News Archive - 19 November 2016

>LIMA Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday called for a "smooth transition" in Beijing's relationship with Washington and praised outgoing President Barack Obama for strengthening ties between the two nations.During a meeting in Peru, Obama again urged all sides in the dispute over the South China Sea reduce tensions...

>PARIS Conservative presidential hopefuls in France face the judgment of voters in a primary race on Sunday and the victor looks likely to win the presidency in next spring's election against a resurgent far-right.With the French left in disarray under the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande, opinion polls suggest...

>WUZHEN, China China's ambitions to tighten up regulation of the Internet have found a second wind in old fears - terrorism and fake news.Chinese officials and business leaders speaking at the third World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen last week called for more rigid cyber governance, pointing to the...

>SEOUL South Korean prosecutors said on Sunday they had indicted a friend of President Park Geun-hye and two former aides in a corruption scandal engulfing her administration, in a heavy setback to her fight for political survival.Choi Soon-sil, Park's friend, and former presidential aide An Chong-bum are charged with...

>SHANGHAI Scores of Hong Kong-listed companies - many small - are on a roadshow blitz in China to whet the appetite of mainland investors ahead of the launch of a cross-border investment link between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.Mainland investors are enthusiastic, viewing the cross-border channel as a way to...

>TOKYO/SEOUL Asian currency policymakers are worried that the strengthening of the dollar on expectations of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's fiscal policies could be used by his administration as a stick to beat them with on trade protectionist grounds.China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are already on the U.

>BERLIN Angela Merkel is set to announce on Sunday she will seek a fourth term as German chancellor in next year's election, ending months of speculation over whether one of the world's most powerful women wants to run again after 11 years in office.The 62-year-old conservative is widely seen...

>    The recommendation by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, first reported by The Washington Post, was delivered to the White House last month.        Obama chose Rogers to take over at the NSA in 2014 and tasked him with repairing the damage after...

>ERBIL, Iraq Mounting civilian casualties from fighting in eastern Mosul between Iraqi forces and Islamic State are overwhelming the capacity of the government and international aid groups, the United Nations said on Saturday.Nearly 200 wounded civilians and military personnel were transferred to hospital last week, the highest level since...

>BEDMINSTER, N.J. President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney set aside a fierce rivalry on Saturday and held talks likely to feed speculation that Romney could be in line to be the new U.S. secretary of state.Trump also met for an hour with retired...

>Facebook Inc, facing withering criticism for failing to stem a flood of phony news articles in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, is taking a series of steps to weed out hoaxes and other types of false information, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Friday...

>Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, will also meet with others on Sunday, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and architect of anti-immigration efforts who says he is advising Trump on immigration issues. A Trump...

>"The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!" Trump wrote on Twitter, taking time out from his search for appointees to his incoming administration."Our wonderful future V.P. Mike...

>The lawsuits cast a shadow over the Republican's presidential campaign and led to one of the more controversial moments of his run for the White House when he claimed the judge overseeing two of the cases was biased because he was of Mexican ancestry. While denying any wrongdoing, Trump agreed...

>SANAA A truce aimed at ending more than a year of war in Yemen began on Saturday, although residents said fighting was still going on in parts of the country.The 48-hour ceasefire by the Saudi-led military coalition raised hopes of an end to a humanitarian crisis caused by a...

>"We are receiving positive signals that increase the likelihood of agreement at the meeting ... and I'm optimistic about the situation," Zanganeh told state television by telephone, after meeting OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo in Tehran ahead of the Nov. 30 meeting."I think if we can reach an agreement, God willing,...

>In Germany, motor vehicle taxes are tied to the volume of carbon dioxide emissions, among other things. VW, Europe's largest carmaker, has admitted using emissions-cheating software in a scandal that tarnished its image and left it facing billions of euros in fines and settlements. Last year, Volkswagen promised to make...

>SYDNEY U.S. officials have arrived in Australia to begin assessing asylum seekers held on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and Nauru for resettlement in the United States, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Saturday.Australia announced last week it had reached a deal in which the United States would...

>BEIRUT All hospitals in Syria's besieged rebel-held eastern Aleppo are out of service after days of heavy air strikes, its health directorate and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday, but a war monitor said some were still working. "This destruction of infrastructure essential to life leaves the besieged,...

>The tribal fighters and police were gunned down at two fake checkpoints set up by the insurgents in Shirqat, a Sunni town between Mosul and Baghdad, they said. Islamic State has escalated attacks on forces and officials opposed to its rule as it fights off a military campaign to retake...

>LIMA Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Saturday to further open the world's second-largest economy as leaders of Asia-Pacific countries gathered in Peru to find new free-trade options after Donald Trump was s elected U.S. president on a protectionist platform.The annual APEC summit got under way in Lima...