World News Delight

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks during a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart before their meeting in Seoul on June 28, 2018. Chung Sung-Jun / POOL / AFP US Defense Secretary James Mattis pledged Friday to maintain and strengthen the US security alliance with Japan amid fears that talks with North Korea could water down Washington’s longstanding security commitments in the region. Mattis said the United States and its regional allies will maintain a “strong collaborative defensive stance” on North Korea, and that Japan will remain a “cornerstone” of regional stability. In meetings with Japanese officials, Mattis sought to address Tokyo’s worries that its security interests could be left behind in President Donald Trump’s push to reach a denuclearisation deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “We’re in the midst of very unprecedented negotiations right now with North Korea, but in this dynamic time, the longstanding alliance between Japan and t...

A courtroom sketch made on February 5, 2018 shows prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris attacks Salah Abdeslam (2nd L) prior to the opening of his trial at the “Palais de Justice” courthouse in Brussels, on February 5, 2018. Benoit PEYRUCQ / AFP The suspected sole surviving gunman from 2015 attacks in Paris has come close to admitting his role in the carnage in a rare statement to investigators in which he justified the killings, reports said on Friday. Salah Abdeslam, in custody in France over the November 2015 attacks that left 130 people dead, has refused to cooperate with French judges ever since his arrest five months after the atrocities. But on Thursday he recorded a statement in which he parroted the propaganda of Islamist extremist groups such as Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, a sports stadium and bars in the French capital. “We don’t attack you because you eat pork, you drink wine or you listen to ...

Police respond to a shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, June 28, 2018.  SAUL LOEB / AFP At least five people were killed Thursday when a gunman opened fire inside the offices of the Capital Gazette, a newspaper published in Annapolis, a historic city an hour east of Washington. A reporter for the daily, Phil Davis, tweeted that a “gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees.” “There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Davis said. “There are five fatalities that we know of. There’re several other persons that are gravely injured,” acting police chief of Anne Arundel county Bill Krampf told a news conference in the city, capital of the state of Maryland. Steve Schuhn, county executive, said a suspect was in custody and was being interviewed by detectives. Lieutenant Ryan Frashure, a police spokesman, earlier told reporters police were “makin...

FILES) In this file photo taken on November 04, 2016 The ‘Iuventa’, a rescue ship run by young German NGO ‘Jugend Rettet’ (Youth Saves), sails off the Libyan coast during a rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea.  ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP The Libyan coastguard, charged with patrolling the frontline of Europe’s efforts to halt irregular migration, has only three working patrol boats, which often stay in port for lack of fuel. “We don’t get any support, either from inside the country or from overseas,” said Ayoub Kacem, spokesman for the navy which oversees Libya’s coastguard, adding that the force’s only vessels have been on loan from Italy since 2010. In a country wracked by violence since the 2011 fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising that destroyed Libya’s navy, officials say European powers have abandoned them — despite their efforts on Europe’s behalf to prevent migrants crossing their territory. Colonel Abu Ajila Abdelbarri, w...

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis gestures during a news conference. Photo: Vincenzo PINTO / AFP Pope Francis accepted the resignation of two more Chilean bishops following a child sex abuse scandal that has gripped the Latin American nation. The Vatican announced the resignation of the bishop of Rancagua, 78-year-old Alejandro Goic Karmelic and the bishop of Talca, Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca, 64. Several senior members of Chile’s Catholic Church are accused by victims of ignoring and covering up child abuse by paedophile priest Fernando Karadima during the 1980s and 1990s. The entire Chilean delegation of bishops tendered its resignation to the pope in May after a series of meetings at the Vatican. Earlier this month, Francis accepted the resignation of three Chilean bishops, including the controversial Juan Barros who Karadima’s victims accuse of covering up wrongdoing. The pontiff himself became mired in the scandal when, during a trip to Chile in January, he defen...

At least one person was killed and two police officers are missing after suspected Papuan rebels fired at boats carrying voters and police returning from a polling station, Indonesian authorities said Thursday. The attack — the third carried out in the restive region by an alleged separatist group over the past week — happened Wednesday as tens of millions voted in local elections across the Indonesian archipelago. The gunmen shot at two boats carrying nine police officers and local residents who had just finished voting in Torere district, Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said. The district chief of Torere was fatally shot in the attack while two officers disappeared after they fell in the water, he added. It was unclear if the missing police were shot before they dropped into the river. Seven other police officers swam to safety after jumping from the boat, Kamal said. Police are searching for the missing officers and shooters. Wednesday’s attack is the la...

AHMAD ABDO / AFP Prince William visited Jerusalem’s super-sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Thursday as he wrapped up a landmark Middle East tour during which he has tiptoed through the region’s diplomatic minefield. William wandered through the compound that is the third holiest for Muslims, accompanied by a large Israeli security detail and members of the Jordanian-run religious trust that administers it. British officials said it was the first time a member of the royal family had ever visited the compound, which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and the iconic golden-topped Dome of the Rock. The second-in-line to the British throne also visited the adjacent Western Wall, the holiest place at which Jews are allowed to pray. Since Israel occupied Arab east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967, hardline Jewish activists have campaigned for the right to pray inside the mosque compound itself, the most inflammatory single issue of the Middle East conflict. Both the second Pa...