China

Paris — Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation a week after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam.  France and Israel are playing in a UEFA Nations League match Thursday.  “There’s a context, tensions that make that match a high-risk event for …

THE HAGUE, Netherlands —  Police detained several people Sunday for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following violence targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club, a local broadcaster reported.  Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema banned all demonstrations over the weekend in the aftermath of the grim scenes of youths on scooters and on foot attacking Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters on …

Manila — The residents of 2,500 villages were ordered to evacuate their homes as severe tropical storm Toraji approached the northern Philippines, the government said Sunday, after three massive cyclones battered the country in less than a month. Nearly 700,000 people are still sheltering at evacuation centers or with relatives after their homes were destroyed by tropical cyclones Trami, Kong-rey and Yinxing, according to government figures …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will visit Iran next Wednesday and start consultations with Iranian officials the following day, state media reported on Sunday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday he might head to Iran in the coming days to discuss its disputed nuclear program and that he expected to work cooperatively with U.S. President-elect …

Hanoi, Vietnam — Vietnamese authorities arrested a pro-democracy activist, state media said, the latest in a crackdown on political dissidents in the southeast Asian country. Tran Khac Duc, 29, was held on charges of “creating, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” according to the publication Safeguarding the Law. He was arrested in September, but authorities only …

BEIJING — Indonesia’s new leader called for collaboration rather than confrontation with China after the signing of $10 billion in new deals at a business forum on Sunday in the Chinese capital before heading to the U.S.  President Prabowo Subianto told the forum that his country wants to be part of China’s emergence as not only an economic but also a “civilizational power.”  “We must give …

JERUSALEM — With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive. As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives to search for cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes. Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and …

Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli protesters expressed concern for the hostages in Gaza on Saturday, after Qatar said it was pausing as a key mediator for a cease-fire that would help bring the captives home. Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv holding signs reading “400,” the number of days since the hostages were taken when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Efforts …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Two Saudi military personnel have been killed in an attack in Yemen, Saudi state media said Saturday, reporting that the assailant was affiliated with Yemen’s defense ministry.  “An officer and a non-commissioned officer were martyred, and an officer was injured as a result of a treacherous and cowardly attack” Friday inside a military camp in the city of Seiyun, the official Saudi …

Beirut — Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the last day have killed more than 20 people including several children, Lebanese authorities said on Saturday, after heavy Israeli bombardment pounded the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut overnight.  At least seven people were killed in the coastal city of Tyre late on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city …

CAIRO/GAZA — A Gaza family sat weeping Saturday over children killed by an Israeli strike as they were getting ready to play soccer. The strike came amid an intensified bombardment that Palestinian health authorities said killed 44 people over the past 24 hours. The strike was in Mawasi, a southern coastal area where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter after Israel’s military told them …

BERLIN — In the middle of a Berlin hotel cafe, Masih Alinejad raises her voice and starts singing at the top of her lungs in Farsi, as waiters and her three German government bodyguards turn to watch. “I blossom through my wounds and my scars,” she translates the lyrics as. “Because I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.” Alinejad was expressing …

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Germany of defending a “terrorist” after the death in Iran of Jamshid Sharmahd, a dual national sentenced to execution, which triggered condemnation from Berlin. Iran on October 28 announced the execution of Sharmahd, 69, but eight days later the judiciary spokesperson said Sharmahd had died before the “imminent” execution could be carried out, implying natural causes. After …

NEW YORK — Beleaguered aviation giant Boeing is set to confront another hurdle next week when it faces a civil trial over the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people. The trial, scheduled for federal court in Chicago, originally included six plaintiffs, but “all but one” have settled, a person close to the litigation told AFP this week. Barring an accord, the case will …

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea, Seoul’s military said. The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to …

TOKYO — Japan is planning to build an automated cargo transport corridor between Tokyo and Osaka, dubbed a “conveyor belt road” by the government, to make up for a shortage of truck drivers. The amount of funding for the project is not yet set. But it’s seen as one key way to help the country cope with soaring deliveries. A computer graphics video made by the …

MAUMERE, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano spewed towering columns of hot ash high into the air Saturday, days after a huge eruption killed nine people and injured dozens of others. Activity at the volcano on the remote island of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara province, has increased since Monday’s initial eruption. On Thursday, authorities expanded the danger zone as the volcano erupted again. …

rabat, morocco — Politicians and activists in Morocco are questioning limitations imposed on preachers regarding what they may say about war in the Middle East during sermons. During a meeting at the country’s parliament this week, socialist lawmaker Nabila Mounib bemoaned the way that imams were curtailed in how they can speak about the plight of Palestinians and call for religious struggle to support their cause. …

WASHINGTON — As clashes escalate along Myanmar’s northern border, Chinese Premier Li Qiang this week reaffirmed Beijing’s support for Myanmar’s military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The comment came Wednesday following a sideline meeting with the embattled junta leader at the November 6-7 Greater Mekong Subregion Summit in Kunming, in China’s southern Yunan province, according to a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry statement issued the same …

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is in Beijing Friday for his first official visit to China, where he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. Experts say he hopes to maintain the personal rapport with the Chinese leaders established by his predecessor, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. “Presumably, he will be leaning more toward Beijing for economic purposes since Prabowo has …

BEIJING — China on Friday approved a 6 trillion yuan ($839 billion) plan to help local governments refinance their mountains of debt, in the latest push to rev up growth in the world’s second largest economy. The plan will be implemented over the next three years, Xu Hongcai, vice-chairman of the National People’s Congress’s financial and economic committee, said at a news conference Friday. Finance minister …

BEIJING/MANILA, Philippines — China summoned the Philippines’ ambassador on Friday to express its objection to two new laws in the Southeast Asian nation asserting maritime rights and sovereignty over disputed areas of the South China Sea, its foreign ministry said. China made “solemn representations” to the ambassador shortly after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr signed the Maritime Zones Act and the Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act into …

GENEVA — The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. The U.N. count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago. The …

MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Yinxing battered the northern Philippines with floods and landslides before blowing away from the country on Friday, leaving two airports damaged and aggravating a calamity caused by back-to-back storms that hit in recent weeks. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Yinxing, the 13th major storm to hit the disaster-prone Southeast Asian archipelago this year. The typhoon, locally called Marce, was …