Thousands participated this week in a lavish ceremony in the Marshall Islands marking the first formal coronation of a paramount chief in around 50 years.. The coronation, held on the small island of Ebeye in the Kwajalein Atoll, is known as a "Kailoojoj" in Marshallese -- a ceremony reserved only for paramount chiefs.
Russia and Ukraine are due Friday to sign an elusive agreement designed to resume grain shipments across the Black Sea for the first time since the Kremlin's invasion in February.. The UN and Russia are due to sign a separate memorandum of understanding in Istanbul guaranteeing that grain and fertiliser cannot be directly or indirectly affected by sanctions. - 120 days - The deal is due to be signed at 1330 GMT at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine: - Grain crisis deal in sight - Ukraine and Russia are set to sign a deal to unblock grain exports and relieve a global food crisis.. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to arrive in Turkey for the grain deal signing ceremony at Istanbul's lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus Strait.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a sympathy message to his United States counterpart Joe Biden on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, a day after the 79-year-old US leader tested positive for Covid-19.. "I would like to express my deep sympathies to you and wish you a speedy recovery," Xi wrote in the message, CCTV reported.
Japan's nuclear regulator on Friday formally approved a plan to release more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.. The country's Nuclear Regulation Authority approved TEPCO's plan, according to a foreign ministry statement, which said the government would ensure the safety of the treated water as well as the "reliability and transparency of its handling".
A Russian air strike killed seven people, four of them children, in Syria's rebel-held Idlib region on Friday, a war monitor said.. Syria's war has killed nearly half a million people and forced around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes. aya/it
Pope Francis departs Sunday for a historic six-day visit to Canada where he is expected to ask forgiveness of Indigenous survivors of abuse committed at residential schools run by the Catholic Church. . The discovery since last year of hundreds of remains of Indigenous children in unmarked graves on the site of state schools administered by the Catholic Church has forced Canada to confront its failed policy of forced assimilation.
Sri Lankan security forces demolished the main anti-government protest camp in the capital, evicting activists in a nighttime assault that raised international concern.. In a statement, police said: "Police and security forces acted to clear protesters occupying the Presidential Secretariat, the main gate and the surroundings.
Fatigue, despair and anger are prevalent in eastern Ukraine after five months of what volunteer humanitarian aid worker Oleksiy Yukov calls "a war without mercy that has gone crazy".. A woman in Bakhmut on the frontline points at journalists, her face tense with anger, calling them "harbingers of misfortune" in the ruins of her pharmacy, destroyed by a missile she thinks was Ukrainian.
Asian markets rose Friday following a third straight rally on Wall Street, as below-par US data eased expectations for a sharper pace of interest rate hikes.. Still, Asian markets were on course to end the week on a positive note.
