KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Moscow on Tuesday (Aug 23) of a powerful response if Russian forces carry out attacks on or around Ukraine’s Independence Day. Zelenskyy has warned that Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, could try “something particularly ugly” in the run-up to Wednesday’s Independence Day, […]
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SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he will release a report on Tuesday from the solicitor general on his predecessor Scott Morrison being secretly sworn into five ministries during the Covid-19 pandemic. Albanese said it wasn’t suggested Morrison’s actions were illegal but they raised questions over political conventions and […]
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis said Sunday he was “concerned” by rising tensions between the state and the Catholic church in Nicaragua, two days after bishop and regime critic Rolando Alvarez was detained. Francis said he was following “closely with concern and sorrow” the situation in Nicaragua, amid a worsening standoff […]
China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin both plan to attend the Group of 20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesian president Joko Widodo says. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Mr Widodo, also known as Jokowi, told Bloomberg News in an interview. […]
UN Secretary General António Guterres has said he is “gravely concerned” about fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. He made the comments during a summit with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv. “Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” Mr Guterres […]
SAO PAULO: The race for Brazil’s October elections officially opens today with duelling campaign events by far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva highlighting the South American giant’s deep divides. Front-runners Bolsonaro and Lula, who have in reality been on the campaign trail for months, […]
SEOUL: The United States, South Korea and Japan participated in a ballistic missile defence exercise off Hawaii’s coast last week, the Pentagon said today, reviving combined drills with an eye on North Korea as well as China. It was the first time the three countries have held such drills since […]
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s ousted president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is expected to arrive in Thailand tomorrow, seeking temporary shelter in a second Southeast Asian country after fleeing his island nation last month amid mass protests, two sources said. Rajapaksa flew to Singapore on July 14, via the Maldives, following unprecedented unrest triggered […]
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s foreign minister said today that China was using the military drills it launched in protest against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit as an excuse to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island. Joseph Wu told a press conference in Taipei that Taiwan, which is claimed by […]
SEOUL : US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her South Korean counterpart vowed today to support efforts to maintain a strong deterrence against North Korea and achieve its denuclearisation. A joint statement was issued after Pelosi met South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo in Seoul, during which […]