An armed man who allegedly held nine hostages inside the Russian embassy in Costa Rica for several hours on Friday surrendered to authorities and no one was harmed in the incident, police said.
Police had surrounded the embassy upon hearing that the man had seized nine hostages inside, including the Russian ambassador.
`private dispute'
But Russian Ambassador Valery Nikolaenko downplayed the reports of a hostage crisis, telling Telenoticias TV in a telephone call from inside the embassy before the man surrendered that the incident was a private dispute between two people, one of them armed.
Local TV showed two people clad in yellow raincoats being escorted by police off the embassy grounds after four hours of confusion and police spokesman Allan Fonseca confirmed that the situation had ended.
The drama started around 12:30pm when a man about 20 years old entered the building with his mother saying he was going to renew his passport, local media said.
Local TV identified the armed man as Roman Bordayan, a native of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan who has been living in Costa Rica for a year.
Local reports said that Boradayan's family had ended up in the country after being swindled in a land deal done over the Internet.
passport renewal
But Boradayan found he could not renew his passport at the Russian embassy because he was from Kyrgyzstan, reports said.
After he entered the embassy on Friday, he reportedly grabbed a gun from an embassy guard and took the nine hostages, demanding a ransom of US$50,000 to set them free, the reports said.
Nikolaenko insisted, however, that the incident was nothing more than a fight between two citizens, one of whom was carrying a weapon.
"We are controlling the situation, which consists of two Russian citizens who are in a quarrel over a debt, locked in one of the rooms below the embassy," he said before the man gave himself up.
"With help from the Costa Rican police we tried to get them out in a non-violent manner," he said.
`no official motive'
Fonseca said police had "no official motive for the hostage seizing."
Just prior to the hostage-taker's surrender, Moscow demanded that the siege be brought to a swift resolution.
"We ask the Costa Rican forces of order to rapidly take the necessary measures to ensure the normalization of the situation at our embassy," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynine told local news agencies.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese