBAN / AP) BAGHDAD – Initial turnout in Iraq's parliamentary election on Sunday was 41 percent, the Independent High Electoral Commission said. Electoral commission officials had indicated earlier that […]
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his first policy speech during an extraordinary Diet session at the lower house of parliament on Oct 8, 2021 in Tokyo. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP) TOKYO – Japan's new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, makes his debut in parliamentary questioning on Monday, the first chance for the opposition to probe […]
This picture taken on October 10, 2021 and released by the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency on Oct 11 shows DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un giving a speech to mark the 76th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. (STR / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP) SEOUL – Democratic People’s Republic of […]
Security personnel prepare to remove a vehicle at the site of a deadly car bomb attack that targeted two senior government officials, who survived, security officials said, in the port city of Aden, Yemen on Oct 10, 2021. (WAEL QUBADY / AP) ADEN – A car bomb targeting the governor's convoy shook Yemen's southern port […]
Gyeonggi governor Lee Jae-myung, South Korea's ruling Democratic Party contender for next year's presidential election, speaks during the final race to choose their presidential election candidate in Seoul on Oct 10, 2021. (KIM HONG-JI / POOL / AFP) SEOUL – Lee Jae-myung became the presidential candidate for South Korea's ruling party on Sunday, hoping to overcome […]
An Iraqi elections team member registers voters before casting their ballots at a polling station during early parliamentary elections in the southern city of Nasiriyah in Iraq's Dhi Qar province, on October 10, 2021. (ASAAD NIAZI / AFP) BAGHDAD – Millions of Iraqis are heading Sunday to polling stations across the country to elect the […]
People wait to receive COVID-19 vaccines in Klang, Selongor, Malaysia, Sept 12, 2021. (CHONG VOON CHUNG / XINHUA) MELBOURNE / JERUSALEM / WELLINGTON – Malaysia reached its target of fully vaccinating 90 percent of the adult population, a milestone that allows the government to end a months-long ban on interstate travel. Fully inoculated people will […]
This undated picture shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY) DAMASCUS – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday stressed the need to end the presence of "illegal foreign powers" on Syrian soil, referring to the US and Turkish forces, according to the state news agency SANA. Assad made the remarks when meeting with […]
Sofia cradles her 2-month-old baby, Abdul, as he undergoes treatment at the malnutrition ward of the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Oct 5, 2021. Health workers in the hospital dashed back and forth caring for gasping premature newborns and others suffering from severe malnutrition and other diseases. (FELIPE DANA / AP) ISLAMABAD […]
A Taliban fighter leaves a building inside a deserted US military camp at the airport in Kabul on Sept 14, 2021. (KARIM SAHIB / AFP) WASHINGTON – A US delegation will travel to Doha, Qatar, over the weekend to meet with senior Afghan Taliban representatives, the State Department said on Friday. "This meeting is a […]
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks to a health worker at a COVID-19 test site set up at a public housing estate in the Ang Mo Kio area of Singapore on July 25, 2021. (BLOOMBERG) Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wants to push on with the strategy of living with COVID-19 without being […]
People view the damage inside of a mosque following a bombing in Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan, Oct 8, 2021. (ABDULLAH SAHIL / AP) KABUL – A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, killing 46 people and wounding more than 140, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported. Earlier, a UN […]
People at a cross junction in Shibuya, Japan, Oct 1, 2021. (KIICHIRO SATO / AP) SINGAPORE / JERUSALEM / SYDNEY / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / NEW DELHI / TEHRAN / TOKYO / BEIRUT / ULAN BATOR / WELLINGTON / ISLAMABAD / SEOUL / MANILA / HANOI / JAKARTA – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said […]
Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa walks after filing his certificate of candidacy for next year's presidential election with the Commission on Elections in Manila, Philippines, on Oct 8, 2021. (AARON FAVILA / AP) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s party fielded Senator Ronald dela Rosa as a surprise candidate for the nation’s top post in the 2022 […]
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his first policy speech during an extraordinary Diet session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, Oct 8, 2021. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP) TOKYO – Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will call for a sharp rise in defense spending in its election manifesto to be unveiled […]
France's ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thebault speaks on his mobile phone while working in Biarritz, south-west France on Aug 25, 2019. (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP) CANBERRA – Australia's assertion that it could not inform France of its top-secret talks with the United States and Britain to build nuclear submarines is "childish", the French envoy to […]
Passengers wait at the Shinagawa station as train services are suspended in Tokyo on early Oct 8, 2021 after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook the Japanese capital and surrounding areas. (STR / JIJI PRESS / AFP) TOKYO – A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 jolted Tokyo and surrounding areas late on Thursday, stopping […]
A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency on August 26, 2021 shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (right) talking with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian ahead of a meeting with Pakistan's Foreign Minister. (IRANIAN PRESIDENCY / AFP) DUBAI – Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia have gone a "good distance", Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian […]
A medical worker prepares a vial of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at Clalit Health Service's center in the Cinema City complex in Jerusalem, Sept 22, 2021. (MAYA ALLERUZZO / AP) As a global debate continues over the need for COVID-19 booster shots, many nations in the Middle East seem to have made up their minds […]
A medic from Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service administers a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at a school in Holon, Israel on Sept 3, 2021. (TSAFRIR ABAYOV / AP) SEOUL / MOSCOW / KUALA LUMPUR / SYDNEY / NEW DELHI / JAKARTA / TEHRAN / ULAN BATOR / YANGON / KATHMANDU / WELLINGTON / ISLAMABAD / SINGAPORE […]
(From left to right) Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attend a news conference at the State Department in Washington, DC on Sept 16, 2021. (ANDREW HARNIK / POOL / AFP) CANBERRA – Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday the return of […]
This Aug 17, 2021 photo, shows Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaking at a press conference in Canberra. (ROHAN THOMSON / AFP) SYDNEY – Australia's prime minister lambasted social media on Thursday as "a coward's palace", saying platforms should be treated as publishers when defamatory comments by unidentified people are posted, pouring fuel on a […]
Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, speaks during a news conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan on Oct 4, 2021. (TORU HANAI / POOL PHOTO VIA AP) TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday said he will fulfill his pledge to provide a "large-scale" package to stimulate the economy hit […]
In this Nov 8, 2019 photo, Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo (right) attends a press conference with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino in Manila. (MARIA TAN / AFP) MANILA – Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo said on Thursday she will run for the presidency in a 2022 election. Should she win, Leni Robredo would be […]
Local residents gather outside their houses following a severe earthquake is felt the area, in Quetta, Pakistan, Pakistan. (ARSHAD BUTT / AP) QUETTA / ISLAMABAD – At least 20 people died and over 300 others were injured after an earthquake of 5.9 magnitude hit Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province early Thursday morning, provincial Home Minister Mir […]
In this June 19, 2008 photo, Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his wife Princess Haya bint Al Hussein are pictured at Ascot racecourse during 'Ladies Day' at Royal Ascot, in southern England. (PHOTO / STR / AFP) LONDON – Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ordered the phones of his […]
A health worker inoculates a man with a dose of the Johnson and Johnson CPOVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on July 14, 2021. (NOORULLAH SHIRZADA / AFP) NEW DELHI / SEOUL / SYDNEY / NEW DELHI / TEHRAN / JERUSALEM / BISHKEK / VIENTIANE / KUALA LUMPUR / ULAN BATOR / WELLINGTON […]
TEHRAN/MOSCOW – A senior Iranian lawmaker on Wednesday announced that the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal will resume soon, Tasnim news agency reported. Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, spokesperson for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament, said that "negotiations will begin soon and in the […]