BEIJING: BEIJING: Chinese state media said President Joe Biden’s early policy toward Beijing “smacks of Trumpism,” signaling new concern over the prospects for a reset in ties with the US.The official China Daily said in an editorial Thursday that the Biden administration’s approach so far “affords little optimism.” Many of the new US leader’s poli...

TOKYO: A forest fire in a sparsely populated area 75 kilometres north of Tokyo continued to rage for a fifth day on Friday, as local officials were set to ask dozens more households to evacuate hillside villages.The fire in the vicinity of Ashikaga city, in Tochigi prefecture, has continued to spread since breaking out Sunday, despite efforts by fi...

AMSTERDAM: The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country.Activists and UN rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and so...

WASHINGTON: The United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops.The air...

The U.S. Navy’s reading list for officers and sailors includes books exploring issues in anti-racism and gender politics, potentially overshadowing traditional education in military history and strategy. Four of the 16 books listed under a section dedicated to personal and leadership development discuss topics such as anti-racism, the criminal just...

The Georgian government's Tuesday raid on the opposition party's headquarters and arrest of its leader, Nika Melia, threatens to cripple the only democracy in the South Caucasus and is an early foreign policy test for the Biden administration, which has yet to take any concrete action aimed at holding Georgia's pro-Russian government accountable fo...

A freshman Democratic representative bucked the Biden administration and party line by denouncing the prospect of rejoining the Iran deal in a Wednesday interview. Rep. Kathy Manning (D., N.C.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Times of Israel that the Biden administration should reconsider their plan to rejoin the I...

NEW YORK: New York prosecutors investigating former president Donald Trump's finances have received his tax returns following a marathon legal battle, a spokesman said Thursday."Our office obtained the records on Monday," Danny Frost, a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, told AFP.Vance's office obtained the returns after the Sup...

BERLIN: German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned of a third wave of Covid-19 if the country fumbles at its reopening from lockdown."We have to proceed wisely and carefully now so that a third wave does not necessitate a new complete shutdown throughout Germany," Merkel said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, as rep...

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation's Europe unit is reporting that about one in 10 people who contracted Covid-19 continue to show “persistent ill health” 12 weeks after infection.Dr Hans Kluge, the head of WHO Europe, says much about so-called “long Covid” remains unknown, but the “burden is real, and it is significant.”In a policy brief releas...