Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the nation should be prepared for any eventuality due to heightened tension in the Indo-Pacific region regarding sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, as well as security issues around neighboring Taiwan.The Philippines has long clashed with China o
Down a Tokyo street lined with bright signs, up narrow stairs and behind a windowless door is a “snack bar” long cherished by regulars but hidden from tourists — until now.Snack bars are cozy, retro establishments found across Japan, often crammed into small buildings and equipped with karaoke syste
DAY OF PLAY: UNICEF also published for the first time data on children’s access to play, with about one in eight kids younger than five not having any toys at all
Nearly 400 million children under the age of five — roughly 60 percent in that age group globally — experience violent physical or psychological discipline at home, from spanking to insults, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said late on Monday.The new UNICEF estimates reflect data from 100 countries
South Korean troops fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border this week, Seoul’s military said yesterday, with tensions high over Pyongyang’s barrage of trash-carrying balloons and the South’s retaliatory loudspeaker campaign.The Sunday incursion over the line that s
MALAWIVP’s plane likely ‘crashed’An airplane carrying Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima might have crashed in dense forest, but it has not yet been found, the military said yesterday. Search-and-rescue operations had been hampered by foggy weather around the Chikangawa Forest, which was affecting
‘CONSEQUENTIAL’: A source said the French president hoped to mobilize voters who had abstained from the EU elections to vote in the local polls on June 30
The snap election called by French President Emmanuel Macron after a bruising loss to the far-right in European Parliament elections would be the most consequential legislative vote in the republic’s history, French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire said yesterday.Many view Macron’s move as a high-
PROPAGANDA BATTLE: South Korea resumed its loudspeaker broadcasts on Sunday after the North sent more than 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure
The South Korean military yesterday said it has detected signs that North Korea is installing its own loudspeakers along their heavily armed border, a day after the South blared anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts over its speakers for the first time in years as the rivals engage in a Cold War-styl
Benny Gantz has resigned from Israel’s emergency government and called for elections, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war against Hamas.The departure of Gantz, a Netanyahu rival and former general, would not cause the ruling coalition to collapse, but i
It was the simple night-time act of watering flowers on his street in Mosul’s Old City that made Saqr Zakaria stop and think about just how safe this last bastion of Islamic State militants had become since it was liberated in 2017.“I thought for a second: ‘Where am I?’” said Zakaria, who left the c
The last operating hospital in western Sudan’s al-Fashir has been closed after an attack by paramilitaries trying to seize the key Darfur city, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.War has raged for more than a year between the regular military under army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burh
INDIAKashmir attack kills nineThe government is investigating an attack in which suspected militants fired at a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir, killing nine and injuring 33, officials said yesterday. The attack on Sunday caused the vehicle to fall into a deep gorge in Jammu Province’s Reasi
‘HEAVY RESPONSE REQUIRED’: The hostages were being held in two apartments near one another, and troops came under major fire as they moved out of the buildings
Israelis on Saturday celebrated the release of four hostages from Gaza in a military operation that Gaza’s health ministry said health official said left least 274 Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded. The Israeli military named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22,
Voters across Europe yeterday cast their ballots on the final — and biggest — day of elections for the European Parliament, with far-right parties expected to make gains at a pivotal time for the bloc. Polling stations opened in 21 member countries, including heavy hitters France and Germany, for th
UNDER DURESS? Russia lost more than 1,200 troops a day last month, and is detaining and forcing some Africans on work visas to decide between deportation or fighting
The Kremlin has forced thousands of migrants and foreign students to fight alongside Russian troops in its war against Ukraine, adding extra personnel for its offensive in the Kharkiv Oblast, according to assessments from European officials.Using tactics first deployed by the Wagner mercenary group,
The Philippines said it would continue to maintain and supply its South China Sea outposts without seeking permission from any other nation, dismissing Beijing’s demand to do so as “absurd, nonsense and unacceptable.”“Our operations are conducted within our own territorial waters and EEZ,” Philippin
New Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille was on Saturday rushed to hospital following “a slight illness,” but was in a stable condition, a government statement said.“After a week of intense activity,” Conille “suffered a slight illness on the afternoon of Saturday June 8, 2024, and went to hospital
Thwarted election winner Thai Representative Pita Limjaroenrat yesterday said he is confident of winning a court case that could see his party dissolved over its pledge to reform Thailand’s tough royal insult laws.Pita’s reformist Move Forward Party (MFP), which he previously led, won the most seats
DAYS NOT WEEKS: After meeting with Zelenskiy, Macron said that he wanted to ‘finalize’ the creation of a coalition of instructors to train Ukrainian troops
US President Joe Biden was yesterday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on a state visit to France, after warning of the need to preserve US democracy and live up to the example of World War II heroes.Biden was due to meet Macron for talks at the Elysee Palace in Paris followed by a state banq
Hundred-year-old World War II veteran Harold Terens was to marry his 96-year-old fiancee yesterday in the French town of Carentan-les-Marais, just days after being honored on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that took place a few kilometers away.Terens’ 11am wedding to Jeanne Swerlin was t