News

KCNA: DPRK won’t beg for maintenance of friendship with Beijing, won’t give up ‘precious’ n-programme. North Korean state media have issued a stinging denunciation of the country’s chief ally and diplomatic backer China, saying Beijing should be grateful for its protection. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) carried a bylined commentary warning of “grave consequences” if China tests its patience further. China, key provider Beijing and Pyongyang have a relationship forged in the blood of the Korean War, and the Asian giant remains its wayward neighbour’s main provider of aid and trade. But ties have begun to fray in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by the North’s nuclear antics, fearful of a regional crisis. Beijing regularly calls for parties to avoid raising tensions — remarks that can apply to both Washington and Pyongyang — and in February it announced the suspension of coal imports from the North for the rest of the year, a crucial foreign...

Extreme weather conditions prevail throughout much of the state of Queensland. The aftermath of tropical Cyclone Debbie in Australia on Thursday has continued to cause chaos, with extreme weather conditions continuing throughout much of the state of Queensland. Schools in the southeast area of the state have been closed, and employers have been told to send their workers home, as the Bureau of Meteorology is expecting a month’s worth of rain to fall in the course of the day, Xinhua news agency reported. The two biggest cities in Queensland, the capital Brisbane, and tourist hot-spot Gold Coast are bracing for huge downpours, with winds clocking between 90 and 125 km per hour set to hit by Thursday afternoon, with a heavy deluge of rain already falling in both areas. Parent told to put safety first Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has called for residents to put safety first, and to immediately retrieve their children from schools in the affected regions. “We don’t want...

Yes, if the other 27 EU member-states agree though May has said there can be no turning back. The answer to the question of whether Britain’s exit process from the European Union (EU) is revocable is simple: it just depends who you ask. British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted after triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday that it was a “historic moment from which there can be no turning back.” But hours later European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said the clock could in theory be reversed, if only with the approval of the other 27 member- states. “If the U.K. now changes its mind it can’t do it alone, all the other member-states of the union have to decide if they can do it or not,” Italy’s Mr. Tajani said. Herein, a legal ambiguity The apparently contradictory remarks reflect a political and legal ambiguity about whether Britain is saying goodbye for ever. The once obscure and now famous Article 50 is frustratingly vague on this issue, as on mos...