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Myanmar violence and sea disputes to dominate ASEAN talks joined by US, Russian and Chinese envoys

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Myanmar’s prolonged civil strife, tensions in the disputed South China Sea and concern over arms buildups in the region are expected to dominate the agenda when Southeast Asia’s top diplomats gather for talks this week in Indonesia.Russia’s year-old invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-China rivalry will also be under the spotlight as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang participate as dialogue partners of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.North Korea has yet to say whether its foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, will attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, an annual regional security meeting.It’s also unclear who among the key figures in the world’s most intractable conflicts will meet on the sidelines of the group’s ministerial meetings.The top diplomats of ASEAN, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao...

SCO member states to further strengthen solidarity, co-operation for peace, development

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

Chinese President Xi Jinping (pictured) will attend the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) via video conference from Beijing on July 4 and deliver important remarks, writes He Yin, People's Daily.Xi will map out the future development of the SCO with the leaders of other countries attending the summit, expound on Chinese plans and raise cooperation initiatives on building a closer SCO community with a shared future.The SCO, as an organization for regional cooperation with the largest population and the largest landmass in the world, is a constructive force in international and regional affairs.In the past more than 20 years since the organization was established, the SCO member states have always followed the SCO Charter and the principles and purposes of the Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation of the Member States of the SCO.They pursue and carry forward the Shanghai Spirit, namely, mutual tru...

Evacuations ordered after landslide in L.A. County neighborhood destroys homes

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

Residents of a Los Angeles County neighborhood were forced to evacuate their homes Saturday night after a giant landslide prompted police, fire and utility company officials to respond early Sunday morning and close down the area.  At least 12 homes were evacuated in Rolling Hills Estates along Peartree Lane next to the canyon area, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. Several other homes caved in and were completely destroyed. A total of 16 residents were forced to leave their residences after one of the homeowners reported problems.  According to the L.A. County Fire Department, cracks were first discovered in the structure of one home, which led crews to find that the damage had progressed to neighboring residences. SoCal Edison shut off power in the area, and Southern California Gas Company crews were called in to make sure no gas lines had been ruptured.  "It’s concerning. A lot of families live here," homeowner Abtin Hashemian told KTLA. Hashem...

Yankees fire hitting coach Dillion Lawson in 1st midseason change under GM Brian Cashman

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Hitting coach Dillon Lawson was fired by the New York Yankees after Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs, a rare midseason change by a franchise that has prized stability since Hal Steinbrenner took over from his father as controlling owner.New York’s .231 batting average is 28th among the 30 major league teams, ahead of only Detroit and Oakland. The Yankees are batting a major league-worst .218 in 31 games since Aaron Judge tore a ligament in his right big toe on June 3, going 14-17 and entering the All-Star break in fourth place of the AL East 49-42.New York is fifth in the majors with 129 homers, but 18th in runs and its .300 on-base percentage is 26th.No replacement was announced. General manager Brian Cashman, who had never before fired a coach during a season, said he will hire a successor from outside the organization before the Yankee begin the second half Friday at Colorado.Cashman said assistant hitting coaches Casey Dykes and Brad Wilkerson will be retain...

Exclusiva: Biden dice que la guerra con Rusia debe terminar antes de que la OTAN pueda considerar el ingreso de Ucrania

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

(CNN) — El presidente Joe Biden le dijo a CNN en una entrevista exclusiva que Ucrania aún no está lista para ser miembro de la OTAN y dijo que la guerra de Rusia en Ucrania debe terminar antes de que la alianza pueda considerar agregar a Kyiv a sus filas.Biden le dijo a Fareed Zakaria de CNN que, si bien la discusión sobre la inminente membresía de Ucrania en la OTAN era prematura, Estados Unidos y sus aliados en la OTAN continuarían brindando al presidente Volodymyr Zelensky y sus fuerzas la seguridad el armamento que necesitan para tratar de poner fin a la guerra con Rusia.Biden habló con Zakaria antes de su viaje de una semana a Europa, que incluye una cumbre de la OTAN en Lituania, donde la guerra de Rusia en Ucrania y el impulso de Zelensky para ingresar a la OTAN serán algunos de los temas clave que se avecinan en la reunión.“No creo que haya unanimidad en la OTAN sobre si incluir o no a Ucrania en la familia de la OTAN ahora, en este momento, en medio de una guerra”, di...

Hamilton happy his old team McLaren is competitive again despite losing out for 2nd at British GP

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is happy his old team McLaren is competitive in Formula One again, even if it is at his expense.The seven-time champion lost an all-British tussle to McLaren’s Lando Norris for second place in their home Grand Prix on Sunday. Norris even overtook all-conquering Red Bull driver Max Verstappen at the start to lead the race briefly. Getting the better of Verstappen has been almost impossible this season.On the fast tracks like Silverstone, Norris said, “We’re almost on a par with what Red Bull can achieve.”The McLaren car was quick in qualifying Saturday and on race day, he added: “We definitely seem to maintain our performance when others seem to take a bit of a hit.”Not bad for a team which didn’t score any points at five of the first eight GP weekends.Hamilton described the McLaren car — which is newly competitive after an aerodynamic upgrade — as a “rocket ship” and sent “big congratulations to Lando...

Morocco’s historic Women’s World Cup debut inspires girls even if some in the Arab world ignore it

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The game was sparsely attended; it was midweek and the outcome wasn’t much in doubt: the Association Sportive des Forces Armees Royales, a powerhouse in women’s soccer here, ended up crushing its Moroccan women’s national professional league opponent 7-0.Regardless, one young fan in the stands was excited from the get-go.Wearing her hair in half-up pigtails and dressed in a jersey reading “Morocco” in Arabic, 5-year-old Aliae Benazzouza descended to the pitch to meet the players. A favorite of hers, Fatima Tagnaout, who plays for Morocco’s national women’s team and for the armed forces team known as ASFAR, embraced Aliae and held her hand as they posed for photos. Aliae waved at another player, calling her name. During the game, she would make her way to the front of the stands, pressing against a rail, for a better view.“I was very happy,” Aliae said. Her mom, Souad El Khorchef, a teacher, said her daughter peppered her with kisses afterward in thanks for taki...

Man with knife kills 6 people at kindergarten in China before being arrested, police and reports say

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A man with a knife killed six people and wounded one more Monday at a kindergarten in southeastern China, police and a news report said Monday.A 25-year-old man was arrested following the 7:40 a.m. attack in Lianjiang, a city in Guangdong province, a police statement said. Employees who answered at the Lianjiang police headquarters declined to give more details.A news outlet, Dafeng News, cited an unidentified witness as saying the attacker’s child had been struck earlier by the car of one of the people who was killed at the school. It said one of the people killed was a teacher at the kindergarten.Dafeng News on its website cited video posted online that it said showed a man carrying a knife walking past the kindergarten playground. It said other video showed at least four people in a pool of blood outside the school.News reports on other websites were deleted and replaced with the brief police statement.The Associated Press

How many Russians have died in Ukraine? Data shows what Moscow hides

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead.Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine.To do so, they relied on a statistical concept popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic called excess mortality. Drawing on inheritance records and official mortality data, they estimated how many more men under age 50 died between February 2022 and May 2023 than normal.Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each is at pains to amplify the other side’s casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers. Reports about military losses have been repressed in Russian media, activists and independent journalists say. Document...

NATO will boost defense spending to help back Ukraine but the math is tricky. Just ask Luxembourg

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:40 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — When it comes to criticizing the NATO members who fail to spend enough on defense, tiny Luxembourg is an easy target.One of NATO’s richest countries, and routinely ranked at the top of Europe’s economic growth tables, the Grand Duchy currently spends 0.72% of gross domestic product on its armed forces, according to the organization’s estimates for this year.That puts it at the foot of the 31-nation military alliance’s charts. Still, the numbers are deceiving, and that goes for other members too, like Germany.Under a pledge made in 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, NATO allies agreed to halt the spending cuts they made in calmer times after the Cold War ended, boost their national military budgets and move toward spending 2% of GDP on defense by 2024.With that target date closing in, and the biggest land war in Europe in decades ravaging Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will commit to a new spending goal at their ...