More than two dozen F/A-18 Hornets roared off the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt in an ear-splitting display of US military might as the aircraft carrier sailed through the South China Sea.
The training exercise yesterday came ahead of a port call in the Philippines, which along with several other nations is embroiled in disputes with Beijing over its claim to the strategic waters.
The demonstration, during a visit by Philippine generals and journalists, was held just days after Beijing flexed its own military muscle with a huge naval drill involving its sole aircraft carrier and dozens of other vessels several hundred kilometres to the north.
"We have seen Chinese ships around us," carrier strike group commander Rear Admiral Steve Koehler said.
"They're one of the navies that operate in the South China Sea but I would tell you that we've seen nothing but professional work from the ships that we've encountered," he said.
Koehler acknowledged "there's a lot of disputes" over the ...

US displays military muscle as carrier sails in South China Sea

PTI Automatic

The number of new store openings in Britain sank to its lowest level in seven years in 2017 due to weak consumer spending and strong online competition, a study showed today.
The total number of openings fell almost ten percent to 4,083 last year, audit group PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found in a survey of 500 town centres.
That was the lowest total since 2010 and compared with 4,534 in 2016.
At the same time, store closures increased nearly eight percent to 5,855 branches.
Overall, the net impact was that 1,772 shops disappeared from the British high street last year, the study found.
"2017 was tough for the British retail industry, particularly the second half of the year," said PwC consumer markets leader Lisa Hooker in a report.
She added: "Wage growth failed to keep up with inflation -- forcing many shoppers to think more carefully about their spending habits.
"On top of this, many retailers are increasingly feeling the impact of the acceleration of online shopping as consumers 

Number of UK shop openings hits seven-year low: study

UN judges today found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.
Seselj told AFP after the ruling that he was "proud" of the crimes he was convicted of -- including inciting persecution -- and was willing to do the same again.
Presiding judge Theodor Meron sentenced the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars, at a hearing in The Hague.
"The appeals chamber reverses Seselj's acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity," the judge said.
The judges however said that in line with the court's rules, "Seselj's sentence has been served" after he spent about 12 years in jail while facing trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.
Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague.
He had been ...

UN war crimes judges quash radical Serb's acquittal By Jan Hennop and Jo Biddle

Russian whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny was violently sick in a luxury Paris hotel the night before he died in 2012 in Britain in unexplained circumstances, his Ukranian mistress told a court today.
The 44-year-old businessman had been helping investment firm Hermitage Capital Management investigate a money-laundering operation when he collapsed while jogging near his home in the wealthy London commuter district of Weybridge.
British MPs have asked the government to investigate a list of 14 Britons and Russians, including Perepilichny, whose deaths on UK soil in recent years have been deemed potentially suspicious.
The cases have come under particular scrutiny following a nerve agent attack in the city of Salisbury against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Perepilichny's inquest at a London court heard that the married businessman spent his last two nights in Paris with Elmira Medynska, a Ukranian former model who now runs her own fashion ...

Russian whistleblower 'violently sick' before he died: mistress

The top Republican in the US House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, has decided to retire when his term ends, casting his party into a leadership fight ahead of crucial mid-term elections.
The bombshell was delivered by the speaker's counselor, Brendan Buck, who said Ryan would not seek re-election in November.
"This morning Speaker Ryan shared with his colleagues that this will be his last year as a member of the House.
"He will serve out his full term, run through the tape, and then retire in January," Buck said in a statement.
Ryan, who reluctantly assumed the House leadership in 2015 and never fully embraced President Donald Trump, has given no sign of his future political ambitions.
Trump paid tribute to Ryan as "a truly good man." "While he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you Paul!" the president tweeted following the announcement.
Buck said the 38-year-old congressman from Wisconsin was looking forward ..

US House Speaker Ryan will not seek re-election: aide

Market gyrations in response to tariff threats from political leaders show that financial traders do not grasp the intricacies of global trade, a senior UN official said today.
Arancha Gonzalez, who heads the International Trade Center (ITC), told reporters that traders have proven too sensitive in the face of "big headline announcements" and "shooting from the hip" bluster about possible protectionist moves in major economies.
"I think traders know about the global economy, but international trade procedures and rules may be a little bit too detailed for them at this point," she added.
Gonzalez, who runs a body set up by the United Nations and World Trade Organization to advise businesses, did not downplay the real impact of market swings triggered by back-and-fourth trade war threats in Washington and Beijing in recent weeks.
But she said markets have been "overreacting" to such rhetoric because they "do not understand all of (the) intricacies," especially the long journey between ..

Markets 'overreacting' to trade war rhetoric: UN official

Syria today described US President Donald Trump's threats of missile strikes on the country in response to an alleged chemical attack as a "reckless escalation", state news agency SANA said.
"We are not surprised by such a reckless escalation from a regime like the United States which has fostered and continues to foster terrorism in Syria," SANA reported an official source at the foreign ministry as saying.
Damascus, which refers to all rebels as "terrorists", has almost entirely expelled opposition fighters from their former bastion of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus since mid-February.
Trump said Wednesday that "missiles will be coming" in response to an alleged chemical attack in Ghouta's last rebel holdout of Douma at the weekend.
"It's not at all strange that it (the United States) supports the terrorists in Ghouta and condones their fabrications and lies to use them as a pretext to target Syria," the official source said.
Trump and other Western leaders have vowed a quick and ..

Syria says US threats 'reckless escalation': state agency

UN judges today overturned the controversial acquittal of radical Serb politician Vojislav Seselj, sentencing him to 10 years for crimes against humanity in the 1990s Balkans conflict.
The court "finds Seselj guilty... of instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts," presiding judge Theodor Meron said, before adding the Serbian MP's jail time "has been served" as he had already spent 12 years in custody in a UN prison.

UN appeal judges quash radical Serb Seselj's acquittal

Swedish prosecutors today charged a 49-year-old Chinese man with espionage for allegedly gathering intelligence on Tibetan refugees in Sweden and Norway for China.
The man, identified in the charge sheet as Dorjee Gyantsan, is accused of infiltrating the Tibetan community to pass information on their personal and political activities to Chinese officials in exchange for money.
His lawyer, Mikael Soderberg, told AFP his client -- who faces up to four years in prison -- denied all charges.
Dorjee acquired resident status as a refugee in Sweden in the early 2000s, and posed as a supporter of Tibetan independence, prosecutors said.
He also attended Tibetan anti-China protests in Norway, and covered a visit of the Dalai Lama to Norway as a reporter for the pro-Tibetan Voice of Tibet, in order to collect information on Tibetan refugees.
The espionage is believed to have taken place from July 2015 to February 2017, when he was arrested.
"This is a very serious crime. The espionage has ...

Sweden charges Chinese with spying on Tibetan refugees

US President Donald Trump said today that "missiles will be coming" in response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria, defying Russian warnings against a strike.
Upping the stakes in an escalating confrontation with Moscow, Trump took to Twitter in the strongest assertion yet that he plans to take military action in Syria.
"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!" Trump wrote.
Trump and other Western leaders have vowed a quick and forceful response to Saturday's alleged gas attack, which rescue workers say killed more than 40 people in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma.
Efforts to find a diplomatic solution at the UN Security Council yesterday failed, with Washington and Moscow opposing each other's rival motions to set up an international investigation into chemical weapons use.
Russia has ...

Defiant Trump warns missiles 'will be coming' over Syria attack

US-Russian relations are "worse now" than ever, "and that includes the Cold War," President Donald Trump wrote today on Twitter.
"There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?" he wrote.

US-Russia relationship 'worse now' than during Cold War: Trump

An Algerian military plane crashed and caught fire today killing 257 people, mostly army personnel and members of their families, officials said.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw the charred wreckage of the plane in a field near the Boufarik airbase from where the plane had taken off.
Hundreds of ambulances and dozens of fire trucks with their sirens wailing rushed to the scene of the crash about 25 kilometres southwest of Algiers.
The defence ministry said in a statement that 247 passengers and 10 crew were killed without mentioning any survivors.
Deputy Defence Minister General Ahmed Gaid Salah visited the site and ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the crash, the defence ministry said.
The Ilyushin II-76 transport plane was bound for Tindouf in southwest Algeria.
Algeria has suffered a string of military and civilian aviation disasters.
Two military planes collided mid-flight in December 2012 during a training exercise in Tlemcen, in the far west of the country, 

257 dead as military plane crashes in Algeria

President Donald Trump warned Russia today about supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and said US missiles "will be coming" in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians.
"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump's message comes one day after Russia vetoed a US-drafted resolution at the United Nations Security Council to set up a panel to identify the perpetrators of Saturdays' alleged toxic gas attacks in Douma.
Russia has said its military specialists found no evidence of a chemical attack, and suggested that rebels staged or spread rumours of an attack to pin the blame on Damascus.
In an earlier tweet, Trump said that there was "So much Fake News about what is going on in the White House. Very calm and calculated with a big focus on open and fair ...

Trump warns Russia on Syria, says missiles 'will be coming'

At least 257 people, mostly soldiers and members of their families, were killed in an Algerian military plane crash today, the defence ministry said.
The II-76 crashed shortly after take-off from the Boufarik airbase, about 25 kilometres southwest of the capital Algiers.
The dead include the plane's 10 crew and 247 passengers, most of them members of the armed forces, the ministry said in a statement.

257 dead in Algeria military plane crash: official

Elephants used their trunks to shower floral-clad Thais with water today in a street fight celebrating the kingdom's traditional new year, a raucous festival known as Songkran that will bring revellers out for a nationwide water battle this week.
The animals, whose wrinkled hides were decorated with paint, splashed and sprayed in the streets of Thailand's former capital Ayutthaya, a tourist hotspot famed for its ancient temple ruins.
A mix of Thais and foreigners armed with water guns and buckets fired back at the elephants, who were controlled by handlers -- known as mahouts -- riding on their backs.
"Today our children (elephants) are having fun and the foreigners who come to Ayutthaya are happy to inherit the Thai tradition," Tawan Sudso, an organiser of the annual event, told AFP.
The Buddhist new year festival officially starts on April 13 and runs for three days.
Traditional celebrations include paying respect to elders and sprinkling water over Buddha figures at local temples, .

Elephant water battle heralds Thai new year

Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a "semi-infinite basis," according to a fresh study.
The deposit, found within Japan's exclusive economic waters, contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released yesterday in the journal "Scientific Reports." The team, comprised of several universities, businesses and government institutions, surveyed the western Pacific Ocean near Minamitorishima Island, Japan.
In a sample area of the mineral-rich region, the team's survey estimated 1.2 million tons of "rare earth oxide" deposited there, said the study, conducted jointly by Yutaro Takaya, researcher with Waseda University and Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo, among others.
The finding extrapolates that a 2,500-square kilometre region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tons of 

Japan team maps 'semi-infinite' rare earth reserves

Tens of thousands of university students marched in cities across Bangladesh today in one of the biggest protests faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.
Students fighting against a controversial policy that sets aside government jobs for special groups have united in mass protests rarely seen on such a scale in Bangladesh.
In Dhaka chanting mobs of students blockaded major roads and swarmed Dhaka University, bringing traffic to a standstill in the congested capital of 15 million.
Police were deployed to the university where clashes in recent days left more than 100 students injured by tear gas and rubber bullets.
"There are more than 5,000 protesters at the DU," a senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer told AFP, referring to Bangladesh's most prestigious university.
Police in Savar, northwest of Dhaka, said an estimated 7,000 students had descended on a major highway linking traffic to the capital, causing chaos.
"They completely blockaded the road," police ...

Tens of thousands rally as Bangladesh job protests spread

South Korea and Japan today vowed to work closely together on North Korea ahead of the looming inter-Korea summit, but their foreign ministers remained divided over long-standing issues of Japan's wartime crimes and disputed islands.
Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono made a rare visit to Seoul armed with a list of issues Tokyo wants to push onto the agenda of the April 27 summit between North and South Korea.
At a time of frenetic diplomatic activity in northeast Asia - the North's Kim Jong Un is due to meet with the leaders of both South Korea and the US -- Japan has largely remained on the sidelines.
Tokyo has found itself forced to rely on the US and South Korea to tackle its concerns regarding the North, which last year test-fired several missiles that flew over Japan, sparking security fears.
Kono and his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha vowed "close communication and cooperation" to disarm the North and build peace on the flashpoint peninsula, Seoul's foreign ministry ..

S Korea, Japan vow to cooperate on N Korea but remain divided in rare meeting

Seventeen people were killed in a flashpoint district of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, an AFP reporter saw today.
Residents of the PK5 district laid out the bodies of 17 men in front of the headquarters of the United Nations mission in Bangui, saying they had been killed in clashes yesterday between local armed groups and UN peacekeepers.

17 killed in troubled district of C African capital

A South Korean farmer killed and cooked a neighbour's barking dog before inviting its unsuspecting owner to join him for a dog-meat dinner, police said today, in a case that has sparked online outrage.
The 62-year-old unnamed man confessed to the crime after another neighbour tipped off the pet owner's family.
He claimed he was so irritated by the dog's constant barking that he threw a stone at the two-year-old Welsh Corgi, resulting in the animal losing consciousness.
"Only after the dog passed out, he claims, he strangled the animal and cooked it," a detective in the southern city of Pyeongtaek told AFP.
"The man then invited his neighbours to share the meal, including the father of the dog-owning family", he said.
Dog meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine. But consumption has declined as South Koreans increasingly embrace the idea of dogs as pets instead of livestock, with eating them now something of a taboo among younger generations.
The case came to light when a ...

S Korean kills neighbour's dog, invites him to share meat

The Kremlin today urged restraint in Syria, saying that countries should avoid taking action that could further destabilise the war-torn country, as the US considered missile strikes over alleged chemical attacks.
"As before we would hope that all sides will avoid steps that in reality are not provoked by anything and that could destabilise the already fragile situation in the region," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
"The situation is tense," Peskov said, adding that Russia is calling for an "unprejudiced and objective investigation before making judgements" on the suspected use of chemical weapons.
Russia yesterday at the United Nations Security Council vetoed a US-drafted resolution on setting up a panel to identify the perpetrators of toxic gas attacks after chemical weapons were allegedly used in the rebel-held town of Douma.
Russia has said its military specialists found no evidence of a chemical attack on Saturday in Douma and suggested that rebels staged or ...

AFP

AFP

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