Special to WorldTribune.com Iran seeks closer ties to China as it “never trusted the West,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Jan. 23. During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Teheran on Jan. 23, Iran’s supreme leader said the United States was “not honest” in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East. “Iranians never trusted […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Malaysian police have arrested seven members of a terror cell linked to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). “All the suspects are members of the same (terror) cell, which is responsible for planning to launch terror attacks in strategic locations across Malaysia,” national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said on Jan. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing supports the creation of a Palestinian state. Xi made the pledge of support on Jan. 21 during a visit to Cairo, according to Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper. The Chinese president said he supported creation of a Palestinian State with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, based on the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Chinese President Xi Jinping on Jan. 21 pledged billions of dollars in aid to Egypt as Beijing moved to boost its influence in the Middle East. “China supports Egypt’s efforts to maintain stability, develop the economy and improve livelihoods, and … play an even greater role in international and regional affairs,” Xi […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to Korea, makes an astounding statement in a piece published after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. Striking “a very positive note,” he praises “the performance of Kim Jong-Un in improving the North Korean economy and downplaying nuclear threats and nuclear weapons development.” It […]
Special to WorldTribune.com The landslide victory for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the pro-China Kuomintang, (Nationalist Party) in the Jan. 16 elections was driven by the nation’s youthful “strawberry generation.” It was a particularly satisfying victory for Taiwan’s youth movement, who had been written off by their elders as soft, self-satisfied and apathetic – […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― Park Yu-Ha, under fire in Korea for writing “Comfort Women of the Empire,” offers what she believes may be a way to reach an understanding with Japan on the whole controversy. Why not, she suggested in a panel discussion at the Woodrow Wilson Center, form a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, the annual speech to a joint session of Congress, has emerged as more of a political pep rally than a clear overview of America’s standing in the world both domestic and foreign. The address was touted as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com An Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) jihadist instructed his Indonesia cells to launch a Paris-style attack in Jakarta on Jan. 14, police said. Two people were killed and 24 injured as five terrorists attacked a Starbucks cafe and a traffic police booth with hand-made bombs, guns and suicide vests, Jakarta […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Backgrounder, Geostrategy-Direct.com Djibouti, a former French colony, is a country of searing heat (summer temperatures average over 100 degrees) and little rain (17 days a year on average). The population of the East African state is 900,000, which ranks 159th in the world. But the tiny state on the Horn of […]