WASHINGTON — The United States military said that it had carried out an airstrike against a meeting of Qaeda militants on Thursday in Syria and that a number of the extremists had been killed. The American military statement came as Syria activists reported that a mosque had been bombed and that scores of innocent civilians had been killed and wounded. A spokesman for the United States Central […]
SEOUL Chinese authorities have arrested two South Korean Christian pastors, accusing them of helping to smuggle North Korean defectors out of China, the Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday. The arrests come amid tension between South Korea and China over the latter’s vociferous objections to the deployment in South Korea of a U.S. missile defense system that China says will destabilise the balance of security in the […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. and South Korean military chiefs warned on Tuesday that North Korea could “conduct provocative actions” in response to large-scale joint drills between the two countries, as China’s premier also said tensions could lead to conflict. “The chairmen recognized the possibility that North Korea could conduct provocative actions during the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise, or in connection with North Korean major political events in April,” […]
SEOUL North Korea warned the United States on Tuesday of “merciless” attacks if an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson, which is joining South Korean forces for exercises, infringes on its sovereignty or dignity. North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbours with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the U.S. strike group was […]
SEOUL Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye faced criticism on Monday over a defiant vow that the truth of her impeachment would be revealed, with the main opposition party urging prosecutors to investigate her quickly. The Constitutional Court dismissed Park from office on Friday when it upheld a parliamentary impeachment vote over an influence-peddling scandal that has shaken the political and business elite. Park has denied any […]
ABU DHABI // From exploring the ocean’s depths and deep space to supporting emergency personnel in natural disasters, researchers believe robots are the key to solving many of the world’s most difficult challenges. Unmanned systems have the potential to transform military operations, the way first responders fight fires and how researchers explore the ocean depths, experts have said. The world will also witness greater human-machine collaboration, artificial […]
HODEIDAH At least 22 civilians were killed on Friday and dozens wounded when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a market in western Yemen causing a fire to break out, a local official said. Missiles launched by fighter jets of the Arab alliance hit a market selling the mild narcotic leaf qat, which is popular among Yemenis, near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha. Rescue workers […]
SEOUL Opponents of South Korea’s ousted leader, Park Geun-hye, demanded on Saturday that she be arrested a day after she was thrown out of office over a corruption scandal involving the country’s conglomerates. Park’s critics said they would rally in central Seoul, where they have been gathering every weekend for months, while the former president’s conservative supporters also planned protests, raising the risk of confrontation. The Constitutional […]
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. military said on Friday it plans to forge ahead with building the THAAD missile defence system in South Korea, separating the issue from a political crisis in Seoul that saw President Park Geun-hye’s removal from office on Friday. The United States started deploying the first elements of its advanced anti-missile defence system in South Korea on […]
D.C. bureau chiefs from major news organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the wire services, Fox News and CNN sent a letter to the State Department earlier this week protesting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision to ditch reporters on his upcoming trip to Asia. “We were deeply concerned to hear that Secretary Tillerson plans to travel to Beijing, Seoul […]
Montclair is a New Jersey bastion of the Trump-doubting privileged class that went back to the future Thursday with an imperiled species: a new broadsheet newspaper. But, if Trump could wind up president, who says a broadsheet Lazarus can’t rise from the media ashes and make it somewhere? The weekly Montclair Local debuted in the 36,000-person bedroom community of New York City rife with ink-stained and digitally […]
SEOUL South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye on Friday, removing her from office over a graft scandal involving big business that has gripped the country for months. Park becomes South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office. A presidential election will be held in 60 days, according to the constitution. “We remove Park Geun-hye from office,” Lee Jung-mi, acting […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department held out the possibility on Thursday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might take reporters with him to Asia after it initially broke with decades of tradition by telling the media he would not. “We are still working out the logistics for this trip, so (we) cannot yet speak definitively as to whether we’ll be able to accommodate any press on the […]
Via Damiel Lang of SHTFPlan.com, Since the end of World War Two, the United States has established itself on every continent with hundreds of military bases, and has sent troops to foreign nations (both covertly and overtly) on so many occasions that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. And this doesn’t even take into account the nations that our government has quietly and successfully pressured […]
Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday: WIRETAPPING Two senior senators ask the FBI and Justice Department for any information they have on Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that predecessor Barack Obama wiretapped him during the presidential campaign. HEALTHCARE The top U.S. doctors’ organization and several hospital groups come out strongly against a Republican plan backed by Trump to overhaul America’s healthcare system as […]
For many, South Korea’s decision to host a missile shield to defend against its hostile northern neighbour should not be controversial. In the past month alone, North Korea has fired six ballistic missiles, with a barrage of four successful launches on Monday trumpeted by Pyongyang as being a drill targeting US bases in Japan. But in a region riven by simmering historical grievances, Seoul’s move has sparked a bitter […]
Photo A convoy of United States armored vehicles in Manbij, northern Syria. A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that the deployment was intended as a “visible sign of deterrence and reassurance” to dissuade Turkish-backed militias and other groups from attacking the area. Credit Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The top American military officer met Tuesday with his Russian and Turkish counterparts to discuss how to […]
By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo | TOKYO TOKYO Rattled by North Korean military advances, influential Japanese lawmakers are pushing harder for Japan to develop the ability to strike preemptively at the missile facilities of its nuclear-armed neighbour. Japan has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring bombers or weapons such as cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries, relying instead […]
The Chinese government has long resented accusations that, as US President Donald Trump put it in a tweet in early January, it “won’t help with North Korea”. On Wednesday China’s foreign minister used a colourful metaphor to describe his government’s position on the crisis-prone Korean peninsula, likening Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington to “runaway trains” that Beijing was doing its best to stop. The press conference by Wang […]
By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Faced with a growing test of resolve for a new U.S. president who vowed while campaigning to get tough on North Korea, Donald Trump’s aides are pressing to complete a strategy review on how to counter Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear threats. Pyongyang’s latest missile launches and the assassination in Malaysia of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged […]
UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches and expressed concern over the country’s increasingly destabilising behaviour and defiance of the 15-member body. Pyongyang fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan’s northwest coast on Monday, angering South Korea and Japan, days after it promised retaliation over U.S.-South Korea military drills it sees as preparation for war. The […]
Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday: HEALTHCARE Trump endorses a plan by Republican lawmakers to replace the Obamacare healthcare law but influential conservative groups come out strongly against it, complicating the proposal’s prospects for passage in Congress. Shares of large U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are selling off after Trump says he is working on a system to reduce prices in […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. When it comes to Russian hacking and other subterfuge, the obvious and unavoidable media and political talk involves either the Clinton presidential campaign or the Trump White House. As Bloomberg’s Michael Riley discloses, there’s more for the press to obsess […]
By Rozanna Latiff and Ju-min Park | KUALA LUMPUR/SEOUL KUALA LUMPUR/SEOUL North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, sparking tit-for-tat action by Malaysia, as police investigating the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur sought to question three men hiding in the North Korean embassy. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of “effectively holding our citizens hostage” and scheduled an emergency […]
