Syrian forces flooded the city of Daraa yesterday after overnight clashes there and pursued “clean-up” operations in Homs, where the Red Cross was struggling to gain access to a former rebel bastion.
China said it would send an envoy to Syria to try to halt a conflict that has divided Beijing from Western and Arab powers demanding stronger action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Hundreds of troops and security men fanned out in Daraa, where the anti-Assad revolt flared nearly a year ago, on a scale not seen for months, a resident of the southern city said.
The clampdown followed attacks on security checkpoints in the city center that were also the most extensive for months. At least one person was killed, the Daraa resident said.
Rebels have multiplied hit-and-run assaults across Syria in the past few days to signal their defiance after the military overran the Baba Amr district of Homs.
Syrian armored forces recaptured Baba Amr from its lightly armed defenders on Thursday after an almost month-long siege in which shelling reduced much of the district to rubble.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were still seeking approval from Syrian authorities to enter Baba Amr to help civilians there.
The two agencies provided aid and medical care on Sunday to Baba Amr residents who had fled to the nearby village of Abel, ICRC spokesperson Saleh Dabbakeh said in Damascus.
Opposition activists have said that Syrian forces are carrying out bloody reprisals in Baba Amr, but their reports are hard to verify given Syria’s severe curbs on independent media.
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CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
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Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique