Author: Himalaya Post

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday discussed a broad range of trade and security issues, including the situation in Iran and the broader Middle East, with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on the phone, the White House said. The two leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to coordinating closely to address global challenges, the statement read. Trump tweeted that he had “a very good phone call” with Macron and “discussed various subjects, in particular Security and Trade.” Before Trump’s Monday decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran, which was once lifted under an Iran nuclear deal, the European Union (EU) and three of its heavyweight members, Britain, France and Germany, said they would maintain economic ties with Tehran and “are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran.” After its withdrawal from the deal in May, Washington has worked to block Iran’s international financial transactions and reducing its oil exports to zero, both are said to undermine the interests of Europe. The EU’s updated Blocking Statute entered into force Tuesday as a countermeasure to Washington’s reimposition of sanctions on Iran.The trans-Atlantic ties have also been at odds over trade and sharing defense expenditure....

MATARAM, Indonesia – An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has killed 387 people, authorities said Saturday, adding hundreds of thousands of displaced people were still short of clean water, food and medicine nearly a week on. The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake Sunday levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok, just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17. “It’s predicted the death toll will continue to grow because there are still victims who are suspected of being buried by landslides and under rubble, and there are victims that have not been recorded and reported to posts,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. The number forced from their homes in the disaster has soared to 387,000, Nugroho said, with around 13,000 injured. The hardest hit region of Lombok has been in the north, where 334 people have died and nearly 200,000 have been forced from their homes, according to latest official tolls. Two people were also killed by the quake on the neighbouring tourist island of Bali.Nugroho said the emergency response period has been extended another 14 days, which would allow authorities to deal with the “many problems” that still existed in the field. Most of the displaced are sleeping under tents or tarpaulins near their ruined homes or in evacuation shelters, while makeshift medical facilities have been set...

PHNOM PENH – The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen won a sweeping victory in the July 29 general election, according to provisional results released on Saturday. Twenty political parties contested in the election.The National Election Committee (NEC) provisional results indicated that the CPP received 4.88 million votes, or 76.84 percent, of the total valid votes. The Funcinpec Party of Prince Norodom Ranariddh got 374,610 votes, or 5.88 percent, the League for Democracy Party of former opposition lawmaker Khem Veasna earned 309,364 votes, or 4.86 percent, and the Khmer Will Party of former opposition member Kong Monika received 212,669 votes, or 3.34 percent. NEC said the official results with the allocation of seats in the parliament will be announced on Aug. 15. Based on the NEC results, the CPP had calculated that it had won all 125 seats in the parliament.Hun Sen, 67, who has been in power for 33 years, will continue to lead the government for another five years through the victory. He said earlier this week that a new parliament will be formed on Sept. 5; then, the new parliament will vote for the formation of a new government on...

ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (AFP) – Pakistan’s World Cup cricket hero Imran Khan will be sworn in as prime minister next week, his party said Friday, announcing it has the numbers to form a coalition government in the nuclear-armed nation. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the entire squad that Khan captained to victory in the 1992 World Cup were invited to the ceremony, as well as Indian cricket greats Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Navjot Singh Sidhu. PTI emerged victorious in the July 25 elections, the country’s second-ever democratic transition of power, but fell short of an outright majority. The party confirmed Friday that it has secured the numbers for a majority in the lower house of parliament.”In a historic moment, Imran Khan will take the oath (as prime minister) on August 18,” Faisal Javed Khan, a PTI senator and Khan’s close aide, said in televised comments in Islamabad. Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain has called a session of the new National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, starting August 13.Earlier, India’s high commissioner in Pakistan Ajay Bisaria called on Khan and congratulated him on his victory. “Discussed the need to restart dialogue between Pak & India on all outstanding issues including Kashmir,” Khan’s spokeswoman Anila Khawaja told AFP after the meeting. The Indian high commission tweeted that Bisaria had gifted Khan a cricket bat autographed by the entire Indian...