North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday from an underwater launch platform, a US official told CNN, a day after Pyongyang and Washington agreed to resume nuclear talks. The US assessed that the missile was not fired from a submarine although the tested missile is designed to function as a ... Read More »
Hong Kong mops up, braces for fresh protests after National Day violence
Hong Kong awoke to widespread damage on Wednesday and calls for more protests following some of the most violent clashes in nearly four months of unrest, including the shooting of a teenage demonstrator by police. Anti-government protests turned violent early on Tuesday and continued into the night, with intense cat-and-mouse ... Read More »
Saudi Arabia: King Salman’s bodyguard shot dead in ‘personal dispute’ with friend, reports say
Death sparks tributes on social media to prominent security official A prominent bodyguard to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has been shot dead in a “personal dispute” with a friend, according to state media. Another Saudi national and a Filipino worker were also injured along with five members of the security forces when ... Read More »
Saudi crown prince warns of escalation with Iran, says he prefers political solution
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that oil prices could spike to “unimaginably high numbers” if the world does not come together to deter Iran, but said he would prefer a political solution to a military one. Speaking to the CBS program “60 Minutes,” ... Read More »
Japan promotes China as bigger threat than nuclear-armed North Korea
China’s growing military might has replaced North Korean belligerence as the main security threat to Japan, Tokyo’s annual defense review indicated on Thursday, despite signs that Pyongyang could have nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. The document’s security assessment on China comes after a section on Japan’s ally, the United States, the first ... Read More »
Trump-Ukraine scandal: what did the whistleblower say and how serious is it?
Democrats are going ahead with an impeachment inquiry, with the accusation Trump pressured a foreign government for dirt on an opponent Donald Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry and looks in trouble. Why? Democrats in the House of Representatives are moving forward with an impeachment inquiry to explore whether ... Read More »
UK tanker held in Iran leaves Bandar Abbas port: Refinitiv data
The British-flagged Stena Impero tanker, detained by Iran in July, has started moving and exited the Bandar Abbas port on Friday, according to Refinitiv ship-tracking data. The Stena Impero was detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations two weeks after Britain seized ... Read More »
The U.S. and Iran Are Still Worlds Apart on a Deal
At the UN, America and Iran talk at each other and refuse to meet. They came not to negotiate, but to demand. The United Nations General Assembly brought together, in the same city at least, the American and Iranian presidents—neither of whom as of today had made so much as ... Read More »
Imran Khan warns UN of potential nuclear war in Kashmir
Pakistan PM says he has tried to tell world leaders of growing risk of conflict with India over disputed region Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has said he has been trying to raise the alarm at the United Nations this week about the danger of a nuclear war breaking ... Read More »
Salameh Reassures Lebanese: Dollars Available, Customer Demand Met
Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh said on Monday that Lebanese banks were meeting customer demand for US dollars which can still be withdrawn from ATMs in most banks. “Dollars are available in Lebanon and the talk that we see in social media and sometimes in the media is ... Read More »