China aims to significantly reduce poverty by 2020 [Xinhua]
A number of Chinese provinces are continuing to aggressively tackle poverty.
The latest success story is east China’s Jiangxi Province where the capital Jinggangshan has now been officially declassified as an impoverished area.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet with delegates attending the first meeting of Sino-German Advisory Committee on Economy in Beijing, capital of China, July 7, 2014 [Xinhua]
China overtook the US and France to become Germany’s biggest trading partner in 2016, official data showed on Friday.
German imports from and exports to China rose to $180 billion last year, the Federal Statistics Office told Reuters.
Germany has maintained strong relations with China during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 11-year tenure.
The First Sherpa Meeting of the 9th BRICS Summit in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, concluded on Friday [Xinhua]
China has set four main goals for the 9th BRICS summit which it will host in Xiamen in east China’s Fujian Province in September.
During the first BRICS Sherpa meeting in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province State Councilor Yang Jiechi outlined the four goals:
File photo of Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin who passed away suddenly on February 20 [Image: Russian UN Mission]
The Kremlin announced today that a ceremony honoring the late ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin will be held on February 24.
Churkin, who had been appointed as Russian envoy to the UN in 2006, passed away suddenly on February 20.
Many of his colleagues in the Security Council referred to his diplomatic prowess with some calling him a giant.
Hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen are at risk of starvation, the UN says, due to a brutal civil war there [Xinhua]
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a global appeal for urgent funds to assist in the feeding of some 20 million people on the verge of starvation.
Conflicts and civil strife have brought South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen to the edge of famine, he said.
Zuma had sought to withdraw from the ICC, in line with many other countries which expressed dissatisfaction with the court [Image: GCIS]
South Africa’s High Court on Wednesday cited procedural irregularities when it blocked the government’s move to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.
South African Justice Minister Michael Masutha in November submitted a bill to the parliament to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the official agreement which created the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998.
Parliament has not yet voted on the bill.
A pro-Russian rebel is laid to rest at a makeshift funeral during a lull in shelling in Donetsk last year [Xinhua]
International groups monitoring the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine said on Wednesday that there have been over 200 violations in the first night the cessation of hostilities began but added that fighting has decreased.
Russia remains the world’s second biggest seller of arms behind the United States, increasing its share by 37 per cent in 2010-2014 [PPIO]
New data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on global weapons sales indicates that there may be an arms race in full swing in the Middle East and Asia.
According to a report on trends in international transfers of major weapons published by SIPRI, arms sales have reached their highest since the late 1980s, just before the end of the Cold War.
(From L to R) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Brazilian Foreign Minister Jose Serra pose for a group photograph during a meeting of foreign ministers from the BRICS nations on the sidelines of a series of UN conferences in New York [Xinhua]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South African counterpart that Beijing will work to boost cooperation with the continent as outlined in the Johannesburg Summit two years ago.
China-India strategic partnership and cooperation has been positively served by all the visits and interactions between the country’s leaders President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi [[Xinhua]
Beijing will on Wednesday host a new round of strategic dialogue between economic giants China and India.
The dialogue will be co-chaired by Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and Indian Foreign Secretary Subramanyam Jaishankar and examine means to boost bilateral relations and issues in the region.
