TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The United States supports efforts by Taiwan’s government to pass a $40 billion special defense budget that is being stalled in the opposition-controlled parliament, a group of visiting U.S. lawmakers said Monday in Taipei.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Cambodian lawmakers on Monday unanimously adopted a new law targeting online scam operations with up to life in prison, following a government pledge to shut them down by the end of April.
BEIRUT (AP) – Iran on Monday defied Lebanon’s expulsion order for its ambassador by saying he would stay, further increasing tensions in a country in the crosshairs of the latest fighting between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel. Lebanon had declared Ambassador Mohammad Reza Shibani “persona non grata”.
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
BERLIN (AP) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the prospect of many of the Syrians who came to his country returning to their homeland over the next few years as he met Syria’s leader on Monday, arguing that they are needed to help rebuild the country.
BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar ‘s Parliament on Monday began the process of electing the country’s next president, which will mark a nominal return to an elected government after five years of military rule, but is widely considered to be an effort to keep power in the hands of the army.
HALABJA, Iraq (AP) – To speak with his mother inside Iran, Yaser Fattahi waits in self-exile in Iraq for brief calls arranged by a cousin back home who travels close to the border between the neighboring countries where he can pick up a signal to connect them.
JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli military has suspended a battalion whose soldiers assaulted a CNN crew in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in a rare case of punishment for soldier misconduct. The army announced Monday it was suspending the Netzah Yehuda battalion after soldiers were filmed assaulting the CNN crew last week.
Dr. Jacquelyn Means knew that being pregnant in her late 30s would be challenging. “It is definitely harder on your body. You just feel a lot more fatigued. There are certain complications to watch out for,” said Means, a Texas OB-GYN who had her first child at 37 and her second at 39. “It’s usually going to be fine, but there are things to be aware of.”