South Korea said Wednesday it would build the world’s largest chip centre using $230 billion of private investment mostly from Samsung Electronics, as it seeks an edge in the global industry. The plan is part of the South Korean government’s drive to invest heavily in six key technologies, including chips, …
Read More »Honduras to establish diplomatic ties with China
Honduras will establish diplomatic relations with mainland China, President Xiomara Castro said Tuesday, a move that would result in the severing of longstanding official ties with Taiwan. Castro wrote on Twitter that she had instructed Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina “to undertake the opening of official relations with the People’s Republic …
Read More »Niger says it killed ’30 jihadists’, arrests 960
Jihadist-hit Niger last week killed about 30 members of the Boko Haram group and detained 960 followers, most of them women and children, who had fled neighbouring Nigeria, official sources said. State TV channel Tele Sahel said late Tuesday that on March 7 aerial surveillance spotted a “massive movement of …
Read More »Australia PM visits Fiji to discuss nuclear submarines, regional security
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet his Fiji counterpart in Suva on Wednesday to press Canberra’s message that its $245 billion nuclear powered submarine program does not violate its nuclear non-proliferation commitments. Australia is party to a nuclear-free zone treaty with 12 other South Pacific nations, including Fiji, in …
Read More »Putin receives Assad and they discuss different files
Russian President Vladimir Putin received Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who arrived, on Tuesday, in Moscow on an official visit. Putin welcomed Assad during the opening of the summit between them, and the latter said that the international changes that took place last year “required us to meet to set our …
Read More »European states decry Israeli bill allowing settlers’ return to evacuated areas
Britain and a dozen other EU member states condemn the Israeli parliament’s approval of a bill that will enable settlers to return to areas of the West Bank evacuated in 2005 as part of the so-called Disengagement Law. In a joint statement on Monday, the UK and the EU countries, …
Read More »US hate crimes hit record high – FBI
Statistics indicate a rise in cases motivated by prejudice against race, religion and sexual orientation. Hate crimes in the United States have continued to rise sharply and have now reached their highest level since records began, according to data from 2021 analyzed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which …
Read More »China announces naval drills with Russia and Iran
The ‘Security Bond-2023’ exercises in the Gulf of Oman seek to “inject positive energy” into the region, Beijing said Russia, China and Iran are holding a five-day maritime exercise, seeking to bolster their naval security, Beijing’s Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday. The ministry said the three-nation ‘Security Bond-2023’ wargames in …
Read More »Relations with US in bad state amid drone incident, the Kremlin says
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that relations with the United States were in a “lamentable state” and at their lowest level, after Washington accused Russia of downing one of its reconnaissance drones over the Black Sea. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters there had been no high-level contact with Washington …
Read More »AUKUS nuke submarines to create 20,000 jobs in Australia
The construction of nuclear submarines in Australia, under the trilateral defense pact with the United States and the United Kingdom, will generate 20,000 jobs in Australia in the next 30 years, said the local media on Monday. The details about the employment generation came in a government analysis cited by …
Read More »North Korea touts “nuclear war deterrence” with submarine cruise missile test amid U.S.-South Korea drills
The South Korean and U.S. militaries launched their biggest joint military exercises in years Monday, as North Korea said it tested submarine-launched cruise missiles in an apparent protest of the drills it views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea’s launches Sunday signal the country likely will conduct provocative weapons testing …
Read More »Sunak announces UK nuke plans
The UK prime minister says the modernization of the country’s “nuclear enterprise” will follow a new defense spending hike The UK government has earmarked an additional £5 billion ($6 billion) for bolstering the country’s military capabilities, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement published on Monday. Britain’s nuclear deterrent …
Read More »30 migrants missing, 17 rescued in shipwreck off Libya
Thirty people are missing and 17 were rescued in the central Mediterranean on Sunday after the boat in which they were travelling from Libya capsized in bad weather, Italy’s coastguard said. Alarm Phone, a charity that picks up calls from migrant vessels in distress, assumed the 30 people were dead …
Read More »Hundreds of migrants attempt to storm the US-Mexico border
Hundreds of people tried to storm the US-Mexico border on Sunday, after a rumor that migrants would be allowed to cross into the United States. Around noon, a large crowd of mainly Venezuelans began to gather near the entrance of a bridge connecting Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas …
Read More »Georgian PM tells Ukraine’s Zelenskyy not to meddle in his country
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili accused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of meddling in his country’s political situation by commenting on protests there last week, prompting an angry response from Kyiv. During the protests against a “foreign agents” law that critics said signaled an authoritarian shift in Georgia, Zelenskyy thanked protesters …
Read More »New Tunisian parliament begins its first session
Tunisia’s new parliament, elected in December and January in a vote with a turnout of 11 percent, sat for the first time on Monday in a session closed to all but state media and with the opposition coalition saying it would not recognize its legitimacy. Journalists were not allowed to …
Read More »Third US crypto bank collapses
Regulators shut down Signature Bank after its shares plunged in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure New York-based Signature Bank was shut down by US regulators on Sunday, becoming the third failure in the country’s banking industry in less than a week. According to a joint statement from the …
Read More »Xi Jinping to visit Moscow soon – Reuters
The Chinese leader will reportedly make a trip to the Russian capital as early as next week. Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning a trip to Moscow to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and could arrive as early as next week, Reuters reported on Monday, citing anonymous …
Read More »Raeisi: Iran turned threats, sanctions into opportunity to thrive
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says the Islamic Republic has turned the threats posed by unilateral sanctions into an opportunity to make significant progress. Raeisi made the remarks during a press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko after they met at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran on Monday. “Iran has …
Read More »Turkey’s earthquake toll tops 48,000 as government races to build container cities
The death toll in Turkey from last month’s major earthquakes has risen to 48,448, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Monday, as authorities rush to set up container cities to house for the longer-term those left homeless by the disaster. The combined death toll including those killed in Syria has …
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