In brief: China’s president formally visiting U.S.
BEIJING – A top Chinese diplomat has said President Xi Jinping plans to make his first state visit to the U.S. later this year, Chinese state media reported today.
The official China Daily newspaper quoted China’s ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai as saying Chinese and U.S. officials are discussing the visit. Cui told Chinese reporters Sunday that no date had been determined yet.
Xi last met with U.S. President Barack Obama in November after an Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing. The two also met in Rancho Mirage, California, during a more informal visit to the U.S. in June 2013.
Jordan increases attacks on IS sites
BEIRUT – Jordanian fighter planes have destroyed dozens of targets in a stepped-up bombardment against Islamic State positions in response to the killing of a captive Jordanian pilot, the nation’s air force commander said Sunday.
“We are determined to wipe out this terrorist organization,” Royal Jordanian Air Force Maj. Gen. Mansour Jboor said in Amman, the Jordanian capital.
Jordan is part of the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing Islamic State positions in Syria almost daily since September.
Among the 56 targets hit between Thursday and Saturday, the general said, were militant weapons depots, training centers, logistics sites and oil infrastructure.
Greek premier says austerity has ended
ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras set his leftist government on a collision course with Greece’s creditors Sunday, proclaiming an end to the era of austerity and “five years of bailout barbarity.”
Tsipras presented his government’s policy statement to Greek lawmakers which included, as he had forewarned, all the promises made by his radical left party, Syriza, in its manifesto before last month’s election.
The government “has taken the irrevocable decision to stick fully to its pre-election commitments,” Tsipras said, indicating that he would not compromise on his party’s positions.
By demanding a “bridge agreement” that would give Greece and its creditors time to negotiate a new debt deal much more favorable to the country by June, Tsipras appeared to stick to an approach that got short shrift from European Union partners in a series of meetings that Tsipras and his finance minister had with European officials this past week.
“The (bailout deal) has been abolished by popular mandate,” Tsipras said, referring to the two deals that have kept debt-ridden Greece solvent and provided a historically unprecedented $271.4 billion in assistance.
U.S. arms shipment arrives in Lebanon
BEIRUT – The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon said Sunday that $25 million worth of weapons and ammunition have arrived in Beirut, the latest American assistance to Lebanon’s army as it fights Islamic extremists along the border with Syria.
Ambassador David Hale said the equipment includes more than 70 M198 howitzers and over 26 million rounds of ammunition and artillery “of all shapes and sizes, including heavy artillery.”
Egypt sets date for journalists’ retrial
CAIRO – Egypt will hold a retrial for two Al-Jazeera English journalists still imprisoned there beginning Thursday, court officials said Sunday, throwing into question one of their fates after authorities deported their Australian colleague.
Many believed Mohammed Fahmy, the satellite channel’s Cairo bureau chief who recently gave up his Egyptian citizenship, would be deported like Australian Peter Greste.
News of the retrial of Fahmy and his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohammed, confirmed by court officials who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak to journalists, threw that into question.
The trial date “represents our worst nightmare, to have to go through another circus of a retrial,” Fahmy’s family said in a statement. They said Fahmy, also a Canadian citizen, had given up his Egyptian citizenship as part of a deal with prosecutors to be deported.
Surfer killed in shark attack
SYDNEY – A man was killed today after a shark tore off his legs while he was surfing off Australia’s east coast, not far from the area where another surfer was mauled by a shark a day earlier, officials said.
Officials have not released the man’s name.
Shelly Beach, the site of the attack, was closed, along with a larger stretch of coastline, as officials searched for the shark.
Ballina is just 12 miles south of Seven Mile Beach, where 35-year-old surfer Jabez Reitman was attacked Sunday.
Reitman was surfing off Seven Mile Beach, near the tourist town of Byron Bay, when he was bitten by what he described as a 7- to 10-foot shark.
His condition was later described as stable.