TAIPEI (Reuters) – A senior leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s main opposition party, will visit China this week and meet its top Taiwan policy-maker, the party said on Monday, amid continued military and political tensions between the two sides. China has over the past three years ramped up pressure on Taiwan to accept Chinese … Read more
ANKARA (Reuters) – At least 10 people were killed in Turkey after an earthquake shook the country’s south and also northern Syria, two local Turkish officials said. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said the quake struck at a depth of 10 km (6 miles) near the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, while the … Read more
(Reuters) – Actor Viola Davis on Sunday won a Grammy for her audio recording of her memoir “Finding Me,” granting her entry into the elite ranks of EGOT winners with an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. Davis is the third Black woman to earn this title, and the 18th person in … Read more
LVIV (Reuters) – Ukraine has sent letters to companies that back the International Olympic Committee urging them to keep Russian athletes out of the Paris Olympic Games, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. Zelenskiy has been spearheading a drive to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the games under a neutral flag. Zelenskiy … Read more
BAMAKO (Reuters) – The Malian interim government on Sunday said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s human rights division had 48 hours to leave the country as he had been declared persona non grata. In a statement, it said the decision to expel Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali was connected to his allegedly biased choice of … Read more
(Reuters) – Fierce battles are raging in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region as Russia intensifies pressure before the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. “Things are very difficult in Donetsk region – fierce battles,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “But however difficult it is and however much … Read more
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Former Cypriot foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides was in the lead in Cyprus’s presidential election on Sunday, an exit poll showed, but was likely to fall short of an outright majority and face a runoff on Feb. 12. Christodoulides, running as an independent, was seen taking between 30.5% and 33.5% of the vote. … Read more
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine will not use longer-range weapons pledged by the United States to hit Russian territory and will only target Russian units in occupied Ukrainian territory, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Sunday. The United States confirmed on Friday that a new rocket that would double Ukraine’s strike range was included in a … Read more
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Gale-force winds and snow storms closed roads and left more than 25,000 households in Serbia without power on Sunday, while fallen trees disrupted traffic in neighbouring Croatia and Montenegro. In Croatia, a red alert was issued for the regions along the Adriatic coast due to north winds estimated to reach 130 km … Read more
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Its arch is cracking and its vast pavilions lie empty, but the crumbling Rachid Karami International Fair in Lebanon’s port city Tripoli now has hope of revival, having been added to the United Nations’ list of world heritage sites in danger. Designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1962, the collection of … Read more