Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

China on Monday offered its deep condolences over the death of Jimmy Carter, saying the former U.S. president was the “driving force” behind the establishment of diplomatic ties between both countries more than 40 years ago. Carter died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday at the age of 100. During his 1977-1981 tenure, the U.S. government established formal relations with China, building on the groundwork laid by former President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger earlier in the 1970s. “China expresses its deep condolences on the passing of former United States President Jimmy Carter,” said Mao…

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Luzon in the Philippines on Monday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said. The quake was at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles), GFZ said. Philippine seismology agency Phivolcs said the tremor struck the northern town of Bangui in Ilocos province. The agency was not expecting damage, but said aftershocks are likely from the shallow quake. Earthquakes are common in the Philippines, which is located in the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire”, where volcanic activity and earthquakes frequently occur.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, appointed by the new rulers, said on X on Monday that he had accepted an invitation from his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah to visit, in what would be his first foreign trip.

The German government accused US business magnate Elon Musk on Monday of attempting to influence the country’s election campaign by reaffirming his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. While he is free to express his opinion, “in fact, Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election through his statements,” deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said at a press briefing in Berlin. Elections are decided by the voters when they vote and are a German matter, she stressed. Musk, who also owns social media platform X, had written a guest editorial in the daily WELT newspaper voicing…

Yahya Al-Batran woke up in the early hours of Sunday morning to find his wife, Noura trying to wake their newborn twin sons Jumaa and Ali as they lay together in the makeshift tent the family occupied in an encampment in the central Gaza Strip. Intense winter cold and heavy rain across the coastal enclave in previous days had made their lives a misery but what he heard was more serious. “She said she had been trying to wake Jumaa up, but he was not waking up, and I asked about Ali and she said, he was not walking up…

The Iraqi cabinet has given approval for a Basrah-Haditha oil pipeline project, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office said on Monday. The pipeline will cost about 5.97 trillion Iraqi dinars ($4.56 billion), the statement said.

Novak Djokovic expressed his frustration at being “kept in the dark” about world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s doping case, saying in Brisbane on Sunday that it was not a good look for tennis. Anti-doping authorities said in August Sinner twice tested positive in March for the anabolic androgenic steroid clostebol and was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent tribunal that accepted his explanation of unintentional contamination. The 23-year-old Italian faces a potential ban of up to two years after the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed that decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “It’s not a good image and not…

Novak Djokovic expressed his frustration at being “kept in the dark” about world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s doping case, saying in Brisbane on Sunday that it was not a good look for tennis. Anti-doping authorities said in August Sinner twice tested positive in March for the anabolic androgenic steroid clostebol and was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent tribunal that accepted his explanation of unintentional contamination. The 23-year-old Italian faces a potential ban of up to two years after the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed that decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “It’s not a good image and not…

Russia will scrap a proposed moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles as the United States started to deploy such weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with RIA news agency published on Sunday. “We are assessing the situation on the basis of an analysis of the destabilising actions of the United States and NATO in the strategic sphere and, accordingly, the evolution of the threats that arise from them,” Lavrov said. “Today it is clear that, for example, our moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles is no longer practically viable and…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday sent condolences to the families of those killed in a deadly plane crash in South Korea. “We have received terrible news of a plane crash in South Korea with many fatalities. Our condolences go out to the families of those killed in the crash and we wish the injured a speedy recovery,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X. At least 167 people were killed when an Jeju Air plane belly-landed and veered off the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall at South Korea’s Muan International…