TOKYO: A recent open day at a Japanese military base near Tokyo was a fun family outing but, despite the games and snacks, the army recruitment stand was bereft of visitors. “This is the reality. The festival is always packed but no one comes,” confessed one of the two soldiers […]
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STOCKHOLM: Sweden will send Ukraine a new military support package, worth 2.2 billion crowns (RM938 million) and consisting mainly of artillery ammunition, Defence Minister Pal Jonson said today. Jonson told a news conference the government had also formally tasked the armed forces with looking into whether Sweden would be able […]
MOSCOW: Russia today indicated it was moving swiftly towards revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty after President Vladimir Putin held out the possibility of resuming nuclear testing. Putin yesterday said Russia’s nuclear doctrine — which sets out the conditions under which he would press the nuclear […]
SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today he remained hopeful a referendum to recognise the country’s Indigenous people in the constitution would succeed, even as the measure lags in opinion polls less than a week from the vote. “I’m optimistic,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) this morning, […]
ROME: The Italian government is planning for a possible mass evacuation of tens of thousands of people who live around the Campi Flegrei super volcano near Naples, officials said yesterday. The new measures, which include a scheme to check on the strength of buildings in the area after months of […]
NEW DELHI: Scientists and government authorities were working on an early warning system for glacial floods at a Himalayan lake in northeast India when it broke its banks this week with deadly consequences. Mountainous Sikkim state plunged into chaos on Wednesday as floods spurred by heavy rain and an avalanche […]
SEOUL: North Korean state media on Friday (Oct 6) criticised France over the deployment of a patrol aircraft in waters near the peninsula, labelling it “outdated gunboat diplomacy”. The criticism comes after Japan’s foreign ministry announced earlier this week that France will conduct surveillance of illicit maritime activities including ship-to-ship […]
BRUSSELS: This year is on track to become the hottest year on record, with the global mean temperature to date this year 0.52 degrees Celsius higher than average, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said today. The global temperature for January-September is also 1.4°C higher than the preindustrial average […]
WASHINGTON: A 45-day stopgap measure passed by the US Congress to avert a government shutdown has left potential funding shortfalls for strategic Pacific island states, which analysts and former officials say makes the US allies economically vulnerable and possibly more receptive to Chinese approaches. The Biden administration had hoped to […]
JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo today emphasised the importance of military hardware modernisation but warned any spending should be done wisely as the state budget was limited. The archipelago nation of 270 million people, South-east Asia’s biggest economy, is seeking to modernise its military but has lagged its regional peers […]