This photo shows soldiers sitting inside trucks parked on a road in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Feb 1, 2021, as the military announced it was taking control of the country for one year. (PHOTO / AP) A yearlong state of emergency was announced in Myanmar after the detention of senior government leaders on Monday. A declaration signed […]
Workers in Beijing load COVID-19 vaccines onto an aircraft on Jan 31, 2021 before it departs for Pakistan. The vaccines, developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group, known as Sinopharm, arrived in Islamabad on Feb 1, making Pakistan the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY) A […]
A Palestinian traveler waits for his papers to be checked at the almost empty departure hall of the border crossing with Jordan, in the city of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, on Jan 28, 2021. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) TOKYO / KABUL / MOSCOW / MELBOURNE / DHAKA / DUBAI / SINGAPORE / KUALA LUMPUR […]
This undated photo shows Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. (ANNA KENARE / AFP) Iran said the US has to remove key economic sanctions and return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal before any talks on resetting the Islamic Republic’s atomic program. Iran began enriching uranium to levels that exceed allowed limits after Donald […]
In this file photo taken on July 19, 2018, Myanmar's Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, salutes to pay his respects to Myanmar independence hero General Aung San and eight others assassinated in 1947, during a ceremony to mark the 71th anniversary of Martyrs' Day in Yangon. (YE AUNG […]
People view the Merlion statue in Singapore on Oct 14, 2020. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP) Singapore introduced a bill on Monday in parliament to formalize the use of contact tracing data in criminal investigations for serious offenses, after it was revealed that such information was already used in a murder case. The law will specify government […]
Australian Cardinal George Pell gets into a car after landing at Rome's Fiumicino airport on Sept 30, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP) MELBOURNE – A dozen Australian media firms have agreed to plead guilty for breaching a suppression order on reporting on the trial and conviction of former Vatican treasurer George Pell in 2018 for child […]
Investigators inspect the pieces of the plane debris recovered from the crash site of Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182, at the port in Jakarta on Jan 15, 2021. (Azwar Ipank / AFP) The Sriwijaya Air crash last month that killed 62 people has prompted fresh scrutiny of Indonesia's civil aviation sector, which is already reeling from […]
India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addresses a news conference in New Delhi on Oct 12, 2020. (PRAKASH SINGH / AFP) NEW DELHI – India proposed doubling healthcare spending in an annual budget unveiled on Monday and lifted caps on foreigners investing in its vast insurance market to help revive an economy that suffered its deepest recorded slump […]
A picture obtained by AFP from the Iranian news agency Tasnim on January 31, 2021, shows Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (right) meeting with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (center left) of the Taliban in Tehran. (TASNIM NEWS / AFP) DUBAI – Iran has hosted the political leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban during the past week, […]
In this photograph taken on Aug 13, 2015, US army soldiers walk as a NATO helicopter flies overhead at coalition force Forward Operating Base (FOB) Connelly in the Khogyani district in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) ISLAMABAD – International troops plan to stay in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline envisaged by […]
This photo taken on Nov 10, 2019 shows an Iranian flag flying at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. (ATTA KENARE / AFP) DUBAI / TEHRAN – Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday rejected any new negotiations or changes to the participants of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, after French President Emmanuel Macron said any new […]
Workers clear snow at Gyeongbokgung palace in central Seoul on Jan 28, 2021. (ED JONES / AFP) SYDNEY / NEW DELHI / TEHRAN / BAGHDAD / JERUSALEM / TOKYO / BEIRUT / ULAN BATOR / YANGON / WELLINGTON / RAMALLAH / SINGAPORE / SEOUL / MANILA / ANKARA / HANOI – South Korea will extend […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shakes hands with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev before a meeting with leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region's future at the Kremlin in Moscow on January 11, 2021. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP) MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on […]
In this March 29, 2002 file photo, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the alleged mastermind behind Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's kidnap-slaying, appears at a court in Karachi, Pakistan. (ZIA MAZHAR / AP) KARACHI, Pakistan – The family of US journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan in 2001, plans to appeal […]
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speak during a press conference about the charges laid over the 2019 White Island volcanic eruption, in Wellington on Nov 30, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP) New Zealand’s government welcomed a harsh assessment of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, saying it was willing to do more to achieve its […]
Bikers drive past a signboard welcoming the new government of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan 29, 2021. (THEIN ZAW / AP) YANGON – Myanmar’s military on Saturday said it would protect and abide by the constitution and act according to law, in a move that could allay concerns in the […]
Farmers sit on a blocked highway as they take part in a protest against the central government's recent agricultural reforms at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border in Ghazipur on Jan 30, 2021. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP) SINGHU, India – India blocked mobile internet services in several areas surrounding New Delhi on Saturday as protesting farmers […]
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk on a street in Tokyo, Japan, Jan 27, 2021. (KOJI SASAHARA / AP) BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / ISLAMABAD / RIYADH / TASHKENT / HANOI / SINGAPORE / BANGKOK / NEW DELHI / ULAANBAATAR / RAMALLAH / MANILA / JAKARTA – Three new […]
In this image made from UNTV video, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, president of Afghanistan, speaks in a pre-recorded message which was played during the UN General Assembly's special session to discuss the response to COVID-19 and the best path to recovery from the pandemic, Dec 3, 2020, at UN headquarters, in New York. (PHOTO / AP) […]
In this March 29, 2015 photo, then US Secretary of State John Kerry (1st left), then US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz (2nd left) and Robert Malley (3rd left), then member of the US National Security Council, meet with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (3rd right), Head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar […]
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart following their talks in Moscow on Jan 26, 2021. (Handout / RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / AFP) Tehran will not accept US demands that it reverse an acceleration of its nuclear programme before Washington lifts sanctions, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif […]
A man rides a bicycle past shophouses in Bentong in Malaysia's Pahang state on Jan 29, 2021. (MOHD RASFAN / AFP) SEOUL / TEHRAN / HANOI / JERUSALEM – Malaysia recorded 5,725 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its highest daily spike since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the Asian country, bringing its total tally […]
People walk at Shinagawa station in Tokyo on Jan 13, 2021 as the country expanded the Covid-19 coronavirus state of emergency to seven more regions and tightened border restrictions. (PHILIP FONG / AFP) TOKYO – The availability of jobs in 2020 marked the sharpest fall in 45 years in Japan, while the country's jobless rate […]
Police take up positions along a road in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Jan 29, 2021, ahead of the reopening of the parliament on Feb 1 following the November, 2020 election which Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide. (THET AUNG / AFP) YANGON – Myanmar members of parliament are […]
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a media briefing at the Pentagon, Jan 28, 2021, in Washington. (PHOTO / AP) WASHINGTON / KABUL – The Biden administration believes it is hard to see a way forward for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban unless the militant group meets its commitments under a 2020 deal, although […]
Then Kyrgyz presidential candidate Sadyr Zhaparov addresses supporters at Bishkek's Ala-Too Square on January 11, 2021, a day after the presidential election. (VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO / AFP) BISHKEK – Sadyr Zhaparov officially took office as the new Kyrgyz president on Thursday, becoming the sixth president of Kyrgyzstan. Zhaparov took the oath at an inauguration ceremony at […]
SEOUL – The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States should seek an initial denuclearization deal that includes a halt to DPRK's nuclear activity and a cut in its program in exchange for some sanctions relief, the Republic of Korea's (ROK) prime minister said on Thursday. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, in his […]
A health worker prepares to inoculate a private hospital staff with a COVID-19 vaccine in Hyderabad on Jan 28, 2021. (NOAH SEELAM / AFP) SYDNEY / ANKARA / JERUSALEM / NEW DELHI – India’s health minister on Thursday declared its COVID-19 epidemic contained as, with most of the country’s active patients concentrated in two states, […]
In this June 19, 2020 photo, Palestinians cross a bridge at Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem. (ODED BALILTY / AP) UNITED NATIONS-US President Joe Biden's administration announced on Tuesday it was restoring relations with the Palestinians and renewing aid to Palestinian refugees, a reversal of his predecessor Donald Trump's […]