BEIJING (Reuters) -- Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Tuesday told his U.S. counterpart that Taiwan is at the core of China’s core interests and was a “red-line” that must not be crossed. “The resolution of Taiwan is a matter for Chinese people, no external force has the right to interfere,” Wei said at a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of a gathering of Southeast Asian defense chiefs in Cambodia. Wei said the United States must respect China’s core interests and hoped it could adopt a rational, practical policy towards China, and get China-U.S. relations back on track. Beijing has steadfastly viewed Taiwan as an inalienable part of China. Earlier, Chinese state media quoted defense ministry spokesman Tan Kefei as saying the main reason for the current state of relations between China and the United States was that the United States made the wrong strategic judgment. Tan said China was not responsible for the state of relations.

 

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N’DJAMENA (Reuters) -- Boko Haram militants killed at least 10 Chadian soldiers in an attack on a military unit in Lake Chad province near the Nigerian border on Tuesday, Chad’s government said in a statement. The unit had been dispatched as a precursor to setting up an army post on the island of Bouka-Toullorom, between the villages of Ngouboua and Kaiga, where Boko Haram has carried out several offensives in recent years. Militants attacked early on Tuesday morning, killing around 10 men and wounding several others, the statement said. The Boko Haram insurgency, which erupted in northeast Nigeria in 2009, has killed more than 350,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. The group has spread to the swampy Lake Chad zone in the west of the country, where the armies of Chad, Nigeria and Niger have been fighting the takfiri militants for years.

 

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ROME (AFP) -- Italy’s new far-right government unveiled its first budget on Tuesday, with most of the nearly 35 billion euros in spending for 2023 going on the energy crisis rather than flashy electoral promises. More than 21 billion euros ($21.5 billion) will go towards supporting households and businesses with sky-high gas and electricity bills, a major cause of the soaring inflation which risks tipping the eurozone’s third largest economy into recession next year. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party swept to power in elections in September, forming a coalition government with the anti-immigration League and Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia. They had promised sweeping tax cuts and more funds for pensioners and for families, sparking concerns about the impact on Italy’s already colossal debt.

 

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PRISTINA (AFP) -- Kosovo’s prime minister, accused by Brussels of scuppering talks to resolve a row over a scheme to replace Serbian numberplates, said on Tuesday he had delayed the plan for two days. The dispute erupted after Kosovo said the country’s ethnic Serbs would be penalized if they did not swap vehicle license plates issued by Serbia for registration numbers issued by Pristina. The underlying source of tension is Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The latter does not recognize the move and has encouraged Kosovo’s Serb minority to remain loyal to Belgrade. Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Twitter early on Tuesday he had accepted a request from Washington “for a 48-hour postponement of the introduction of fines” for cars with Serbian plates. The delay helped calm tensions in northern Kosovo, a day after EU-mediated negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina over the potentially explosive scheme failed to produce results.

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- Beijing shut parks and museums on Tuesday and Shanghai tightened rules for people entering the city as Chinese authorities grapple with a spike in COVID-19 cases that has deepened concern about the economy and dimmed hopes for a quick reopening. China reported 28,127 new domestically transmitted cases for Monday, nearing its daily peak from April, with infections in the southern city of Guangzhou and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing accounting for about half the total. In Beijing, cases have been hitting new highs every day, prompting calls from the city government for more residents to stay put and show proof of a negative COVID test, not more than 48 hours old, to get into public buildings.  Late on Tuesday, financial hub Shanghai announced that from Thursday people may not enter venues such as shopping malls and restaurants within five days of arriving in the city, although they can still go to offices and use transport. Earlier, the city of 25 million people ordered the closure of cultural and entertainment venues in seven of its 16 districts after reporting 48 new local infections.

  

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BANGKOK (Reuters) -- At least one person was killed when a car bomb exploded inside a police compound in southern Thailand on Tuesday, a police official said. A single perpetrator dressed as a police officer parked the car filled with explosives inside the compound prior to the blast, the police said in a statement. At least 29 people were treated in hospital for wounds, among them police officers and civilians, said Pornprasit Jantra, director of the Narathiwat Rajanagarindra hospital. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha expressed concern over the incident and instructed police and relevant security agencies to improve safety measures for the public, government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri said. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the incident. Provinces in southern Thailand along the border with Malaysia have seen a decades-long, low-level insurgency, in which the Thai government has battled shadowy groups seeking independence for the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla.