Kim Jong-un paid 'unofficial' visit to Beijing, Chinese state media confirms
North Korean leader pledges his commitment to denuclearising the Korean peninsula during his first overseas trip since he took power in 2011
China has confirmed that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has visited Beijing, where he met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and pledged his commitment to denuclearising the Korean peninsula.
Confirming several reports over the last two days, Xinhua state news agency said Kim had been in China on an “unofficial visit” from Sunday to Wednesday.
According to Xinhua, Kim told Xi the situation on the Korean peninsula was “starting to get better”. He said: “It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il-sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong-il.”
These are the faces of those who have been affected by the siege of Eastern Ghouta
Robert Fisk discovers it would take a year, if not a decade, to understand the killing and the cynicism and the innocent suffering behind this epic battleThey were frightened – traumatised might be our medical definition – but the civilians from Douma in Eastern Ghouta were alive. Sat quietly on the government bus that had brought them to the Arbeen crossing were the children with their mothers, the old men, watchful, the younger men – there were not so many of them – looking out of the windows. When we climbed aboard alone with them, notebook in hand and camera moving across the passengers, they sat like extras in a movie, faces from the siege. Were they silent because they were fearful of the future? Or because they were still trying to frame their own suffering of the past?
We were all aware of the usual rumours; that those armed jihadis who had refused the Russian conditions for leaving the besieged villages and fields of Ghouta would shell the refugees to discourage them from crossing. Rubbish. Or that’s what we thought until a mortar swished over the buses and crashed in the powdered rubble 30 metres away. The refugees – for that is what they were now after the tunnels of Ghouta – turned their heads like birds towards the cloud of smoke rising into the sky, and the Syrian soldiers outside ran towards the buses. A general climbed aboard. “Get these buses moving!” he shouted.
Opinion: Vladimir Putin's diplomatic catastrophe
The Kremlin will continue fighting the West without rules, and a diplomatic boycott will not stop it, writes Russian journalist Konstantin Eggert. Retreat would signify defeat, as far as Moscow is concerned.
"I don't believe it!" This was what Konstantin Stanislavsky, the father of modern Russian theater, told actors when he was not satisfied with their performance. The United Kingdom and its two dozen allies around the world spoke on March 26 as a collective Stanislavsky.
"You are lying!" This is the message behind an unprecedented expulsion of Russian diplomats by countries of the European Union, the United States, Canada and Australia. This demarche will now be included in all textbooks on the history of international relations. Even Saddam Hussein and the Kim dynasty in North Korea were spared such public humiliation. This is a serious political and diplomatic victory for British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Poverty drives some Kenyans to rent out their wives
Poverty and unpredictable tourism industry forcing men on the east coast to send spouses into prostitution.by Osman Mohamed Osman
It's a cloudy Sunday morning in Kenya's Kwale county and Sande Ramadan just woke up to get ready for another weekend of work.
Wearing a green vest and khaki shorts, he washes his face and proceeds to the living room where his wife Janet Wambui serves him breakfast.
"Thanks for waking me up, I hate being late for my client," the dreadlocked father of three tells his wife. "She asked me to be with her until next weekend," he adds as he sips black tea.
At Least Twelve States to Sue Trump Administration Over Census Citizenship Question
At least 12 states signaled Tuesday that they would sue to block the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenshipto the 2020 census, arguing that the change would cause fewer Americans to be counted and violate the Constitution.
The New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said he was leading a multistate lawsuit to stop the move, and officials in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington said they would join the effort. The State of California filed a separate lawsuit late Monday night.
“The census is supposed to count everyone,” said Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts. “This is a blatant and illegal attempt by the Trump administration to undermine that goal, which will result in an undercount of the population and threaten federal funding for our state and cities.”
GSDF sees biggest shake-up amid N Korea, China tensions
Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force underwent its biggest organizational shake-up Tuesday, in the midst of a challenging security environment, with its command streamlined for flexible operations nationwide and the creation of amphibious forces tasked with defending remote islands.
The launch of the Ground Component Command to provide unified command over regional armies and the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, Japan's version of the U.S. Marines, came as Tokyo seeks to beef up its defenses against North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and China's maritime assertiveness.
"We are expecting more situations in which the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces have to work together to rapidly respond at a nationwide level against ballistic missile launches, attacks on islands and major disasters," Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said at a press conference, emphasizing the role of the Ground Component Command on such occasions.
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