News in Brief
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- A summit between the leaders of Russia and North Korea is "on the agenda", Russia's ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, was cited as saying by RIA news agency on Wednesday.
The Kremlin said last month that Russia had invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to travel to the country, adding he could visit as part of an economic forum due to be held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in September.
Matsegora also said Russia supplies North Korea with between 200 and 400 tons of oil products per month, Russia's ambassador to North Korea.
North Korea relies on imported fuel to keep its struggling economy functioning.
Quotas set by the United Nations allow over 60,000 tons of oil products from Russia, China and other countries to be delivered to North Korea per year, Matsegora was quoted as saying in January.
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BUDAPEST (Reuters) -- Hungary will quit a UN migration pact before its final approval, it said on Wednesday, calling the agreement a "threat to the world".
The Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved on Friday by all 193 UN member nations except the United States, which pulled out last year.
But Hungary, led by right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has decided not to sign the final document at a ceremony in December.
"This document is entirely against Hungary's security interests," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference, adding: "This pact poses a threat to the world from the aspect that it could inspire millions (of migrants)."
Hungary, along with Poland and Czech Republic, has taken a tough stand against the admission of migrants, putting it at odds with the European Union, but striking a chord with voters by arguing that irregular immigration threatens European stability, and fencing off Hungary's southern borders.
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ADDIS ABABA (AFP) -- The first commercial flight to Eritrea in two decades departed Wednesday from Addis Ababa, according to the Ethiopian Airlines website, after the two nations ended their bitter conflict in a whirlwind peace process.
Ethiopian Airlines indicated that flight ET0312 to Asmara had left Bole International Airport, after a ceremony inaugurating the flight, which chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam described as a "unique event in the history of Ethiopia and Eritrea".
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PARIS (AFP) -- Almost three in five people infected with HIV, or 21.7 million globally, took antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2017 - a new record for anti-AIDS drug access, the UN's HIV/AIDS agency said Wednesday.
There were 36.9 million people living with the immune system-attacking virus in 2017, of whom 15.2 million were not getting the drugs they need, UNAIDS reported.
Announcing the lowest annual death toll in two decades for 2017, and a record number of people on life-saving treatment, UNAIDS cautioned that a creeping "complacency" threatened these achievements.
"We are sounding the alarm," the agency's executive director Michel Sidibe said at the unveiling of a global status report in Paris ahead of next week's International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.
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MANAGUA (AFP) -- Forces loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega launched an attack on the opposition stronghold of Masaya, as international calls mounted for an end to months of deadly violence in the impoverished Central American country.
Around 40 vans full of heavily armed riot police and paramilitaries entered Masaya – southeast of the capital Managua – from four sides, according to images posted by residents on social media.
Automatic arms fire and warning sirens rang out in the flashpoint city’s Monimbo neighborhood – the epicenter of recent protests calling for Ortega, who has dominated Nicaraguan politics for decades, to step down.
More than 1,000 men firing machine guns entered the city of 100,000 people, residents said.
The United States warned Ortega against pursuing the assault on Masaya and called for a halt to the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests, initially against a now-ditched pension reform, that have left some 280 people dead over the past three months.
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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. President Donald Trump has eased pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons quickly, conceding there is no deadline for a breakthrough.
The U.S. president said there was "no rush for speed” because North Korea had not tested any ballistic missiles over the past nine months.
"We have no time limit. We have no speed limit,” Trump said at a meeting with members of Congress on Tuesday. "We’re just going through the process, but the relationships are very good.”
Immediately after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore last month, Trump insisted that the denuclearization process would "go pretty quickly”. Earlier this month, White House national security adviser John Bolton claimed that the "overwhelming bulk of their programs” could be dismantled within a year.
However, North Korea’s foreign ministry recently accused the U.S. of spoiling the atmosphere of goodwill by making a "unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization”.
The Kremlin said last month that Russia had invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to travel to the country, adding he could visit as part of an economic forum due to be held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in September.
Matsegora also said Russia supplies North Korea with between 200 and 400 tons of oil products per month, Russia's ambassador to North Korea.
North Korea relies on imported fuel to keep its struggling economy functioning.
Quotas set by the United Nations allow over 60,000 tons of oil products from Russia, China and other countries to be delivered to North Korea per year, Matsegora was quoted as saying in January.
***
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -- Hungary will quit a UN migration pact before its final approval, it said on Wednesday, calling the agreement a "threat to the world".
The Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved on Friday by all 193 UN member nations except the United States, which pulled out last year.
But Hungary, led by right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has decided not to sign the final document at a ceremony in December.
"This document is entirely against Hungary's security interests," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference, adding: "This pact poses a threat to the world from the aspect that it could inspire millions (of migrants)."
Hungary, along with Poland and Czech Republic, has taken a tough stand against the admission of migrants, putting it at odds with the European Union, but striking a chord with voters by arguing that irregular immigration threatens European stability, and fencing off Hungary's southern borders.
***
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) -- The first commercial flight to Eritrea in two decades departed Wednesday from Addis Ababa, according to the Ethiopian Airlines website, after the two nations ended their bitter conflict in a whirlwind peace process.
Ethiopian Airlines indicated that flight ET0312 to Asmara had left Bole International Airport, after a ceremony inaugurating the flight, which chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam described as a "unique event in the history of Ethiopia and Eritrea".
***
PARIS (AFP) -- Almost three in five people infected with HIV, or 21.7 million globally, took antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2017 - a new record for anti-AIDS drug access, the UN's HIV/AIDS agency said Wednesday.
There were 36.9 million people living with the immune system-attacking virus in 2017, of whom 15.2 million were not getting the drugs they need, UNAIDS reported.
Announcing the lowest annual death toll in two decades for 2017, and a record number of people on life-saving treatment, UNAIDS cautioned that a creeping "complacency" threatened these achievements.
"We are sounding the alarm," the agency's executive director Michel Sidibe said at the unveiling of a global status report in Paris ahead of next week's International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.
***
MANAGUA (AFP) -- Forces loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega launched an attack on the opposition stronghold of Masaya, as international calls mounted for an end to months of deadly violence in the impoverished Central American country.
Around 40 vans full of heavily armed riot police and paramilitaries entered Masaya – southeast of the capital Managua – from four sides, according to images posted by residents on social media.
Automatic arms fire and warning sirens rang out in the flashpoint city’s Monimbo neighborhood – the epicenter of recent protests calling for Ortega, who has dominated Nicaraguan politics for decades, to step down.
More than 1,000 men firing machine guns entered the city of 100,000 people, residents said.
The United States warned Ortega against pursuing the assault on Masaya and called for a halt to the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests, initially against a now-ditched pension reform, that have left some 280 people dead over the past three months.
***
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. President Donald Trump has eased pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons quickly, conceding there is no deadline for a breakthrough.
The U.S. president said there was "no rush for speed” because North Korea had not tested any ballistic missiles over the past nine months.
"We have no time limit. We have no speed limit,” Trump said at a meeting with members of Congress on Tuesday. "We’re just going through the process, but the relationships are very good.”
Immediately after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore last month, Trump insisted that the denuclearization process would "go pretty quickly”. Earlier this month, White House national security adviser John Bolton claimed that the "overwhelming bulk of their programs” could be dismantled within a year.
However, North Korea’s foreign ministry recently accused the U.S. of spoiling the atmosphere of goodwill by making a "unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization”.