MOSCOW — Two months after a failed summit meeting with President Trump, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was set to meet on Thursday with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, as Mr. Kim tries to rally international support for an approach to sanctions relief and gradual nuclear disarmament that the Trump administration opposes. Mr. Kim’s […]
JAKARTA – The Indonesian government has dismissed an allegation that the authorities rigged last week’s presidential election. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto said yesterday (April 24) that such a crime was impossible to carry out and had never crossed the government’s mind. The former armed forces chief also appealed to everyone […]
India’s main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was all but written off after his crushing defeat in the last elections. But he has energised a struggling Congress party and increasingly set the agenda with a combative campaign. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey visits his constituency to assess whether he can unseat the prime minister this time. The […]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are set for a summit meeting. They are due to meet on Russky island near the city of Vladivostok in Russia’s far east on Thursday morning. Russia says they will discuss the Korean peninsula’s “nuclear problem” but Mr Kim is also said to be seeking […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — As Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war was winding down in 2009, Ranil Thilakaratne’s wife, Anuradha, was pregnant with their first and only child. Colombo, the capital city, still felt under siege by the separatist Tamil Tigers, who had pioneered suicide bombings as a weapon of war. During the war years, bus […]
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. • Sri Lanka’s president asked two top security officials to resign, amid anger that the government had ignored multiple warnings that churches could be attacked — one of which came just hours before the bombings Sunday. One lawmaker called for the two officials to be arrested […]
JAKARTA (AFP) – Two Indonesian domestic workers sentenced to death for practising witchcraft against their employers’ families in Saudi Arabia returned home on Wednesday (April 24) after their sentences were commuted, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said. Sumartini and Warnah, who both have only one name, arrived in Jakarta after serving more than 10 years in a […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage applications to buy a home and to refinance one recorded their steepest weekly decline in four months as some mortgage rates increased to one-month highs in step with higher bond yields, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. The Washington-based industry group said its seasonally adjusted index on home […]
RIYADH (Reuters) – U.K. asset manager Standard Life Aberdeen bought $100 million worth of Saudi Arabia state oil giant Aramco’s debut international bond, the investment firm’s chairman said on Sunday. “I think it was a transformative transaction for the Saudi market,” Martin Gilbert said at a financial sector conference in Riyadh. “We lost a little […]
One of the attackers behind the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka studied in the UK, officials say, as further details on the bombers begin to emerge. The country’s deputy defence minister said the bomber studied in the UK before doing a course in Australia. The announcement comes after the death toll rose again to […]