ISTANBUL – Taiwan has said that at least 11 Chinese jets crossed into its airspace on Wednesday and were given radio warnings. In a statement, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 11 aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army entered Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Wednesday. The ADIZ is a buffer zone outside a country’s [...
WASHINGTON (AA) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced deep concern Wednesday about the “deteriorating situation” in Jerusalem and violence in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement that Guterres is actively “engaged with leaders to do all they can to lower tensio...
WASHINGTON (AA) – A majority of Americans continue to support a now-defunct requirement for travelers to wear masks, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found 56% of Americans would like travelers on planes, trains and public transportation to face a mask mandate. That...
MOSCOW (AA) – Russia on Wednesday slammed Britain’s decision to extradite WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to the US where he faces life in prison on espionage charges. Speaking at a weekly news conference in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Assange’s extradition “a blow to freedom ...
BRUSSELS (AA) – EU countries have started banning Russian ships from their ports, with many critical imports, namely oil and natural gas, exempted under the bloc’s latest sanctions. The EU announced its fifth sanctions package on April 5, currently being implemented by Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Belgium, Italy, and Greece. As part...
NEW DELHI (AA): India’s top court on Wednesday stayed demolition of “encroachments” by authorities in the same area of the capital New Delhi where communal violence broke out last week. The bulldozers sent by the local municipality, which is administered by India’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), arrived in the Jahangirpuri neighborh...
ANKARA (AA) – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday called for international action to end “barbaric” Israeli attacks against Palestinian worshippers as tension continues to flare up in occupied East Jerusalem. In a statement, the pan-Muslim grouping said Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha has “dispatched identica...
BURSA, Turkiye (AA) – A roadside bomb killed a prison guard and injured four others in Turkiye’s northwestern Bursa province on Wednesday. A bus carrying security personnel was targeted with an improvised explosive device near a gas station in Bursa’s central Yenikaraman neighborhood, according to Governor Yakup Canbolat. The deceased officer ...
TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) – Tunisia is taking “resolute steps” towards dictatorship amid a deep political crisis in the North African nation, three political parties warned on Wednesday. In a joint statement, the Coordination of Social Democratic Forces, which brings together the Democratic Current, the Republican Party, and the Democratic Blo...
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday ordered a ban on far-right lawmaker Itamar BenGvir from accessing Jerusalem’s Bab al-Amud area to join a planned settler flag march. “I have no intention of letting minor politics to endanger human lives. I won’t allow BenGvir’s political provocation t...
