TOKYO, Japan (AFP) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Sunday began a visit to Japan described as a major step forward in improving frosty relations, as Tokyo tries to stay involved in a flurry of international diplomacy over North Korea.　Wang met his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono in talks expected to touch on economic relations, territorial disputes in the East China Sea and ways to push the North to give up its nuclear weapons.(AFP-Yonhap)　“I would like to regard (Wang‘s visit) as a major step

Shortly after coming to power last year, Emmanuel Macron mused to a friend about the role of president. "You go through stages," he said. "Innocence is not allowed."On Friday night, like British Prime Minister Theresa May, he ordered his first major military intervention.Early Saturday, French and British aircraft took part in a wave of strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks.Though already active in a US-led coalition combating t

Hours after striking Syria, the United States, France and Britain on Saturday launched a new bid at the United Nations to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria.The three allies circulated a joint draft resolution at the Security Council that also calls for unimpeded deliveries of humanitarian aid, enforcing a ceasefire and demands that Syria engage in UN-led peace talks, according to the text obtained by AFP.The move signaled the West's resolve to return to diplomacy after a one-night mi

Iran warned of "regional consequences" on Saturday following a wave of punitive strikes in Syria by the United States, Britain and France. "The United States and its allies have no proof and, without even waiting for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to take a position, have carried out this military attack," said the foreign ministry in a statement. The Damascus sky lights up missile fire as the U.S. launches an attack on Syria targeting different parts of the capital ear

Western strikes early Saturday hit Syrian military bases and chemical research centres in and around the capital, a monitor said, as the US announced a joint operation against the Damascus government."The Western coalition strikes targeted scientific research centres, several military bases, and the bases of the Republican Guard and Fourth Division in the capital Damascus and around it," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.The US, France, and Britain announced a joint oper

President Donald Trump late Friday announced the launch of a joint US-British-French operation targeting Syria's "criminal" regime in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack that he called a "significant escalation" in the crisis.Here are key excerpts from Trump's televised address to the nation, which lasted just under eight minutes:   President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Friday, April 13, 2018, in Washington, about the United States` military

ALGIERS, Algeria -- An Algerian military plane crashed and caught fire on Wednesday killing 257 people, mostly army personnel and members of their families, officials said.   An AFP photographer at the scene saw the charred wreckage of the plane in a field near the Boufarik airbase from where the plane had taken off.   Hundreds of ambulances and dozens of fire trucks with their sirens wailing rushed to the scene of the crash about 25 kilometers southwest of Algiers.   The defence ministry said i

MOSCOW -- North Korea’s foreign minister held rare talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Tuesday, as Pyongyang moves to improve strained ties with its neighbors.Ri Yong-ho’s visit came ahead of planned summits between the North’s leader Kim Jong-un and the presidents of South Korea and the United States in the coming weeks.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed Ri to Moscow on Tuesday morning, saying that “Russia is as inclined as ever to develop good neighborly relations with

BEIJING, China (AFP) -- China warned on Monday that trade talks with the United States were “impossible” under current conditions after President Donald Trump reassured markets by suggesting that the dispute could be resolved.　The two sides have announced tit-for-tat tariffs and threatened to hit each other with more duties, raising the prospect of a trade war that could rattle the global economy.US President Donald Trump (AP-Yonhap)　Asian markets rose on Monday after Trump tweeted that he saw a

SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil -- Brazil's election frontrunner and leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned himself in Saturday to start a 12-year sentence for corruption after a chaotic attempt by supporters to stop him from surrendering.Surrounded by bodyguards, Lula had to push through a seething throng of supporters to get into a police vehicle outside the metalworkers' union building in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where he had been holed up for two days and nights.Earlier, the same crowd ha

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia -- The laboratory that tested the nerve agent allegedly used to assassinate the North Korean leader's half-brother was not on the list of centres approved by the global chemical weapons watchdog, a Malaysian court heard Thursday.Two women -- Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong -- are on trial over the Cold War-style killing of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13 last year.Defence lawyers have argued that the women were recruited

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States is not in a trade war with China, as both sides shake global markets with tit-for-tat actions."We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the US," Trump said in a morning tweet. "Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!" (AP)The comments come after China unvei

BEIJING -- China on Monday imposed tariffs on 128 US imports worth $3 billion, including fruit and pork, retaliating for US duties on steel and aluminium that Beijing said “seriously infringed” Chinese interests.The move, which was decided by the customs tariff commission of the State Council, followed weeks of rhetoric that has raised fears of a trade war between the world‘s two biggest economies.The Trump administration had said its duties were aimed at steel and aluminium imports that it deem

Kim Jong-un is committed to sending North Korean teams to the next two Olympics, the IOC chief Thomas Bach said Saturday after a rare meeting with the leader of the nuclear-armed regime in Pyongyang.Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, also said the IOC will make a proposal for a "potential joint march" and other shared activities between the North and South Korean teams at the Tokyo games.Last month's Winter Olympics in South Korea saw competitors from the two countries m

The UN Security Council on Friday blacklisted 27 ships, 21 companies and a businessman for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions, as the United States keeps up pressure on Pyongyang despite its recent overtures toward talks, diplomats said.Acting on a request from the United States, it was the largest-ever package of sanctions designations on North Korea approved by a council committee, diplomats said. (AP)The move is part of a global crackdown on the smuggling of North Korean commodities in

North Korea's Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was his "solemn duty" to make Beijing his first overseas destination and invited him to visit Pyongyang, the North's official news agency reported Wednesday.The relationship between the North and its key protector has soured in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by its neighbour's nuclear antics and recently showing a new willingness to enforce United Nations sanctions imposed on it over its weapons and missiles p

A wave of optimism flowed across stock markets on Tuesday, building on Wall Street's gains the previous session, as fears of a US-China trade war receded.Speculation that Kim Jong Un paid a surprise secret visit to Beijing also lifted spirits -- and the South Korean won -- as the North Korean leader prepares for possible nuclear talks with US President Donald Trump.A convoy under heavy security is seen passing into the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse where top North Korean leaders have stayed on prev

MOSCOW  -- A total of 64 people some of them children perished in a fire that ravaged a busy shopping mall in an industrial city in Siberia, as rescue teams Monday struggled through piles of charred rubble to recover bodies.Russian television showed images of thick black smoke pouring out of the Winter Cherry shopping center in the city of Kemerovo, which also houses a sauna, a bowling alley and a multiplex cinema and was packed with people on Sunday afternoon.Russia's Investigative Committee sa

BEIJING (AFP) -- China warned the United States on Friday that it was "not afraid of a trade war" as it threatened tariffs on $3 billion worth of US goods in retaliation over President Donald Trump's moves against Chinese imports. US President Donald Trump (left) and his counterpart Xi Jingping. (Yonhap)Beijing unveiled a hit list of products that could face duties of up to 25 percent, from fresh fruit to pork and wine, though it stopped short of pulling the trigger as it indicated its readiness

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into a series of deadly crashes in which airbags in Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate. (Yonhap)The administration's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) "is currently aware of six crashes with significant collision-related damage events involving Hyundai and Kia models where airbags failed to deploy in frontal crashes," which four people died and six were hurt, its website said.The "failure of the airbag cont