Japan plans extra $2.1 bn on military spend: official
Japan plans to spend an extra $2.1 billion on missiles, fighter jets and helicopters, an official said Wednesday, as Tokyo looks to boost defence capabilities with concerns growing over a rising China.
09 January 2013
Egypt's Morsi to urge Obama to free blind sheikh
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has said he will urge US President Barack Obama to free the blind sheikh jailed for the 1993 World Trade Center attack.
09 January 2013
Honduras leader regrets embassy orgy
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said Monday that a pre-Christmas party at the country's embassy in Colombia that included prostitutes was a "sad incident."
08 January 2013
Pentagon nominee vows 'total support' for Israel
Chuck Hagel, bracing for a bruising Senate confirmation as the next US defense secretary, pledged "total support" for Israel on Monday after lawmakers criticized his Middle East views.
08 January 2013
Obama to host Afghan president Friday at White House
US President Barack Obama will host Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House on Friday for talks centered on the long-term security compact between the two countries.
08 January 2013
Clinton returns to applause and a football helmet
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation from her staff and an American football helmet to protect her from Washington's hard knocks as she returned to work after a health scare.
08 January 2013
China celebrities back censorship protest
China's blogosphere and celebrities -- many with millions of followers -- Tuesday backed journalists at a newspaper embroiled in a censorship row after hundreds of people held a rare protest demanding greater press freedom.
08 January 2013
Venezuelan regime calls for massive Chavez rally
Venezuela's leftist leadership has called for a massive show of support for ailing President Hugo Chavez in Caracas on Thursday -- the day he is supposed to be sworn in to a new six year term in office.
08 January 2013
Japan summons China envoy for first time under PM Abe
Tokyo summoned the Chinese ambassador Tuesday for the first time under the new nationalist government to "strongly protest" against the presence of official ships in waters around disputed islands.
US politician hopes for 'positive' Pyongyang trip
Former US governor Bill Richardson said Friday he hopes to assess what is happening in North Korea under its new leader Kim Jong-Un during what he hopes will be a "positive" visit.
06 January 2013
Venezuela assembly meets amid Chavez health crisis
Venezuela's National Assembly meets Saturday to elect its leadership in a session that also is expected to thrash out the country's political future as President Hugo Chavez battles cancer in Cuba.
06 January 2013
Syria's Alawite area Assad's last resort: analysts
The last option for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who is determined not to back down after 21 months of deadly conflict, is to battle to the end from a fortified Alawite statelet, analysts believe.
06 January 2013
Japan scrambles jets to head off China plane
Japan scrambled fighter jets Saturday to head off a Chinese state-owned plane that flew near islands at the centre of a dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.
06 January 2013
Sudan, South Sudan meet to push security, oil deals
The rival presidents of Sudan and South Sudan met for face-to-face talks Saturday to push forward stalled security, oil and border deals, and discuss the fate of the contested Abyei region.
06 January 2013
US criticizes Google chairman's N. Korea visit
The United States on Thursday criticized a planned visit to North Korea by Google chairman Eric Schmidt, calling it ill-timed in the wake of Pyongyang's widely condemned rocket launch last month.
As Chavez fights cancer, aides build his myth
As Hugo Chavez battles cancer in Cuba, his lieutenants here are actively glorifying Venezuela's firebrand leader in what observers see as a campaign to erect a heroic myth that can survive his death.
