Live Streaming
Program Highlight
Company Profile
International News (6891)
July
S.African ex-leader Zuma faces court hearing amid looting, killings
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Africa's top court began hearing a challenge by former president Jacob Zuma against a 15-month prison term on Monday as police said six people had been killed and over 200 arrested in related protests and looting since last week.
Sporadic violence and looting continued on Monday, after a weekend of unrest by pro-Zuma protesters, mainly concentrated in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Some disturbances spilled into the country's largest city Johannesburg. read more
Zuma, 79, was sentenced for defying a constitutional court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.
The decision to jail him resulted from legal proceedings seen as a test of post-apartheid South Africa's ability to enforce the rule of law, including against powerful politicians.
In the virtual hearing, Zuma's counsel asked the court to rescind his jail term, citing a rule that judgments can be reconsidered if made in the absence of the affected person or containing a patent error.
Legal experts say Zuma's chances of success are slim.
Television channels showed footage on Monday of a fire at a mall in Pietermaritzburg, in KZN. The channel said the highway leading to the city had been closed to prevent further violence.
"The NatJOINTS (government intelligence body) has intensified deployments in all the areas in Gauteng (the province including Johannesburg) and KwaZulu-Natal affected by the violent protests, as the damage to property and looting of stores continued overnight," the agency said in a statement.
It said the bodies of four people were found - at least two of them with gunshot wounds - in Gauteng. Two deaths had occurred in KZN, and all six were being investigated.
Zuma's imprisonment marks a significant fall for an important figure in the liberation-movement-turned-ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). He was once jailed by South Africa's pre-1994 white minority rulers for his efforts to make all citizens equal before the law.
Zuma's core supporters, echoing his stance, say he is the victim of a political witch hunt orchestrated by allies of his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said on Sunday there was no justification for violence and that it was damaging efforts to rebuild the economy, hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The corruption inquiry that Zuma has refused to cooperate with is examining allegations that he allowed three Indian-born businessmen, Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta, to plunder state resources and peddle influence over government policy. He and the Gupta brothers, who fled the country after his ouster and are believed to be living in Dubai, deny wrongdoing.
Zuma also faces a corruption case relating to a $2 billion arms deal in 1999 when he was deputy president. He denies the charges in that case. (Reuters)
July
In symbolic end to war, U.S. general to step down from command in Afghanistan
Written by Nur Yasmin
The U.S. general leading the war in Afghanistan, Austin Miller, will relinquish command on Monday, U.S. officials say, in a symbolic end to America's longest conflict even as Taliban insurgents gain momentum.
Miller will become America's last four-star general on the ground in Afghanistan in a ceremony in Kabul that will come ahead of a formal end to the military mission there on Aug. 31, a date set by President Joe Biden as he looks to extricate American from the two-decade-old war.
While the ceremony may offer some sense of closure for U.S. veterans who served in Afghanistan, it's unclear whether it will succeed in reassuring the Western-backed Afghan government as the Taliban press ground offensives that have given them control of more territory than at any time since the conflict began.
U.S. Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, whose Florida-based Central Command oversees U.S. forces in hot-spots including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, flew into Kabul to underscore America's future assistance to Afghan security forces.
"Admittedly, it's going to be very different than it was in the past. I'm not going to minimize that," McKenzie told a small group of reporters. "But we're going to support them."
But he also cautioned that the Taliban, in his view, appeared to be seeking "a military solution" to a war that the United States has unsuccessfully tried to end with a peace agreement between the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government.
He cautioned that provincial capitals were at risk but noted that the U.S.-backed Afghan security forces "are determined to fight very hard for those provincial capitals."
Even after Miller steps down, McKenzie will still be able to authorise U.S. air strikes against the Taliban through Aug. 31 in support of Ghani's Western-backed government.
But after that, the Marine general said when it came to U.S. strikes in Afghanistan, his focus will shift squarely to counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda and Islamic State.
INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
Gathering enough intelligence on the ground to prevent another Sept. 11-style attack could become increasingly challenging, as America's intelligence network weakens with the U.S. withdrawal and as Afghan troops lose territory.
Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin, a former senior Pentagon official, said many lawmakers were still looking for answers from the Biden administration about how the U.S. will be able to detect a future al Qaeda plot against the United States.
"I don't need them to tell the entire world what our day-after plan is. But I think it's important that they let us know some of the details on a private basis," Slotkin said.
U.S. officials do not believe the Taliban could be relied upon to prevent al Qaeda from again plotting attacks against the United States from Afghan soil.
The United Nations said in a report in January there were as many as 500 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and that the Taliban maintained a close relationship with the Islamist extremist group.
LONGEST SERVING GENERAL
As he steps down, Miller, 60, has spent longer on the ground than any of the previous generals to command the war.
He had a close call in 2018 when a rogue Afghan bodyguard in Kandahar province opened fire in and killed a powerful Afghan police chief standing near Miller. A U.S. brigadier general was wounded as were other Americans but Miller emerged unscathed.
After Miller leaves the post, the Pentagon has engineered a transition that will allow a series of generals to carry on with supporting the Afghan security forces, mostly from overseas.
Beyond McKenzie's overwatch from Florida, a Qatar-based brigadier general, Curtis Buzzard, will focus on administering funding support for the Afghan security forces - including aircraft maintenance support.
In Kabul, Navy Rear Admiral Peter Vasely will lead a newly created U.S. Forces Afghanistan-Forward, focusing on protecting the embassy and airport.
Vasely, as a two-star admiral, is higher ranked than usual for a U.S. embassy-based post. But a U.S. defense official added that Afghanistan was a "very unique situation."
"There's no comparable diplomatic security situation in the world with what we're going to establish," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Still, what happens next in Afghanistan appears to be increasingly out of America's control.
Biden acknowledged on Thursday that Afghanistan's future was far from certain but said the Afghan people must decide their own fate.
"I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome," he said.
About 2,400 U.S. service members have been killed in America's longest war - and many thousands wounded. (Reuters)
July
S.Korea reports 1,100 new coronavirus cases, toughest curbs in force in Seoul
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Korea reported 1,100 new coronavirus cases for July 11, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Monday, as the country's toughest anti-COVID curbs take effect in Seoul in an attempt to quell its worst-ever outbreak.
The number was the highest ever recorded on a Sunday, KDCA data showed, though below three consecutive days of peaks leading up to 1,378 on Friday.
The new wave of infections have so far brought fewer serious cases and deaths than earlier rounds, with many older and more vulnerable South Koreans now vaccinated against the virus. The latest outbreak brings South Korea's total COVID-19 cases to date to 169,146, with 2,044 deaths, well below numbers seen in many other industrialised countries.
But health authorities have expressed concerns over the rising number of young patients who have not yet received vaccine shots, and the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant in recent outbreaks.
Starting Monday, the government has imposed the strictest level of social distancing in Seoul and neighbouring areas for the first time, including a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m. (Reuters)
July
U.S. repeats warning to China against attack on Philippine forces
Written by Nur Yasmin
The United States on Sunday repeated a warning to China that an attack on Philippine armed forces in the South China Sea would trigger a 1951 U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the comment in a written statement marking the fifth anniversary of a ruling by an arbitration tribunal repudiating China's vast territorial claims in the South China Sea.
China - which lays claim to most of the waters within a so-called Nine Dash Line, which is also contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam - reiterated on Friday that Beijing did not accept the ruling. read more
"The United States reaffirms its July 13, 2020 policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea," Blinken said, referring to the rejection by former President Donald Trump's administration of China's claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea.
"We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty," Blinken added.
That article of the treaty says in part that "each Party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes."
Blinken has made the point before, including during an April 8 conversation with the Philippine foreign minister in which the State Department said he "reaffirmed the applicability" of the treaty to the South China Sea. (Reuters)
July
US 'very concerned' COVID-19 variants could risk recovery: Yellen
Written by nuke
United States Secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen speaks during a press conference at a G20 Economy, Finance ministers and Central bank governors' meeting in Venice, Italy on Jul 11, 2021. (Photo: AP/Luca Bruno) -
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday (Jul 11) she was "very concerned" about the risk that new variants of coronavirus could pose to the global economic recovery from the pandemic.
"We are very concerned about the Delta variant and other variants that could emerge and threaten recovery," she told reporters following a G20 meeting in Venice, Italy.
"We are a connected global economy, what happens in any part of the world affects all other countries."
In their final statement issued late Saturday, G20 finance ministers warned that the spread of new variants was a "downside risk" to the economic recovery, while also warning of the dangers of differing paces of vaccination campaigns.
"We recognise the importance of working together to speed the process of vaccination and have the goal of wanting to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world's population next year," Yellen said.
She said "a lot has been done" to finance the purchase of vaccines by developing countries, but said the world needed to "do something more and to be more effective" with respect to responding to outbreaks around the world, such as sending therapeutics and protective equipment.
The G20 on Friday heard from a specially commissioned panel of experts who warned the world must invest much more - at least US$75 billion over the next five years - to prepare for and try to avert the next pandemic.
"While we're focused on the medium- and long-term ... we certainly realise we also need to do more in the near term," Yellen said.
The World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Health Organization "have formed a taskforce to work on this and we've asked that we have regular monthly reports on how that work is going and that we address this issue more fully in October" at the G20 ministers' next meeting.
"But certainly variants represent a threat to the entire globe," Yellen said//CNA
July
COVID-19 variants threaten global recovery, G20 warns
Written by nuke
People walk without wearing masks as Italy lifts mandatory masks outdoors thanks to a decline in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and hospitalisations, in Rome, Italy, June 28, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane -
An upsurge in new coronavirus variants and poor access to vaccines in developing countries threaten the global economic recovery, finance ministers of the world's 20 largest economies warned on Saturday (Jul 10).
The G20 gathering in the Italian city of Venice was the ministers' first face-to-face meeting since the start of the pandemic. Decisions include the endorsement of new rules aimed at stopping multinationals shifting profits to low-tax havens.That paves the way for G20 leaders to finalise a new global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent at a Rome summit in October, a move that could recoup hundreds of billions of dollars for public treasuries straining under the COVID-19 crisis.
A final communique said the global economic outlook had improved since G20 talks in April thanks to the rollout of vaccines and economic support packages, but acknowledged its fragility in the face of variants like the fast-spreading Delta.
"The recovery is characterised by great divergences across and within countries and remains exposed to downside risks, in particular the spread of new variants of the COVID-19 virus and different paces of vaccination," it read.
While G20 nations promised to use all policy tools to combat COVID-19, the Italian hosts of the meeting said there was also agreement to avoid imposing new restrictions on people.
"We all agree we should avoid introducing again any restriction on the movement of citizens and the way of life of people," said Italian Economy Minister Daniele Franco, whose country holds the rotating G20 presidency through to December.
The communique, while stressing support for "equitable global sharing" of vaccines, did not propose concrete measures, merely acknowledging a recommendation for US$50 billion in new vaccine financing by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization.
Differences in vaccination levels between the world's rich and poor remain vast. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called the divergence a "moral outrage" that also undermines wider efforts to tame the spread of the virus.
Brandon Locke, of the public health non-profit group ONE Campaign, decried what he described as the G20's inaction, calling it "a lose-lose situation for everyone".
"Not only will it cost lives in poorer countries, it increases the risk of new variants that will wreak havoc in richer ones," he said.
Italy said the G20 would return to the issue of vaccine funding for poor countries ahead of a Rome summit in October and that new variants was an area that needed to be looked at. It did not give further details.
"We must agree on a process for everyone on the planet to be able to access vaccines. If we don't, the IMF predicts that the global economy will lose US$9 trillion," religious development organisation Jubilee USA Network said.
It was referring to an IMF forecast that international cooperation on COVID-19 vaccines could speed world economic recovery and add US$9 trillion to global income by 2025//CNA
July
Leaders of China and North Korea vow to strengthen ties: KCNA
Written by nuke
Relations between Beijing and Pyongyang have fluctuated over the years, but the two sides have moved to strengthen their alliance since 2018 AFP/Jung Yeon-je -
Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have vowed to bring their relations to a "new stage" as the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of a friendship pact, Pyongyang's state media reported on Sunday (Jul 11).
China is North Korea's longtime ally and economic benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War, when Mao Zedong sent millions of "volunteers" to fight US-led United Nations forces to a standstill.
The two countries signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance in the event of an armed attack on Jul 11, 1961, with Mao describing the allies as close as "lips and teeth".
Relations have fluctuated over the years due to Pyongyang's growing nuclear ambitions, but with negotiations between North Korea and the US at a standstill, both sides have moved to strengthen their alliance.
"Despite the unprecedentedly complicated international situation in recent years the comradely trust and militant friendship between the DPRK and China get stronger day by day," Kim wrote in his message to Xi, referring to the North by its official name.
In the message carried by the KCNA news agency, Kim highlighted the role of the pact in "ensuring peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world now that the hostile forces become more desperate in their challenge and obstructive moves".
Xi wrote he planned to bring "greater happiness" to the two countries and their people "by steadily leading the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a new stage," KCNA said.
Kim paid his first visit to China in March 2018 and the two leaders have now met five times.
The exchange of messages is the latest sign of renewed ties between the neighbours, which analysts say is aimed at the US amid gridlocked nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington and worsening US-Beijing tensions.
The two allies' relations have had discord since the end of the Korean War, he added, and they will "never really trust each other".
But they need each other to deal with Washington, Park added.
"And the closer they get, the harder it will be to denuclearise North Korea."//CNA
July
Tokyo 2020 CEO says Tokyo Olympics will create model for pandemic Games
Written by nuke
Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan July 9, 2021. Behrouz Mehri/Pool via REUTERS -
The Tokyo Olympics will provide a model for hosting the Games during a pandemic after rising COVID-19 infections forced organisers to ban spectators at most events, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said on Sunday (Jul 11).
"This will be the first Olympics held during a pandemic, and Tokyo will provide a model for how that is done," Muto said on a political debate programme aired by public broadcaster NHK.
Athletes will not have to compete in completely empty venues because Olympic officials and journalists will be there, he added.
Organisers on Thursday there would be no spectators in host city Tokyo as a resurgent coronavirus forced Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to declare a state of emergency in the capital that will run throughout the Games. Most events outside Tokyo will also take place without spectators.
Speaking on the same programme as Muto, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato and the country's top health adviser, Shigeru Omi, urged people stay home during the games.
"We would ask people to support athletes from home," Kato said//CNA
July
Singapore's Finance Minister Lawrence Wong speaking at the G20 meeting. (Photo: Facebook/Lawrence Wong) -
G20 finance ministers on Saturday (Jul 10) gave their backing to a historic deal to overhaul the way multinational companies are taxed, and urged hold-out countries to get on board.
A total of 132 countries have already signed up to a framework for international tax reform, including a minimum corporate rate of 15 per cent, struck earlier this month.
But the endorsement by the 19 biggest economies plus the European Union will help ensure it becomes a reality following years of negotiations.
"We have achieved a historic agreement on a more stable and fairer international tax architecture," the ministers said in a final statement following two days of talks in Venice, hosted by G20 president Italy.
"We endorse the key components of the two pillars on the reallocation of profits of multinational enterprises and an effective global minimum tax."
Singapore was among the countries that supported the deal.
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who was among those attending the grouping's first face-to-face meeting since February 2020, said it was the "most significant changes in tax rules in over a century".
Mr Wong said he spoke at the G20 discussion about the need to recognise substantive economic activities and to allow big and small economies to compete on an equal footing.
"Tax systems, besides raising revenue, should continue to encourage innovation, growth and jobs," he wrote in a Facebook post early on Sunday.
"There is still some work to be done, and several design parameters to be worked out. Singapore, like many others, looks forward to finalising these design elements by the next G20 meeting in October."
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the momentum must not now be lost.
"The world is ready to end the global race to the bottom on corporate taxation," she said in a statement, adding that it "should now move quickly to finalise the deal".
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said it was a once-in-a-century opportunity for a "tax revolution", adding: "There is no turning back."
His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, tweeted: "Finally, large corporations can no longer escape their tax liability."
The reforms aim to prevent countries competing to offer the lowest tax rates to attract investment, which has often resulted in multinationals paying derisory levels of tax.
Final agreement is expected in the run-up to the G20 leaders' summit in Rome in October, with hopes the reforms can be in place by 2023//CNA
July
No new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in Singapore; 6 imported infections
Written by nuke
Airport workers in Zone 1 wearing full personal protective equipment at Changi Airport Terminal 3, Jun 7, 2021. (Photo: Changi Airport Group) -
Singapore reported no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Jul 10).
This is the first time that Singapore reported no new locally transmitted cases since Apr 25, when no COVID-19 cases were identified in the community or migrant workers' dormitories.
Three of the imported cases were detected upon arrival in Singapore, while the other three developed the illness during stay-home notice or isolation.
This is the lowest overall number of total daily cases reported in Singapore since Jun 9 when four infections were identified.
MOH will provide an update on Saturday night about the COVID-19 situation in Singapore.
From Monday, up to five in a group will be allowed to dine out together. Social gatherings at the workplace can also resume – subject to the five-person limit – but working from home will remain as the default, said the Health Ministry on Jul 7.
As of Saturday, Singapore has reported a total of 62,684 COVID-19 cases//CNA