Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The new U.S. envoy on North Korea is no stranger to nuclear diplomacy and finding ways to deal with prickly adversaries such as Iran. His new assignment, however, could be his toughest yet: persuading a defiant regime that boasts about its nuclear weapons to give up its arsenal in return for aid.
China became the first government to organize a mass evacuation of its citizens from Japan's northeast on Tuesday, while other foreigners left the country following radiation leaks at an earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant.
The Dalai Lama said Thursday that he will give up his political role in the Tibetan government-in-exile and shift that power to an elected representative, as the 76-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader struggles with growing worries about who will succeed him when he dies.
China appears to be tightening restrictions on international media again by barring foreign journalists from working near a popular Shanghai park and along a major Beijing shopping street after calls for protests in those spots appeared online.
China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday a recent visit to North Korea by the country's top diplomat marks a significant effort by Beijing to tamp down regional tensions in an apparent attempt to show it is responding to international calls to rein in its long-standing ally.
South Korea's president promised Tuesday to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbor launched last month.
China and 18 other countries have declined to attend this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Nobel officials said Tuesday as China unleashed another barrage deriding the decision.
South Koreans called President Lee Myung-bak "the Bulldozer" when he plowed into office nearly three years ago with vows to stop coddling North Korea with unconditional aid.
Beijing warned Washington Thursday that economic ties might be damaged after American lawmakers escalated the conflict over China's currency controls, inching the two economic giants closer to a trade war.
Tensions between China and Japan continue to rise even though Japan on Saturday released a Chinese fishing boat captain who was held for ramming his vessel into two Japanese coast guard ships near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
China has warned the Nobel committee against awarding its coveted peace prize to a jailed Chinese dissident, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Tuesday.
Just when the Catholic Church doesn't need another scandal, Italian authorities have seized $30.18 million from a Vatican bank account and begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money-laundering probe.
The Obama administration is signaling it plans to take a tougher stance with China on trade issues, including demanding that Beijing move more quickly to reform its currency system.
U.S. officials are monitoring rising tensions between China and Japan over Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain who is accused of ramming his boat into two Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku islands north of Taiwan and south of Okinawa.
On Thursday in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "We welcome the U.S. and (North
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu did not directly challenge Vietnams legal claim, but he said the U.N. convention did not rule out "a countrys right formed in history that has been consistently claimed."
