International Affairs

Trump hails ‘solid friendship’ with Xi The Presidents of China and the U.S. have exchanged messages vowing to boost cooperation despite a bruising trade war, on the 40th anniversary of the countries’ diplomatic relations, state media reported. In the messages sent on Tuesday, President Xi Jinping underlined the importance of …

Labour Party not to partner with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah Israel’s centre-left opposition dramatically split on Tuesday ahead of an April 9 election, with leader Avi Gabbay announcing that he would no longer partner with veteran politician Tzipi Livni as she sat stone-faced next to him. The announcement means the end …

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday held a meeting with his party’s electoral organisers, fuelling speculation that he may be hoping for a possible presidential re-run in 2019. Sirisena could call a snap presidential election after January 8 next year. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/lanka-prez-sirisena-meets-party-organisers-hints-2019-may-be-election-year/article25829731.ece

Terror strikeSuicide attackers stormed the Libyan Foreign Ministry in Tripoli on Tuesday, killing at least three people, including a senior civil servant, and wounding 10 others. A special forces spokesman accused the Islamic State of being behind the bombing.AFPMAHMUD TURKIA Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/under-siege/article25829649.ece

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s foreign policy adviser speaks on the upcoming election, the China factor and the unresolved river-sharing issue Gowher Rizvi, foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, discusses a plethora of issues, including those connecting Bangladesh and India, days before the country’ general election on December 30. …

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday criticised U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria, saying that “an ally must be reliable”.Speaking in the Chad capital N’Djamena, Mr. Macron said “I deeply regret the decision” by Trump to pullout U.S. troops. r. Trump last week ordered a …

Politicians and voters may or may not be making America great again, but they are making American politics young, and young again, if one considers the fact that several of the country’s ‘Founding Fathers’ were in their 20s and 30s. This trend is showing up in at least two ways …

The U.S.’s plans to withdraw about 7,000 troops, nearly half of its current strength, from Afghanistan, has invited strong, shocked reactions from Afghans as well as international stakeholders. The decision followed a three-day long meeting of the U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad with Taliban members in Abu Dhabi earlier last …

The Pentagon is considering using small teams of Special Operations forces to strike the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, one option for continuing a military mission there despite President Donald Trump’s order to withdraw troops.The U.S. commandos would be shifted to neighbouring Iraq, where an estimated 5,000 U.S. forces …

Bethlehem is buzzing, with more tourists expected this Christmas than have visited the Biblical city in years, causing the kind of problem that modern technology was almost born to deal with. Such are the crowds at the church built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been born …