Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
As Barack Obama embarks on what is likely to be his final trip to Asia as president, attention is returning to what is known as the U.S. "pivot" to the continent launched during his first term. The policy adjustment aimed to reinforce alliances and shift military assets to a region that has grown in importance alongside the rise of China as a global economic and political power.
Islam Karimov, who crushed all opposition in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan as its only president in a quarter-century of independence from the Soviet Union, has died of a stroke at age 78, the Uzbek government announced Friday. His younger daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, said in a social media post Monday that he had been hospitalized in the capital of Tashkent after a brain hemorrhage Aug. 27. On Friday, she posted again, saying: "He is gone."
China's hosting of the Group of 20 industrialized nations summit highlights its role as the world's second-largest economy and a growing force in global diplomacy, but also comes amid sharpening frictions over its territorial claims in the South China Sea, disputes with fellow regional powers South Korea and Japan and criticisms over a sweeping crackdown on dissent at home. China hopes to avoid discussion of such issues while using the summit in the eastern city of Hangzhou to burnish its image as a responsible major nation whose support is essential to solving the world's ills.
President Barack Obama is embarking on a final bout of delicate overseas diplomacy before his successor is elected in November, arriving in Asia on Saturday for meetings with some of his most nettlesome counterparts. Obama used his first appearance in China to herald newly ratified climate agreements, an area of cooperation with China amid persistent differences.
In another round of high-level purges in North Korea, Kim Jong Un has allegedly offed two senior officials by use of anti-aircraft guns, reports the Korea JoongAng Daily. The young dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly executed two high-ranking officials with an anti-aircraft gun earlier this month, a source inside the reclusive North Korea told the JoongAng Ilbo.
Hong Kong stocks rose as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of China Ltd. gained before releasing earnings. China Southern Airlines Co.
South Korea and the U.S. have agreed to share information about submarines in North Korean waters after the North successfully launched a ballistic missile from a submarine last week. A meeting of Navy brass from the two sides "discussed ways to analyze and share information about the maritime environment in the sphere of operations in waters around the Korean Peninsula," a military source said on Sunday.
A top Clinton Foundation official defended its "lifesaving work" Sunday amid new criticism and pay-to-play accusations over Hillary Clinton's connections to its top donors. "None of the Clintons have ever taken a salary and don't profit from the foundation," Craig Minassian, the Clinton Foundation's chief communications officer, told MSNBC.
China and the U.S. recently announced plans to send rovers to Mars in 2020, signaling the start of a new space race. China's plans to land a solar-powered rover on Mars in July or August of 2020 while NASA intends to launch its own $2.1 billion dollar nuclear isotope powered Mars 2020 rover the same month.
In July, the US agreed to equip South Korea with America's most advanced missile defense system in order to counter North Korean threats. China, Pyongyang's closest ally, has said that since the bilateral decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery the North's missile tests have expanded and are poised to increase.
Passengers watch a TV screen broadcasting a news report on North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile fired from North Korea's east coast port of Sinpo, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, August 24, 2016 The UN Security Council late on Friday condemned a series of missile launches by North Korea after failing to do so earlier this month when China had wanted a statement also to oppose the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea. North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday which flew about 500 km in the direction of Japan, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated nation in defiance of UN resolutions.
Some defense analysts have warned the U.S. Navy is not capable of dealing with all the ocean-borne threats in our modern world. This week, North Korea provided a reminder of how the naval power situation is changing.
An American soldier was killed Tuesday during an anti-Taliban operation near the capital of the southern Afghan province of Helmand, US-led NATO forces said. The news comes after NATO on Monday announced the deployment of around 100 US troops to Lashkar Gah to help head off a potential Taliban takeover as fighting intensifies.
It's always a shame to see old friends and allies have a falling out, but we may have found the exception to the rule. As the hopes of ISIS to establish their sprawling caliphate continue to slip away, some of their pals seem to be abandoning them.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe walks past Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko during a ceremony marking the 70st anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender in World War II at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan August 15, 2015. [Photo/Agencies] Aug 6 and 9 are days of mourning for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Income inequality has surged near levels last seen before the Great Depression. The average income for the top 1 percent of households climbed 7.7 percent last year to $1.36 million, according to tax data.
In this June 23, 2016, file photo, people watch a TV news channel airing an image of North Korea's ballistic missile launch published in North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. North Korea could soon be capable of targeting America with nuclear weapons.
Fighting is raging in Helmand as Afghan troops try to beat back Taliban insurgents advancing on the besieged capital of the southern poppy-growing province. Afghan forces fought back insurgents after they stormed Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah city, late on Wednesday, raising alarm that the provincial capital was at risk.
The shady Lebanese-Nigerian businessman who got Hillary Clinton's State Department to arrange a high-level meeting was only one of a dizzying number of big A donors to the Clinton Foundation to score government favors. The list includes high rollers whose relationships with the Clintons made them even richer; countries with dubious human-rights records; and companies looking to grease the skids to get an edge on the competition.