- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
Germany's Scholz backs Ukraine weapons move on Japan trip
Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday thanked Germany's parliament for backing the decision to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons, as Russia said Western arms deliveries to the country were dangerous for European security.
Scholz, in Tokyo on his first official visit to Asia, did not address the Kremlin's comments directly but said a plan to replace stocks sent to Ukraine from eastern European nations would get weapons in use as quickly as possible.
Japan and Germany, the world's third and fourth largest economies, have sanctioned Russia over the war in step with fellow members of the G7, of which Berlin is the 2022 chair.
Tokyo has sent protective and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine, and Germany had sent defensive weapons until the government announced its policy shift earlier this week, which was approved by lawmakers on Thursday.
"I am very grateful for the clear support that the German parliament has given today to the policy of my government" for the delivery of heavy arms, Scholz said at a joint press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Earlier, Scholz told business leaders that Germany is "supplying sophisticated weapons on a large scale to the warzone in Ukraine" and has "significantly expanded military support for our allies in central and eastern Europe, which enables them to help Ukraine with the weapons in a timely manner".
Scholz and Kishida said they had agreed to bolster security ties between their countries, pledging to hold a second round of talks between their defence and foreign ministers after a first meeting last year.
During the pair's discussions, the Kremlin said Western arms deliveries to Ukraine "threaten the security of the continent", responding to a call by Britain's foreign secretary for Kyiv's allies to "ramp up" military production to help Ukraine
Kishida said he wanted to "pay my most sincere respects to the decision by Germany to make a huge policy shift on national security".
Japan and Germany are both highly dependent on imported fossil fuels, and have so far held back on banning imports of Russian gas and oil.
But Scholz said his country had planned for a possible cut to its gas supplies by Russia.
"We can only prepare ourselves, and it's what we had already started to do before the war," he said, adding that it "makes no sense" to speculate on possible Russian actions.
A.Mahlangu--AMWN