UNITED KINGDOM
Russia killed Litvinenko: EU
The European Court of Human Rights yesterday ruled that Russia was responsible for the 2006 killing of Alexander Litvinenko, who died an agonizing death after he was poisoned in London with polonium-210. Moscow has always denied any involvement in Litvinenko’s death. Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who fled Russia for Britain six years to the day before he was poisoned, died after drinking green tea laced with the rare and very potent radioactive isotope at London’s Millennium Hotel. A British inquiry concluded in 2016 that Putin probably approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder Litvinenko. It also found that former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun, carried out the killing as part of an operation probably directed by Russia’s Federal Security Service. “The Court found in particular that there was a strong prima facie case that, in poisoning Mr Litvinenko, Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun had been acting as agents of the Russian State,” the European court said.
AFGHANISTAN
More men join Cabinet
The Taliban yesterday announced a list of deputy ministers, failing to name any women, despite an international outcry when they presented their all-male Cabinet ministers earlier this month. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid defended the latest additions to the Cabinet at the news conference, saying it included members of ethnic minorities, such as the Hazaras, and that women might be added later, even though he did not give a timeframe. Mujahid bristled at international conditions for recognition, saying there was no reason for withholding it. “It is the responsibility of the United Nations to recognize our government [and] for other countries, including European, Asian and Islamic countries, to have diplomatic relations with us,’’ he said.
RWANDA
Talks with Belgium canceled
The government said it has canceled a planned meeting with Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmes at the UN after she criticized the trial of Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen. Rusesabagina, who is credited with saving more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 genocide, was on Monday convicted on terror charges by the high court in Kigali and sentenced to 25 years in prison in a widely criticized verdict. Wilmes said that despite repeated appeals from Brussels, “Rusesabagina did not benefit from a fair and equitable trial; particularly with regard to the rights of the defense.” The Kigali government slammed the comments in a statement dated Monday. It said they “reflected the contempt shown by the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium towards the Rwandan judicial system since the start of this trial, despite the significant contribution of relevant Belgian institutions to the investigation of this case.”
CAMBODIA
Endangered crocs found
Eight hatchlings from one of the world’s rarest crocodile species have been found in a wildlife sanctuary, raising hopes for its continuing survival in the wild. Conservationists found the baby Siamese crocodiles earlier this month in a river in the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary, the Ministry of Environment and the World Wildlife Fund said yesterday. The team found the young reptiles after spending four days scouring habitat sites where months earlier they had discovered footprints and dung. It is believed only about 400 Siamese crocodiles remain in the wild, with most of them in Cambodia.
FRANCE
Macron to host Libya meet
President Emmanuel Macron is to host an international conference on Libya on Nov. 12, a month ahead of elections that aim to put an end to a decade of civil war, but that look increasingly uncertain. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Minister of Foreign Affiars Heiko Maas and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi di Maio are to cochair a meeting devoted to Libya on Wednesday at the UN in New York. France is asking for the elections to be held on schedule and for the “departure of foreign forces and mercenaries,” Le Drian said. The ratification earlier this month of an electoral law that was clearly tailor-made for Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, raised tensions three months before the ballot.
UNITED STATES
CIA officer falls ill
A CIA officer who was traveling with CIA Director William Burns to India this month reported symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome, CNN and the New York Times reported on Monday. The victim, who was not identified, had to receive medical attention, CNN reported, citing unnamed sources. About 200 US officials and family members have been sickened by Havana syndrome, a mysterious set of ailments that include migraines, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness. It was first reported by officials based in the US embassy in Cuba in 2016. Burns said in July that he had tapped a senior officer who once led the hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to head a task force investigating the syndrome.
PHILIPPINES
Manila backs AUKUS deal
The government has backed a new defense partnership between Australia, the UK and the US, hoping that it can maintain the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region, a view that contrasts sharply with some of its neighbors. The AUKUS alliance would see Australia get technology to deploy nuclear-powered submarines as part of an agreement intended to respond to growing Chinese power. “The enhancement of a near-abroad ally’s ability to project power should restore and keep the balance rather than destabilize it,” Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin said in a statement yesterday. Locsin’s remarks differ to the stance of Indonesia and Malaysia, which sounded the alarm about a burgeoning superpower rivalry in Southeast Asia.
PANAMA
Sale of artifacts disputed
The government has called for a German auction house to withdraw from sale seven pre-Columbian artifacts believed to be part of the nation’s heritage. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had asked Munich-based Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger to produce export permits for the pieces, which were set to go under the hammer yesterday. It had informed its German counterpart of its “disagreement with the sale of these objects, as they could be part of Panamanian historical heritage,” it said in a statement.
GERMANY
Man killed after mask row
Police said that a 49-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the killing of a gas station worker who was shot dead on Saturday following a dispute over masks. Authorities in Trier on Monday said that the suspect told police officers he acted “out of anger” after the 20-year-old clerk at the gas station asked him to put on a mask. The suspect initially left the gas station after the dispute, but then returned wearing a mask and shot the clerk dead, police said.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
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