APD | Weekly top 10 hot news (April 8- April 14)

APD NEWS

text

Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.

This week, the following hot news you should know:


Top 1 | Syria, Saudi Arabia agree to resume consular services, flights

Syria and Saudi Arabia agreed in a joint statement to resume consular services and flights on Wednesday, after the bilateral ties have been stranded for years.

The announcement came as Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad wrapped up his visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first time since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.

The statement said both Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume consular services and flights between the two countries, stressing that both sides have agreed on boosting security and counter-terrorism efforts, according to the Syrian Foreign Ministry.


Top 2 | Biden arrives in Belfast for three-day visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland

U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Belfast on Tuesday night and was greeted at the airport by United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

His delegation includes a scion of the Irish-American Kennedy clan, Joe Kennedy III, Biden's new special envoy for economic affairs in Northern Ireland.

Biden will spend just over half a day in the British-run region before traveling to the Republic of Ireland for almost three days of meetings with officials and distant relatives.

Biden and Sunak will hold a meeting early on Wednesday, and Biden will also engage with each of the leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties ahead of his speech at a Belfast university.


Top 3 |** Bertie Ahern expresses 'deep regret' that Joe Biden will not address Stormont**

Ireland's former leader, Bertie Ahern, has told CGTN Europe that there is still much work to be done by the current and future generations in Northern Ireland in order to achieve a long-lasting peace, and that the full legacy of "the Troubles" has yet to be properly dealt with.

Ahern was the Irish Prime Minister from 1997 to 2008, a role known in Ireland as Taoiseach. He played a key role in the Good Friday Agreement that largely ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland - which is part of the United Kingdom.

Exactly 25 years on from that agreement, U.S. President Joe Biden is in Belfast to mark its anniversary, and will meet representatives of parties on all sides of the political spectrum. But it comes at a delicate time.


Top 4 |** U.S. seeks to reassure allies after secret documents leak**

Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken and defense chief Lloyd Austin spoke with their Ukrainian counterparts on Tuesday as Washington seeks to reassure its allies after dozens of classified intelligence documents, which, The Washington Post reported, exposed how the U.S. spies on friends and foes alike, appeared online.

Many of the documents seem to have been prepared over the winter for senior military officials, but were also available to other U.S. personnel and contract employees with the requisite security clearances, the report said, citing one defense official.

Other documents include analysis from U.S. intelligence agencies about Russia and several other countries, all based on information gleaned from classified sources, according to the report.


Top 5 | Israeli PM rescinds firing of defense minister amid security concerns

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reversed his decision to dismiss the defense minister for outspoken criticism of a controversial judiciary overhaul plan.

In a televised press conference, Netanyahu said he had decided to keep Yoav Gallant in his position, citing escalating violence in the region.

While having embroiled for weeks in an internal debate over the contentious plan to reform its judicial system, Israel faced two Palestinian attacks that cost the lives of four people and barrages of rockets from Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip amid escalating tensions with Palestinians in recent days.


Top 6 | Saudi, Omani envoys hold peace talks with Houthi leaders in Sanaa

Saudi and Omani delegations held talks with Houthi officials in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday, Houthi-run media said, as Riyadh seeks a permanent ceasefire to end its military involvement in the country's long-running war.

The visit indicates progress in the Oman-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa, which run in parallel to United Nations peace efforts. Oman, which shares borders with Yemen, has been trying for years to bridge differences between Yemen's warring parties, and more broadly between Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The envoys, who landed late on Saturday, met with the head of Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, in Sanaa's presidential palace, Houthi news agency SABA reported.


Top 7 |** Tesla to build Megapack energy storage factory in Shanghai**

U.S. carmaker Tesla Inc. announced Sunday that it will build a new factory in Shanghai dedicated to making the brand's energy storage product Megapack, the first such factory outside the U.S.

Tesla also built its first overseas gigafactory in Shanghai in 2019. The plant is now capable of producing 22,000 units of cars per week and exporting to Europe.

The new plant is scheduled to break ground in the third quarter of the year and start production in the second quarter of 2024, Tesla said at a signing ceremony of the project in Shanghai's Lin-gang Special Area.


Top 8 | Eight people feared trapped in buildings collapse in Marseille

Eight people are not responding to calls and are thought to be under the rubble of two buildings that collapsed in an explosion early on Sunday in the southern French city of Marseille, local officials said.

The cause of the explosion was not yet known, Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens said on Sunday evening.

The collapse caused a fire that complicated rescue efforts and investigations, and that had not yet been brought under control, she told a news conference.


Top 9 | Lebanon to sustain stability, Israel on high alert

The Lebanese army will take appropriate and necessary measures to sustain stability and calm in southern Lebanon, said Lebanese caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim on Friday.

Agency, adding that the army is ready to confront any aggression.

Slim also said the recent escalation directly threatens security and stability in the south, stressing that Lebanon is committed to UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

Also on Friday, Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said Lebanon will submit an official complaint to the UN Security Council as Israel's attacks in southern Lebanon "constitute a flagrant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and UN Security Council Resolution 1701."


Top 10 | Israel-Palestine tensions high after deadly attacks

An Italian tourist was killed and five people were wounded in a car ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday that came hours after two Israeli sisters were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank.

The attacks, after a night of crossborder strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, added to heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions following Israeli police raids in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque this week.

The tensions threatened to spiral into a wider conflict overnight as Israel responded to a barrage of rockets by hitting targets linked to the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon, but the fighting entered a lull on Friday.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)