By Gwynne Dyer – Over the past few years, China’s diplomatic offensives, military coercion, interference and infiltration have continued unabated, said Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on New Year’s Day, as the Jan. 11 elections neared. China’s objective is clear: to force Taiwan to compromise our sovereignty. But every leader of her Democratic People’s Party (DPP) has always said that.
Malta's outgoing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Friday (Jan 10) said he was “paying the highest political price” for failing to solve a journalist's killing, the investigation into which he has been accused of hampering.
Dozens of Chinese vessels which were fishing in Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Natuna are leaving the area, the Indonesian military said on Thursday, after days of stand-off.
Colombia, a top source of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, eradicated more than 100,000 hectares of the crop last year, President Ivan Duque said on Thursday. The Andean country has come under repeated pressure from the United States, an important destination for cocaine shipments, to reduce coca cultivation, especially as crop figures shot up in recent years.
A dozen countries working on ways to end Venezuela's crisis on Thursday gave their backing to opposition leader Juan Guaido as a parliamentary speaker, rejecting the claims of a rival.
Mexico granted political asylum on Thursday to four members of Ecuador's opposition holed up in its embassy in Quito since widespread social unrest in October, the foreign ministry said. The four lawmakers, including former Congress speaker Gabriela Rivadeneira, “took a commercial flight to Mexico” early Thursday, the ministry said in a statement.
Lawmakers approved legislation on Thursday which will allow Britain to leave the European Union on Jan 31 with an exit deal, ending more than three years of tumult over the terms of the unprecedented divorce.They voted 330 to 231 in favour of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, which implements an exit deal agreed with the EU last year.
Argentina's debt talks will face their first big test this month with a US$ 277-million payment due on a Buenos Aires provincial bond, seen as a gauge of how the indebted nation's new government will handle its creditors.
The United States on Thursday threw its support behind negotiations in Venezuela, saying talks could establish a transitional government, lead to fresh elections and bring an end to the crisis.
The United States told the United Nations on Wednesday that the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani last week was self-defense and vowed to take additional action “as necessary” in the Middle East to protect US personnel and interests.