SEOUL: South Korean lawmakers on Saturday impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law bid, with the opposition declaring a “victory of the people”. The vote caps over a week of intense political drama in the democratic South following Yoon’s failed attempt to impose martial law on December
DUBLIN: Ireland’s general election concluded late-Monday after three days of vote-counting, with the incumbent centre-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael set to retain power following coalition expected to take place in coming weeks. With all 174 seats in the lower chamber of parliament decided since Friday’s vote, Fianna Fail,
BEIRUT: The United States called Monday for de-escalation in Syria, where an Islamist-led rebel alliance has wrested swathes of territory from the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s government in a lightning offensive. The European Union also called on “all sides to de-escalate”, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers concluded a two-year investigation Monday into the COVID-19 outbreak that killed 1.1 million Americans — backing the theory that the virus likely leaked from a Chinese laboratory. A 520-page report from the Republican-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic looked at the federal and state-level response,
MAJURO (Marshall Islands): Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te arrived in the Marshall Islands on Tuesday, after visiting the United States on the first stop of a Pacific tour that has angered Chinese leaders. The Marshall Islands is one of 12 remaining nations that recognise Taiwan’s claim to statehood after others jumped
SINGAPORE is a poster child for fiscal prudence. It almost always runs a budget surplus, and its constitution virtually prohibits borrowing to pay for current spending. All three major credit rating agencies assign it triple-A ratings, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) judges its sovereign debt risks to be low.
BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sought to shore up support from his allies Sunday, after a monitor said a shock rebel offensive saw government forces lose control of Aleppo for the first time since the start of the country’s civil war. An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance attacked forces of the Iranian-
REYKJAVIK: Iceland’s opposition Social Democrats overtook the governing Independence Party of Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson after a snap election prompted by the collapse of his fraught coalition government, public broadcaster RUV reported on Sunday. With all ballots counted, the Social Democratic Alliance led by Kristrun Frostadottir finished first with 20.8
TOKYO: Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ group Nihon Hidankyo said Monday a 30-strong delegation will collect its Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo after a crowd-funding campaign to pay their travel costs. Those going to the December 10 ceremony will include group co-chair Terumi Tanaka, 92, who witnessed the 1945 Nagasaki bombing
BUSAN (South Korea): The UN environment chief insisted Monday that talks on a landmark plastic pollution treaty were not a failure, saying important progress was made despite negotiations collapsing without agreement. “It obviously did not fail,” Inger Andersen told AFP, calling the two-year timeline for the deal set in 2022