WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: US President Barack Obama on Thursday announced the establishment of a task force headed by his deputy Joe Biden, to propel the quest to treat and cure cancer. In a presidential memorandum, Obama announced the establishment of the “White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force,” which will issueRead More

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: EU president Donald Tusk will meet British Prime Minister David Cameron in London late Sunday, with proposals by Brussels for a reform deal to keep Britain in the union expected early next week, officials said. Cameron is holding a series of meetings with key European leaders as talksRead More

TOKYO: Japan is always gathering and analysing information on movements concerning North Korea’s missiles with “great interest”, a government spokesman said on Thursday. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told a news conference the government would continue to cooperate with nations such as the United States and South Korea toRead More

BRUSSELS: The leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition said conflict in the country’s largely Kurdish southeast had grown into an international problem, feeding into war in neighbouring Syria, and urged allies to do more to push for a ceasefire. Unrest in the NATO member state, which is negotiating to join theRead More

ADEN, YEMEN: A suicide car bombing killed at least eight people at a checkpoint outside Yemen’s presidential palace in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, security and medical officials said. The dead included soldiers and civilians and at least 12 others were wounded, a medical source said. A securityRead More

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: NATO head Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Thursday the alliance is discussing whether to hold its first formal talks with Russia since 2014 when the Ukraine crisis plunged relations into a deep freeze. Stoltenberg said NATO and Russia needed transparency to avoid misunderstandings and incidents such as the November shootingRead More

TOKYO, JAPAN: Japan’s economy minister resigned Thursday over a corruption scandal, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he looks to build support for a massive trade deal and changes to the country’s constitution. Akira Amari’s surprise resignation comes a week after the veteran politician was hit byRead More

ROME, ITALY: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday he hoped his country could reconcile with fellow Middle Eastern powerhouse Saudi Arabia, but refused to apologise for an attack on a Saudi embassy. “We did everything we had to, we condemned” the attack, Rouhani said of the torching of the embassyRead More

BEIJING, CHINA: Nuclear-armed North Korea poses an “overt threat, a declared threat to the world”, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Beijing Wednesday following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test earlier this month. Washington is pushing for a strong United Nations response to the North’s latest atomic blast — whichRead More

DOHA, QATAR: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani appointed new foreign and labour ministers Wednesday in a reshuffle of heavyweight cabinet positions, state media announced. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, a member of the royal family, replaced Khalid al-Attiyah as foreign minister, according to the emir’s order published onRead More