DETROIT / AP Toyota plans to reveal a new version of America’s top-selling sedan next month at a time when US buyers are moving away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. The Japanese automaker said that it would show off the 2018 Camry at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January. It is likely to arrive in showrooms ...
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Fierce fighting in Syria’s Aleppo as army advances
Aleppo / AFP Fierce fighting shook east Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government forces pressed an assault that has seen them retake control of more than half of the former rebel stronghold. President Bashar al-Assad’s army is nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of Syria’s second city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012. Tens of ...
Read More »Air strikes kill 21 in Idlib
Beirut / AFP Air strikes on a village in the Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 21 civilians on Sunday, among them three children, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which earlier reported an initial toll of 14, said dozens more had been injured in the strikes on the village of Kafr Nabal. It ...
Read More »Aleppo gain no victory for Assad, Putin, says British FM
London / AP The Syrian regime’s advances in war-torn east Aleppo do not represent a “victory for Assad†or his Russian ally Vladimir Putin, British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday. “I really think that it’s a mistake to think whatever happens in Aleppo and other areas of rebel-held Syria could amount to a victory for Assad or for ...
Read More »First buses take Aleppo residents back to abandoned homes
Aleppo / AFP For much of the past four years, taking a bus between the two sides of Syria’s divided second city Aleppo meant an arduous, and sometimes dangerous, 10-hour road trip. But on Saturday, the trip took just half an hour, as buses travelled directly from the government-held west to recently recaptured neighbourhoods in the east. At least 10 ...
Read More »Afghanistan’s Ghani flays Pakistan for ‘undeclared war’
New Delhi / AFP Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan on Sunday of waging an “undeclared war†and said Taliban insurgents battling his government would not last a month without sanctuary in the neighbouring state. Ghani also urged Pakistan to spend around $500 million pledged in aid for Afghanistan to tackle extremism instead. “Despite our intense engagement with Pakistan ...
Read More »Abbas’s Fatah to announce results of internal vote
Ramallah / AFP Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party is to announce results of a vote for its ruling bodies Sunday, an election watched closely for clues of how the 81-year-old sees his succession. The election for both the party’s central committee and its parliament, known as the revolutionary council, is also expected to sideline Abbas opponents — a key ...
Read More »Trump’s ‘third offset strategy’ against Russia and China
The Pentagon has begun briefing key allies on plans for advanced weapons technologies aimed at offsetting Russian and Chinese military gains. But the next round of these discussions is on hold awaiting approval of the programs by the Trump administration. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said that he met in early November for “formal collaborations” with close foreign partners ...
Read More »In Brazil, state debt is a ticking time bomb
Brazil’s stand-in president Michel Temer hasn’t had it easy. In the six months he’s been in office — following the suspension and then impeachment of his predecessor Dilma Rousseff for budget crimes — Temer has lost his sixth minister to scandal, stood by while key allies led a shameless assault on Brazil’s anti-corruption efforts, and seen a wan economic ...
Read More »Germany, Japan must carry heavy Trump burden
Next week marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that triggered the U.S. entry into World War II. Now America’s two main antagonists in that war — Germany and Japan — will have to become more prominent defenders of the international order the U.S. built after its victory. President-elect Donald Trump — who adopted the prewar ...
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