News around the world

Kerry meet Abbas

US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace negotiations with Israel.

He met Abbas in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Friday. Kerry is in the region in an effort to revive the Middle East peace process

Obama arrives in South Africa

US President Barack Obama is visiting South Africa, where world media is focusing on the health of former president Nelson Mandela. Mandela, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading the struggle to abolish the apartheid system, had a recurrence of lung infection earlier this month and is in critical condition in hospital.

Obama arrived in Pretoria on Friday on the second leg of a tour of 3 African countries. He was cautious about visiting Mandela in hospital. En route to South Africa, Obama said the last thing he wants to do is to be in any way obtrusive to Mandela's family.

The first African American to serve as US president, Obama has called Mandela's effort to achieve reconciliation between blacks and whites after the abolition of apartheid his ideal.

ASEAN Meet begins

ASEAN foreign ministers will hold a series of meetings over 4 days from Saturday in Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan.

Foreign ministers from Japan, China, South Korea, and the US will join them in discussions on maritime security.

The agenda will include territorial disputes over islands in the South China Sea involving two ASEAN members -- the Philippines and Vietnam -- and China. China is increasing its maritime activity.

ASEAN foreign ministers in their meeting in July of last year failed to reach agreement on how to deal with China. That was the first ASEAN foreign minister's meeting to end without adopting a joint statement.

Attention is focused on what extent the ASEAN countries and China can agree on rules for peaceful settlement of the territorial disputes.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and US Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the series of ministerial meetings.

The ASEAN Regional Forum on Tuesday will be attended by North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun.

South Korean President meet Chinese Leaders

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has reiterated her resolve to strengthen cooperation with China.

Park, now visiting Beijing, met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday. Earlier on Thursday, she met President Xi Jinping.

During her meeting with Li, Park is believed to have proposed that the 2 countries aim to increase mutual investment and work together to transform their export-oriented economies into ones based on domestic demand. Li is believed to have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation.

The South Korean President also met Zhang Dejiang, the Chinese Communist Party's Number 3 on Friday.

Park indicated that exchanges should be promoted between the South Korean parliament and China's National People's Congress.

Morsi's opponents &supporters rally 

Protesters began gathering at Tahrir Square, central Cairo, on Saturday.

 .he demonstrators said the president made only wrong decisions for the country.  Many said  will continue  protest until he steps down

Morsi's supporters are holding a sit-in at a square near the presidential palace. Some of them are preparing for possible clashes with opponents with helmets and batons at hand.


A supporter said he will continue backing Morsi as he thinks Egypt will fall into chaos if the president resigns.

The state-run news agency and other Egyptian media report that clashes across the country left 6 people dead and more than 600 injured as of Friday.

An American man reportedly died after being stabbed in the chest on Friday when he happened to be near a rally in the northern city of Alexandria.

US State Department issued a travel advisory to US citizens on Saturday. US government officials and their family members are advised to leave Egypt for safety reasons.

Soldiers dead in Thailand roadside bomb attack

Eight soldiers have been killed and four wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Thailand’s restive south according to police, marking the deadliest assault on Thai security forces in several years. Two of the wounded were soldiers while the other two were villagers. Military vehicles had been targeted by the attackers Yala province, close to the Malaysian border. More than 5,000 people have been killed since 2004 when a separatist insurgency started again in the Muslim-majority region. Government talks with Muslim separatist rebels are underway on the largely Buddhist country. However, attacks continue to occur on a daily basis. Militants fighting for greater autonomy are believed to have carried out the attack.

N. Korea to discuss 6-party talks in Moscow 

North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator is scheduled to meet senior Russian officials in Moscow next week “as part of efforts to resume the six-party talks,” RIA Novosti reported citing Russia’s Foreign Ministry. North Korea's First Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan will meet deputy Foreign Ministers Vladimir Titov and Igor Morgulov on Thursday, amid a push to get the North to resume talks over security concerns connected to its nuclear program. Pyongyang walked out of talks with the US, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China in 2009, saying that it will not abandon its nuclear program.

​Top N. Korea general hails brotherhood ties with Cuba during visit

North Korea’s Chief of General Staff Kim Kyok-sik said his country and Cuba "share the same trench," as he spoke to the media in Havana. The hardliner general gave the address after paying tribute to Cuba's pro-independence hero Antonio Maceo in the company of his local counterpart General Alvaro Lopez Miera. North Korean delegation is to stay in Cuba until Monday discussing cooperation in defense technology and military training, Cuban news agency reports.

​12 killed in bus fall into Peru river

A bus crash in Peru left at least 12 people dead on Friday, when the vehicle carrying 25 passengers plunged off a 100 meter cliff into Huachecsa River, in the town of Chacpa, in the northern Huari province, officials said. Traffic police blame speeding and the narrow road along the cliff for the tragedy. The incident comes just nine days after another bus plunged into a river in Peru killing 35 people.

​Chinese lash out at Philippines on  disputed Asian islands

China’s People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, came with scalding front-page criticism of the Philippines over their latest mover to send soldiers and supplies to the disputed Spratly Islands. The newspaper called it “illegal occupation” and lashed out at the Philippines for calling on the US as a “patron” in the dispute. The criticism came ahead of the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei, which starts on Saturday. Asian ministers are hoping to hammer out a legally binding Code of Conduct for maritime conflicts in the region. South China Sea is a place of numerous land disputes, involving China, Philippines, Malaya, Vietnam, and other nations contesting sovereignty over islands.

Four radical Islamists investigated suspected to plot  attacks in France

Four suspected radical Islamists, who were arrested in the Paris region earlier this week on suspicion of plotting attacks in France, have been put under formal investigation, according to legal and police sources. Three of the suspects, aged between 22 and 34, are French; one is from Benin, a country in West Africa, the sources told Reuters. Two other suspects arrested in the same raid on a suspected Islamist cell have been released. Security has been intensified in France since January when French military intervened in Mali to fight back Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels who gained control of the north of the former French colony.

Brazilian president met youth organizations 

Aiming to connect with Brazil’s youth, the largest demographic to take part in nationwide protests still ongoing since two weeks ago, President Dilma Rousseff met in the capital Brasilia with the leaders of 25 youth organizations. Though no concrete announcements resulted from the Friday talks, Rousseff’s government cast them as the beginning of a dialogue with the country’s youth, reports the AP. Though the numbers taking part in protests have been greatly reduced since hundreds of thousands filled the streets of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and dozens of other municipalities last week there were still large showings in Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Recife in tandem with Confederations Cup matches. Having already made a number of announcements, including greater investment in public transportation, education and health services, Rousseff’s government will also be launching a new website on July 8 focusing exclusively on youth issues in a bid to serve the country’s disaffected group.

Judge places hold on parts of new Kansas abortion law

A Kansas state judge has put on hold two abortion restrictions that were set to take effect next week, one of which providers believe would have effectively ended the procedure in an emergency situation. The most contentious provision blocked by Judge Rebecca Crotty is a redefinition of medical emergencies that would exclude mental health reasons, such as threatening to commit suicide. The other provision Crotty struck down would compel abortion providers to declare on their own websites that the Kansas state health department’s information on abortion and fetal development is accurate and objective. According to the AP, the state health department currently asserts that a human fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks, a contention critics say is unfounded. Among the state provisions that will still take effect is a ban on tax breaks for abortion providers, and a requirement that doctors inform patients that abortions end the life of “whole, separate, unique, living human being.” Kansas has spent almost $769,000 on private attorneys in defending anti-abortion laws enacted since 2011.

Nearly 22  killed across Iraq bombings continue

Violence continued in Iraq Friday with a series of explosions killing at least 22 people across the country. A suicide bomber attacked a funeral in Dujail, killing four, and two explosions at a neighborhood football stadium left five players dead in Madaen, 30 miles southeast of Baghdad. A senior police officer’s car exploded in Ramandi and, when a crowd gathered to examine the wreckage, a second blast detonated, killing 10 others. This is just the latest tragedy in escalating levels of violence since the beginning of the year. Over 1,000 people in Iraq were killed in May alone, the most violent month since 2006-20

Media agencies