Top diplomats gather in Bangkok for key Asia-Pacific talks

      No Comments on Top diplomats gather in Bangkok for key Asia-Pacific talks
JULY 30, 2019 1600 GMT | Bangkok, Thailand | Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and Thailand Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai shakes hand after a press conference at Foreign Ministry in Bangkok Tuesday, July 30, 2019. Top diplomats from the Asia-Pacific region started gathering to particiapte in annual ASEAN Leaders summit on Tuesday in the Thai capital to discuss issues of concern to the area, including security on the Korean peninsula and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. (AP Photo)

BANGKOK (AP) — Top diplomats from the Asia-Pacific region started gathering Tuesday in the Thai capital to discuss issues of concern to the area, including security on the Korean peninsula and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The meetings in Bangkok are hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, chaired this year by Thailand. Thai officials say there will be 27 meetings in all through Saturday, and 31 countries and alliances will participate.

Continue reading →

Russian police arrest more than 1,000 in Moscow protest

      No Comments on Russian police arrest more than 1,000 in Moscow protest
JULY 27, 2019 1430 GMT | Moscow, Russia | Police officers detain a man during an unsanctioned rally in the centre of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 27, 2019. Russian police have clashed with demonstrators and have arrested some hundreds in central Moscow during a protest demanding that opposition candidates be allowed to run for the Moscow city council. (AP Photo)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian police cracked down fiercely Saturday on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some people and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for Moscow city council. Police also stormed into a TV station broadcasting the protest.

Police wrestled with protesters around the mayor’s office, sometimes charging into the crowd with their batons raised. State news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti cited police as saying 1,074 were arrested over the course of the protests, which lasted more than seven hours.

Continue reading →

Australia hopes to sign trade deal with Boris Johnson

      No Comments on Australia hopes to sign trade deal with Boris Johnson
JULY 24, 2019 1130 GMT | London, England (Great Britain) | Newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson arrives at Conservative party HQ in London, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. Brexit-hard-liner Boris Johnson, one of Britain’s most famous and divisive politicians, won the race to lead the governing Conservative Party on Tuesday, and will become the country’s next prime minister in a little over 24 hours. (AP Photo)

LONDON (AP) — Boris Johnson officially becoming Britain’s new prime minister. Australia’s prime minister has congratulated Boris Johnson and hopes to ink one of Britain’s first bilateral trade deals after Brexit.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday he and Johnson are both looking forward to meeting at the Group of 7 summit in France next month and to “moving very quickly, when the opportunity presents” to reach a trade deal.

Continue reading →

Ukrainian leader’s party on track to win parliament majority

      No Comments on Ukrainian leader’s party on track to win parliament majority
JULY 21, 2019 11:45 GMT | Kiev, Ukraine | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, center, smiles while speaking to the media at his party’s headquarters after a parliamentary election in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, July 21, 2019. Zelenskiy’s party took the largest share of votes in the country’s snap parliamentary election, an exit poll showed Sunday. (AP Photo)

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The party of Ukraine’s president was on track Monday to win an absolute majority in parliament, a first in the country’s modern history that would hand President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a clear mandate for change.

Zelenskiy, a popular comedian and political novice who was elected in April, pushed for a snap election that was held Sunday. He argued that the allies of former President Petro Poroshenko who dominated parliament were hampering his reform agenda.

Continue reading →

Iran’s seizure of UK tanker in Gulf seen as escalation

      No Comments on Iran’s seizure of UK tanker in Gulf seen as escalation
JULY 19, 2019 1500 GMT | The Strait Of Hormuz | In this undated photo issued Friday July 19, 2019, by Stena Bulk, showing the British oil tanker Stena Impero at unknown location, which is believed to have been captured by Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced on their website on Friday, it has seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the latest provocation in a strategic waterway that has become a flashpoint in the tensions between Tehran and the West. (Stena Bulk via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker Friday and briefly detained a second vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, intensifying tensions in the strategic waterway that has become a flashpoint between Tehran and the West.

The seizing of the British tanker marked perhaps the most significant escalation since tensions between Iran and the West began rising in May. At that time, the U.S. announced it was dispatching an aircraft carrier and additional troops to the Middle East, citing unspecified threats posed by Iran.

Continue reading →

Congo soldiers, police to enforce Ebola emergency measures

      No Comments on Congo soldiers, police to enforce Ebola emergency measures
JULY 16, 2019 1400 GMT | Beni, DR Congo | In this photo taken on Saturday, July 13, 2019, a nurse vaccinates a child against Ebola in Beni, Congo DRC. The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak an international emergency after spreading to eastern Congo’s biggest city, Goma, this week. More than 1,600 people in eastern Congo have died as the virus has spread in areas too dangerous for health teams to access. (AP Photo)

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congolese soldiers and police will enforce hand-washing and fever checks now that the deadly Ebola outbreak has been declared an international health emergency , authorities said Thursday.

Soldiers and police will “force” people who resist taking the key steps to help contain the disease that has killed more than 1,600 people in the past year , said the outbreak response coordinator at Congo’s health ministry, Dr. Aruna Abedi.

Continue reading →

Islamic extremist attack on Somali hotel leaves 26 dead

      No Comments on Islamic extremist attack on Somali hotel leaves 26 dead
JULY 13, 2019 1400 GMT | Mogadishu, Somalia | A view of Asasey Hotel after an attack, in Kismayo , Somalia, Saturday. At least 10 people, including two journalists, were killed in an extremist attack Friday on a hotel in the port city of Kismayo, a Somali official said. The attack started with a suicide car bomb blast and then gunmen stormed into the hotel. (AP Photo)

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic extremists blew up the gate of a Somali hotel with a car bomb and took over the building for more than 14 hours, leaving 26 people dead before Somali forces who besieged the hotel overnight killed the attackers. The victims included a prominent Canadian-Somali journalist .

Three Kenyans, three Tanzanians, two Americans and a Briton also were among the dead, said Ahmed Madobe, the president of Jubbaland regional state which controls Kismayo. Fifty-six people, including two Chinese, were injured in the hotel attack, he told reporters.

Continue reading →

Britain sending destroyer to Gulf amid Iranian threats

      No Comments on Britain sending destroyer to Gulf amid Iranian threats
JULY 12, 2019 1500 GMT |The Strait Of Hormuz | In this image from file video provided by UK Ministry of Defence, British navy vessel HMS Montrose escorts another ship during a mission to remove chemical weapons from Syria at sea off coast of Cyprus in February 2014. The British Navy said it intercepted an attempt on Thursday by three Iranian paramilitary vessels to impede the passage of a British commercial vessel just days after Iran’s president warned of repercussions for the seizure of its own supertanker. A U.K. government statement said Iranian vessels only turned away after receiving “verbal warnings” from the HMS Montrose accompanying the commercial ship through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. (UK Ministry of Defence via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Friday demanded the British navy release an Iranian oil tanker seized last week off Gibraltar, accusing London of playing a “dangerous game” and threatening retribution, while London announced it was sending a destroyer to the Persian Gulf.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Ministry came the day after police in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on the southern tip of Spain, said they arrested the captain and chief officer of the supertanker suspected of breaching European Union sanctions by carrying a shipment of Iranian crude oil to Syria.

Continue reading →

Amazon, Microsoft wage war over the Pentagon’s ‘war cloud’

      No Comments on Amazon, Microsoft wage war over the Pentagon’s ‘war cloud’
JUNE 9, 2019 1400 GMT | FILE – In this June 19, 2017, file photo President Donald Trump, left, and Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, center, listen as Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, speaks during an American Technology Council roundtable in the State Dinning Room of the White House in Washington. Amazon and Microsoft are battling for a $10 billion opportunity to build the U.S. military its first “war cloud.” (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon and Microsoft are battling it out over a $10 billion opportunity to build the U.S. military its first “war cloud” computing system. But Amazon’s early hopes of a shock-and-awe victory may be slipping away.

Formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or JEDI, the military’s computing project would store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. The Defense Department hopes to award the winner-take-all contract as soon as August. Oracle and IBM were eliminated at an earlier round of the contract competition.

Continue reading →

Algeria’s divided democracy uprising seeks end to impasse

      No Comments on Algeria’s divided democracy uprising seeks end to impasse
JULY 6, 2019 1130 GMT | Algiers, Algeria | Prominent Algerians from various walks of life hold a conference during the national dialogue forum in Algiers, Algeria, Saturday. Opposition former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, Islamist party leaders, academics, journalists and other non-politicians are among those trying to craft a plan for presidential elections amid divisions within the country’s democracy uprising. (AP Photo)

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Prominent Algerians from various walks of life tried Saturday to craft a plan to pull their country out of political crisis and prepare for a presidential election — but faced pressure from authorities and divisions within the country’s democratic movement.

The participants in Saturday’s conference demanded the release of political prisoners and the departure of the current government, but praised the army for supporting the country’s uprising. The 600 participants at Saturday’s conference called for an independent body to supervise the election, whose date has yet to be fixed.

Continue reading →