March, 2017

• 7 March

  US moves parts of controversial missile defense to South Korea

  

    SEOUL / AP US missile launchers and other equipment needed to set up a controversial missile defense system have arrived in South Korea, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said on Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the ocean near Japan. The plans to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, within ...

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• 7 March

  EU court : States not obliged to grant visas to refugees

    BRUSSELS / AP Europe’s top court has ruled that European Union member states aren’t obliged to grant humanitarian visas to people who want to enter their territory to apply for asylum. The decision announced on Tuesday came after a Belgian court in October ordered the government to give humanitarian visas to a family in war-torn Syria. The European Court ...

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• 7 March

  Former EU president says bloc needs more ambition

    BRUSSELS / AP Former European Union President Herman van Rompuy says that Europe needs to become “much more ambitious” and that a common foreign policy for the 28-nation bloc is more necessary than ever. The EU is debating how to move forward as Britain prepares to leave and the bloc faces wider tensions. Van Rompuy said Tuesday that “even ...

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• 7 March

  Pakistan temporarily reopens its border with Afghanistan

    TORKHAM / AP Thousands of Afghans gathered at the Pakistani border to return home on Tuesday as Pakistan temporarily reopened two main crossings that had been closed last month after a wave of militant attacks. The Torkham and Chaman crossings were to remain open through on Wednesday for nationals from both countries with valid visas who want to return ...

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• 7 March

  Turkish, US, Russian military chiefs meet on Syria, Iraq

  

    BEIRUT/ AP The top generals from Turkey, the United States and Russia met on Tuesday to discuss developments in Syria and Iraq as Syrian government forces made fresh gains fighting the IS group. The surprise meeting between Turkey’s Gen. Hulusi Akar, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, ...

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• 7 March

  Trump security adviser faces questions in rare hearing

  

    WASHINGTON / AP The senior Army officer tapped by President Donald Trump to be his national security adviser faces questions from senators during a rare closed-door meeting amid intense scrutiny of the White House for alleged Trump campaign contacts with Russian officials. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s appearance before the Armed Services Committee, slated for Tuesday, is unusual because national ...

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• 7 March

  UN chief in Somalia focuses on famine

    MOGADISHU / AP United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Somalia’s new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in Mogadishu on Tuesday to start of what he calls an emergency visit to Somalia to highlight the country’s famine crisis. “People are dying. The world must act now to stop this,” the UN chief tweeted to announce his arrival in this Horn of ...

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• 7 March

  North Korea, Malaysia ban each other’s citizens from leaving

    KUALA LUMPUR / AP North Korea barred Malaysians from exiting its borders and Malaysia followed suit on Tuesday, turning ordinary citizens into pawns in the diplomatic battle surrounding the investigation into the bizarre death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother. The tit-for-tat directives come as relations between the two countries disintegrate over the poisoning of Kim ...

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• 7 March

  What IMF doesn’t know about Ukraine economy!

  

    The conflict between Ukraine and Russia entered a new phase recently. The separatist, pro-Russian “people’s republics” of eastern Ukraine announced they were taking over Ukrainian oligarchs’ assets on their territory. Few people outside Ukraine know that throughout the three-year hostilities, these factories and mines paid Ukrainian taxes, and their output was counted toward Ukraine’s gross domestic product. If the ...

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• 7 March

  Aussie banks’ high-risk X Factor nothing to sing about

  

    It’s that time of year when Australia’s bank executives go through their equivalent of a reality-TV audition. Like an episode of the X Factor, the parliamentary hearings into the four major banks are conducted in an atmosphere of high theater. Chief executives attempt to carry off pitch-perfect performances while the parliamentarians sat in judgment try to launch a few ...

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