By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United States on Friday pushed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling on the Taliban-led authorities in Afghanistan to reverse bans on women working for aid groups or attending universities and high school, diplomats said. The 15-member council met privately on Friday – at the request …
U.S. calls for U.N. to urge Taliban to reverse bans on women Read More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Friday and told him that the United States strongly supports the defense of Japan. In their Oval Office meeting, Biden also thanked Kishida for strong leadership in working closely on technology and economic issues. (Reporting by Andrea …
Biden tells Kishida U.S. strongly supports defense of Japan Read More »
By Phyllis Xu, Xihao Jiang and Lion Schellerer SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chu Wenhong would fly back to Shanghai and visit her parents at least once a year after she moved to Singapore in 1994. But she hasn’t been able to do so in the past three years due to China’s signature zero-COVID policy, which involved …
Family members reunite in China after 3-year COVID separation Read More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) -Sri Lanka will slash its army by a third to 135,000 personnel by next year and to 100,000 by 2030, the state minister of defence said on Friday, as the country tries to cut costs in the face of its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. “Military spending is basically state-borne …
Sri Lanka to slash military by a third to cut costs Read More »
By Bernard Orr and Ellen Zhang BEIJING (Reuters) -The peak of China’s COVID-19 wave is expected to last two to three months, and will soon swell over the vast countryside where medical resources are relatively scarce, a top Chinese epidemiologist has said. Infections are expected to surge in rural areas as hundreds of millions travel …
China COVID peak to last 2-3 months, hit rural areas next -expert Read More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – An official from China’s immigration bureau said 1.35 million have people applied for passports and Hong Kong and Macau visas since Jan. 8, the date the country opened its borders after three years. “The number of applications for entry and exit documents will continue to increase steadily in the near future. The …
TOKYO (Reuters) – A foreign woman has been critically injured in an avalanche at Mount Yotei near a popular ski resort on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, local media reported on Friday. The woman, who was at site with about 10 other people, is not showing any vital signs, broadcaster NHK reported, citing a person …
Woman critical after avalanche near ski resort in Japan’s Hokkaido Read More »
ASTANA (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s parliament on Friday repealed a law that gave former president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s immediate family immunity from prosecution, and took away his status as a leader of the nation. Nazarbayev, 82, ran the oil-rich Central Asian nation between 1989-2019, and created a personality cult during his three decades at the helm. He …
Kazakhstan strips ex-president’s family of legal immunity Read More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – About 490,000 entry and exit trips were made to and from China daily between Jan. 8-12 after the country reopened its borders, an official from the country’s immigration bureau told a news briefing on Friday. This is up 48.9% from the period before China’s COVID policy easing but is only 26.2% of …
About 490,000 exit, entry trips made daily in China since Jan. 8 Read More »
By William James LONDON (Reuters) -Britain criticised on Thursday what it said was the systematic erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong by the Chinese government and a crackdown on free speech by authorities in the former British colony, drawing an angry response from China. The criticism was contained in the government’s latest six-monthly report on …
Britain criticises ‘erosion of freedoms’ in Hong Kong, draws rebuke from China Read More »
