US President Joe Biden voiced confidence Thursday that he would meet Xi Jinping soon, as he refused to back down after angering Beijing by likening the Chinese leader to "dictators.". Asked Thursday if he concurred with Biden's assessment of China's leader, Hipkins said "no," adding that "the form of government that China has is a matter for the Chinese people."
Five people on a tourist submersible that went missing near the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic are believed to be dead, after the US Coast Guard said Thursday that debris had been found after a frantic days long hunt for the vessel.. After a long period when trips were postponed after Rush failed to get the proper permits for the project's support vessel, OceanGate Expeditions started taking paying customers to the Titanic's wreck in 2021.
A Dutch court has ruled that Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's late former president, illegally diverted 52 million euros from the southwestern African nation's state oil company.. - 'Deliberately backdated' - The latest case against Angola's embattled ex-first daughter springs from an investigation ordered by the Dutch court in 2020 into the dealings of the Netherlands-based offshore company Esperaza Holdings BV. In 2006, Exem allegedly illegally obtained a 40 percent share in Esperaza, while Sonangol, Angola's oil company, retained a 60 percent majority stake.
The United Nations has put Russian military forces and proxy armed groups on its "list of shame" over violating children's rights in its war in Ukraine, according to a document seen by AFP Thursday.. According to the document, 477 children were killed in Ukraine last year, including 136 deaths attributed to Russian forces and affiliated groups and 80 to Ukrainian armed forces.
The head of the Red Cross federation, the world's largest humanitarian network, is stepping down, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, following a row in Italy surrounding the Rome Pride event.. Francesco Rocca is leaving his post as the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) after the controversy in Italy, where since March he has led the right-wing government of the Lazio region, encompassing Rome.
A multinational mission to find a missing submersible near the Titanic wreck is still focused on finding the five-member crew alive, rescuers insisted Thursday, despite fears that the vessel's oxygen may have run out.. Based on the sub's capacity to hold up to 96 hours of emergency air, rescuers had estimated that the passengers, which include fee-paying tourists, may have run out of oxygen in the early hours of Thursday.
President Joe Biden on Thursday called religious freedom a "core principle" for India and the United States, in a gentle nudge as he welcomed India's Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narenda Modi.. "Equity under the law, freedom of expression, religious pluralism and diversity of our people -- these core principles have endured and evolve," Biden said at a ceremonial welcome to Modi at the White House.
The death of at least 23 migrants during an attempt to cross into Spain's North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco one year ago prompted an outcry over police actions, but advocates say no-one has been held responsible.. The death toll from last year's tragedy -- at least 23 according to Morocco, at least 37 according to Amnesty and independent experts -- was the worst in years of attempted migrant crossings into Melilla.
Turkey on Thursday pivoted away from years of unconventional economics promoted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the central bank nearly doubled its key interest rate to fight inflation and steady the troubled lira.. The Turkish leader pushed the central bank to start slashing interest rates two years ago as part of a "new economic model" that focuses on job creation and economic growth.
A Ukrainian strike damaged a bridge that connects south Ukraine to the annexed Crimean peninsula, a Russian official said on Thursday as tensions again rose over a Moscow-held nuclear power plant. . The bridge connects Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to a part of the Ukrainian region of Kherson that is held by Moscow.
