US, Japan & Philippines to stage army drills
Macron
UN food supplies arrive in Darfur:
The United Nations said Friday it has begun distributing food in Sudan’s restive western Darfur region for the first time in months, following two successful cross-border deliveries in March, but the population still faces widespread hunger unless more help arrives.
The yearlong conflict between military and paramilitary forces in Sudan is causing one of the world’s worst hunger crisis. About a third of the country’s population, or 18 million people, face acute hunger, the UN food agency says, with the most desperate trapped behind the front lines. They include 5 million who face starvation, the UN’s World Food Program has said.
In Darfur, where some of the worst fighting is underway, the situation is particularly severe. Two aid convoys crossed the border from Chad into Sudan in late March, the WFP said, adding that it has been unable to schedule further shipments. The current deliveries are expected to reach about 250,000 people and last for a month.
“Hunger in Sudan will only increase as the lean season starts in just a few weeks. I fear that we will see unprecedented levels of starvation and malnutrition sweep across Sudan,” said the WFP’s top envoy to Sudan, (AP)
Eddie Rowe. ❑ ❑ ❑ Scars of past haunt Rwanda:
Rwanda is preparing to mark the 30th anniversary of the East African nation’s most horrific period in history - the genocide against its minority Tutsi. To this day, new mass graves are still being discovered across the country of 14 million people, a grim reminder of the scale of the killings.
Delegations from around the world will gather on Sunday in the capital of Kigali as Rwanda holds somber commemorations of the 1994 massacres. High-profile visitors are expected to include Bill Clinton, the US president at the time of the genocide.
In a pre-recorded video ahead of the ceremonies, French President
said on Thursday that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France - Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 - for failing to stop the country’s slide into the slaughter.
An estimated 800,000 Tutsi were killed by extremist Hutu in massacres that last
Macron Emmanuel
MANILA, Philippines, April 6, (AP): The United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines will hold their first joint naval exercises, including antisubmarine warfare training, in a show of force Sunday in the South China Sea where Beijing’s aggressive actions to assert its territorial claims have caused alarm.
The four treaty allies and security partners are holding the exercises to safeguard “the rule of law that is the foundation for a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region” and uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, they said in a joint statement issued by their defense chiefs Saturday.
China was not mentioned by name in the statement, but the four countries reaffirmed their stance that a 2016 international arbitration ruling, which invalidated China’s expansive claims on historical grounds, was final and legally binding. China has refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected the ruling and continues to defy it. The Philippines brought its disputes with China to international arbitration in 2013 after a tense sea standoff.
There was no immediate comment by China.
Last year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry warned against military exercises involving the United States and its allies in the disputed waters harming its security and territorial interests.
“We stand with all nations in safeguarding the international order based on the rule of law that is the foundation for a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region,” the four nations said but did not provide specific details of the military drills, called the Maritime Cooperative Activity.
Japan said in a statement, issued by its embassy in Manila, that it would deploy its destroyer, the JS Akebono, for the South China Sea exercises, which would include antisubmarine warfare training and other military maneuvers.
Also:
WASHINGTON: For the first time in nearly two years, and Chinese defense officials met this week to discuss unsafe and aggressive ship and aircraft incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific region, restarting a dialogue that abruptly ended in a dispute involving
The meeting, which was Tuesday through Thursday in came as Washington and Beijing work to expand communications between the two world powers and ease escalating tensions. Military-to-military
US Beijing Taiwan. Hawaii,
ed over 100 days. Some moderate Hutu who tried to protect members of the Tutsi minority were also targeted. (AP)
❑ ❑ ❑ Tourist killed in elephant attack:
A bull elephant charged a truck that an 80-year-old American was riding in with other tourists on a game drive in a Zambian
contact had stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication after then- House Speaker visit to Taiwan, the self-governing island claims as its own.
The thaw in relations between the two countries got a kick-start last November when U.S. President
and China’s President met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San About a month later, Gen. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call - in the first senior military-to-military contact since the Pelosi visit.
Other top-level talks have continued, including a call earlier this week between Biden and Xi, and a visit to China by Treasury Secretary
that began on Thursday.
Joe Biden Jinping Yellen
TOKYO:
Nancy Pelosi’s ❑ ❑ ❑
Japanese Prime Minister said Friday he wants to strengthen military and weapons development
Kishida Francisco. CQ Brown, China Xi Janet Fumio
national park, flipping over the vehicle and killing her, a safari company said.
The attack injured five others on March 30 in the vast Kafue National Park, which covers 22,400 square kilometers (8,600 square miles) and is one of Africa’s largest animal reserves.
According to the safari company Wilderness, the “aggressive” bull elephant
cooperation with the United States as well as with other countries such as the Philippines, as he prepares for a visit to the US next week to meet with President
“Defense industry cooperation between Japan and the United States, as well as with like-minded countries, are extremely important,” Kishida said in an interview Friday with selected foreign media, including The Associated Press, at the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Within the Japan-US alliance, I do hope to steadily improve deterrence and response capability,” he said.
Kishida said Japan hopes to promote security cooperation in areas including defense equipment and technology. “By building multi-layered networks of cooperation, we can further expand and strengthen our deterrence capability,” he said.
During his April 8-14 trip to the US, Kishida will hold talks with Biden at the White House on Wednesday, followed by a trilateral summit with Philippine President
the next day.
Jr. Joe Biden. Ferdinand Marcos
unexpectedly charged at the truck, which was carrying six guests and a guide on a morning excursion through wild areas.
It wasn’t clear what upset the bull. But in a video widely circulated online, the pachyderm is seen menacingly charging through the bushy terrain toward the tourists’ vehicle. A man is heard shouting “hey hey hey,” in apparent but futile efforts to scare it away. It reaches the truck and flips it over using its trunk. (AP)
❑ ❑ ❑ Ex-speaker released on bail:
The former South African speaker of parliament was arrested on Thursday over allegations that she received about $135,000 in bribes, in the latest corruption scandal to face the governing African National Congress party.
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula turned herself in to police in the capital, Pretoria, on Thursday and was taken to Pretoria Magistrates Court, where she was released on 50,000 rand ($2,670) in bail.
Mapisa-Nqakula maintained her innocence and suggested the charges against her were politically motivated with the country set to hold national elections later this year. The developments follow weeks of controversy over allegations that Mapisa-Nqakula received 11 cash payments from a defense contractor when she was minister of defense between 2016 and 2019. (AP)