China said yesterday it would allow the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier into Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving visit, after US officials complained that permission had been mysteriously withheld.
The US State Department said on Wednesday the Kitty Hawk and accompanying ships had been denied access last minute, just as the crew of 8,000 sailors and airmen were to celebrate the annual US holiday.
The Chinese foreign ministry announced early yesterday afternoon that the Kitty Hawk had finally been allowed entry, but remained silent on the reason for the delay in giving permission.
"We have decided to allow the Kitty Hawk ... to stay in Hong Kong during Thanksgiving. It is a decision out of humanitarian consideration only. China has informed the US of this," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (
However he refused to be drawn on repeated questions as to why.
"I'm not in a position to let you know the specific approval procedures," Liu said when asked about the apparent backflip.
In Washington, officials said earlier they were unclear as to why the sailors appeared to have been denied entry into Hong Kong, a port city with a thriving nightlife that has attracted international sailors for decades.
"The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not give an explanation for its denial," State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson said on Wednesday. "The United States is pressing the Chinese foreign ministry for an explanation and for a reconsideration."
The flap comes just weeks after China and the US agreed during US Defense Secretary Robert Gates's trip to Beijing to improve military links, including a proposed joint naval exercise.
The trip was an effort to calm tensions between the two countries, which have been simmering for months over the build-up of Chinese military capabilities.
US carriers are regular visitors to Hong Kong waters and have visited at least twice this year.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS