April, 2016

• 9 April

  Taiwan confident about TPP membership

  Taipei / DPA Taiwan is confident that it will be accepted into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade bloc, a minister-designate who will be in charge of trade talks for the incoming government said yesterday. Shih Jun-ji, who has been named as a minister without portfolio of the incoming Cabinet, said the TPP membership will not be the only task ...

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• 9 April

  Japan to sell dietary supplements at low prices

  Tokyo / DPA Japan will launch a project under which the public and private sectors will join hands in selling dietary supplements and seasonings at low prices to developing countries in Africa and other areas, in a bid to improve nutrition in those countries, Japanese government sources said. The project is also expected to help Japanese food manufacturers start operations ...

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• 9 April

  N Korea ‘tests missile engine’

  

  Seoul / AFP North Korea said on Saturday it had successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that would “guarantee” an eventual nuclear strike on the US mainland. It was the latest in a series of claims by Pyongyang of significant breakthroughs in both its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. Outside experts have treated a ...

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• 9 April

  Taiwan president visits small island in show of sovereignty

  PENGJIA ISLET / AP President Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday visited a small island in the East China Sea to reassert Taiwan’s sovereignty and its role in the contested region, one of the key issues of his administration that ends next month. Ma’s visit on Saturday to Pengjia, roughly 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Taiwan proper, was his administration’s second ...

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• 9 April

  Somalia executes 2 Shabab fighters for killing journalist

  Mogadishu / AFP Two members of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabab extremist group were executed by firing squad on Saturday for the murder of a journalist killed by a car bomb last year, a judge said. Abdirisak Mohamed Barow et Hassan Nur Ali, who admitted being Shebab members during their trial, were shot on Saturday morning in Mogadishu, Abdulahi Hussein Mohamed, deputy ...

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• 9 April

  Coalition: We will commit to Yemen truce if Houthis abide UN resolution

  

  CAIRO / AP The Saudi-led coalition behind a year-long military campaign against Yemen’s Shiite rebels is ready to commit to a cease-fire as long as the rebels abide by a UN Security Council resolution that calls for their pullout from Yemeni cities, the alliance’s spokesman said. Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al Asiri told The Associated Press that the Yemeni rebels known ...

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• 9 April

  Iran: US damaging Mideast

  Tehran / AFP Iran’s defence minister poured scorn on Saturday on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s accusations that Tehran is “destabilising” the Middle East, countering that America should get out of the region. The broadside illustrated new tension between Iran and the United States, despite last year’s nuclear deal, with contrasting stances on the conflicts in Yemen and Syria ...

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• 9 April

  Syrian civilians return to ravaged town retaken from IS

  

  Al-Qaryatain / AFP Bassam Dabbas did not think he would survive to see his hometown of Al-Qaryatain retaken when IS group extremists seized control and captured him and hundreds of other Christians. Now, around eight months later, he stands in the charred remains of the Mar Elian church where he once used to pray, and struggles to digest that he ...

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• 9 April

  Brazil reels under nightmare

  

  Woe is Brazil. As the summer Olympics approach in August, Latin America’s largest country — with a population of 206 million and an economy that is 40 percent of the region’s total — is caught in a harsh slump and faces a political crisis that could result in its president being impeached. How did this happen? What does it mean? ...

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• 9 April

  ‘Brexit’ concerns are getting pronounced

  As time ticks for the UK’s June 23 referendum — to stay or exit the European Union — rival sides in Britain are making their strong cases, amid global concern over Brexit. While those campaigning to leave the EU say the country would be better off by focussing on new markets, those in favour of remaining in the bloc argue ...

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