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VLADIVOSTOK (Reuters): North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in the Russian city of Vladivostok on Wednesday for a summit he is likely to use to seek support from President Vladimir Putin while Pyongyang’s nuclear talks with Washington are in limbo. The armored train carrying Kim — on his first official visit to Russia —…

BERLIN (AA): Germany on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear deal with Iran despite the recent U.S. move to impose sanctions on countries that buy Iranian oil. Ulrike Demmer, the government’s deputy spokeswoman, told a news conference in Berlin that they had taken note of the recent decision of the Trump administration, and will…

Monitoring Desk NEW DELHI: A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck India´s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh early Wednesday. According to the US Geological Survey (USGC), the epicenter of the earthquake was located about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Along, and 180 kilometres southwest of the state capital Itanagar. Panic scattered through earthquake shocks in Bangladesh,…

Monitoring Desk COLOMBO: The forces of the Islamic State may no longer control a swath of territory across Iraq and Syria, but the coordinated attacks in Sri Lanka demonstrated that the resilient group can still sow carnage beyond the borders of its former “caliphate.” Even a landless Islamic State is influential, as a facilitator of…

Monitoring Desk MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday, a Kremlin official announced on Tuesday. The first-ever meeting of two leaders will take place in the Russian port city of Vladivostok, Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov told reporters in the capital Moscow. “The program of negotiations is typical, it…

LONDON (AA): Dissident republican group the New IRA has claimed responsibility for the killing last week of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland. In a statement issued early Tuesday to The Irish News, the group admitted that its activists killed the 29-year-old reporter, according to local media reports. “In the course of attacking the enemy,…

LONDON (Sputnik): Not only has the Institute for Strategic Dialogue smeared a senior Sweden Democrat as a “far-right extremist”, it also offered the Swedish authorities its help in gathering data on him and his associates abroad through “investigative work”. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a British think tank which had previously called for financial…

KIEV (Reuters): Before Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was even elected, an opposition leader was plotting to curb his powers and make it easier for him to be impeached. Andriy Sadovyi, head of the Samopomich party, the second largest opposition group in parliament, announced two days before the vote he was garnering support for a…

COLOMBO (AA): Muslim parliamentarians and members of a Muslim group in Sri Lanka have paid a condolence visit to the Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, following the terror attacks in the country that claimed 310 lives. According to a press release issued by Mufti M.I.M Rizwe, President of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, Ranjith said preserving peace…