Street News

Washington:  US President Joe Biden will travel to South Korea and Japan in May, the White House announced Wednesday, paying a visit to two of Washington's main Asian allies amid tensions with rival China and regional foe North Korea. During the May 20-24 trip, Biden will meet the leaders of the two countries with the aim of advancing his "administration's rock-solid commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and to US treaty alliances with the Republic of Korea and Japan," Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. In Tokyo, Biden will also meet with the leaders of the Quad grouping which additionally includes Australia, Japan and India, and is seen as a bulwark against an increasingly assertive China. The Biden administration has repeatedly characterized the Asia-Pacific region, and particularly the rise of communist China, as the number one strategic issue for the United States. China and the United States, the world's two biggest economies, are at loggerhe...

Washington:  Asserting that now there is a growing strategic convergence between the United States and India, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said New Delhi built its partnership with Moscow out of necessity as the US was not in a position to do that earlier. "In the case of India, there is a relationship that goes back decades. And Russia, for India, was out of necessity a partner of choice when we were not in a position to be a partner," he told lawmakers on Wednesday. "Now, we are investing in that effort. I think there is a growing strategic convergence between the United States and India," Blinken said. "And of course, China is a big part of that," Blinken said in response to a question from Senator William Hagerty during a Congressional hearing by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations. Hagerty had sought Blinken's views on the India-US relationship. "What I see before us is something I'm certain that is ve...

Ottawa:  Canadian lawmakers voted unanimously on Wednesday to call Russia's attacks in Ukraine a "genocide", with members of parliament saying there was "ample evidence of systemic and massive war crimes against humanity" being committed by Moscow. The Canadian House of Commons' motion said war crimes by Russia include mass atrocities, systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians, the desecration of corpses, forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, torture, physical harm, mental harm, and rape. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was "absolutely right" for more and more people to describe Russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide, supporting an accusation made by U.S. President Joe Biden a day earlier. Biden had said earlier in April that the Ukraine invasion amounted to genocide but had added that lawyers internationally would have to decide whether or not the invasion met the criteria for genocide. Russia...

  Bangui:  Central African Republic has adopted bitcoin as an official currency, the presidency said on Wednesday, becoming the first country in Africa and only the second in the world to do so. Despite rich reserves of gold and diamonds, Central African Republic is one of the world's poorest and least-developed countries and has been gripped by rebel violence for years. A bill governing the use of cryptocurrency was adopted unanimously by parliament last week, said a statement signed by Obed Namsio, chief of staff of President Faustin-Archange Touadera. "The president supports this bill because it will improve the conditions of Central African citizens," Namsio told Reuters, without elaborating. In the statement, he called it "a decisive step toward opening up new opportunities for our country". Central African Republic is one of six nations that use the Central African CFA franc, a regional currency governed by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). Two of...