UKRAINE
Minister scoffs at injuries
Minister of Foreign Affairs Leonid Kozhara on Saturday dismissed the injuries sustained by a protester found covered in blood as “a scratch.” “Physically this man is in a good condition. The only thing he has is a scratch on one of his cheeks,” Kozhara told al-Jazeera television on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “It looks like the alleged story that he was kidnapped and tortured is not absolutely true,” he said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs later issued a statement saying that Kozhara had been misunderstood and he “is profoundly sorry for what happened to Dmytro Bulatov and wishes him a speedy recovery.” Bulatov said he was kidnapped by unidentified captors on Jan. 22 and released on Thursday after being tortured.
FRANCE
Japan upset by comics
Japan has expressed its “regret” at a South Korean exhibit at an international comic book festival in Angouleme featuring “comfort women” forced into wartime sex slavery in Japanese military brothels. Japanese Ambassador to France Yoichi Suzuki said he “deeply regrets that this exhibition is taking place,” saying it promoted “a mistaken point of view that further complicates relations between South Korea and Japan.” Franck Bondoux, director of the Angouleme International Comics Festival, said the subject was proposed by the South Korean government.
INDONESIA
‘Death zoo’ loses two more
An endangered komodo dragon and a pregnant barking deer have been found dead at Surabaya Zoo, a spokesman said yesterday. Zoo spokesman Agus Supangkat said a seven-year-old giant lizard was found dead on Saturday in his cage, one day after the deer died. A visitor reported to a zookeeper that the deer was having convulsions and was foaming at the mouth. Supangkat denied any negligence, and said a police forensic team was performing autopsies. The zoo has long been plagued with problems, including premature deaths, uncontrolled breeding and a lack of funding. An online petition has called on the government to close the facility, dubbed “the zoo of death.”
SOUTH AFRICA
Gay rights party formed
A new party that will defend gays and lesbians against violence and persecution will stand in elections this year, a spokesman said on Saturday. “We need a voice in parliament to protect women from being raped because people want to cure them from being lesbians,” Michael Herbst of the Equal Rights Party said. “We need someone in parliament when boys are bullied at school because they are thought to be gay… South Africa has one of the most beautiful constitutions that guarantees the rights of the people who are lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, et cetera. But in reality, it doesn’t work well.”
INDIA
Visa overhaul planned
Tourists from up to 180 countries would no longer have to line up at their local consulates to obtain visas under reforms expected to be approved this week, the Indian Express reported yesterday. The nation’s intelligence agencies have now given their backing to proposals that would allow tourists to apply online and then wait only three days before receiving the green light, the newspaper reported. They would then be able to pick up their visas on arrival at any airport. Some countries such as Pakistan will not be included in the changes, the daily said.
UNITED STATES
Hagel calls nuclear officers
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Saturday made the rare gesture of phoning air force nuclear officers in their underground launch bunkers to update them on efforts to correct problems in their service. Hagel placed the calls from aboard the military command aircraft that carried him home from a global security conference in Germany. The Pentagon chief spoke to six Minuteman 3 missile launch control officers at centers operated by the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, the focus of a widening investigation into alleged cheating by launch officers on proficiency tests. A defense official who briefed reporters on Hagel’s phone calls said the six officers to whom he spoke were generally positive in their outlook, but also cited strains and stresses.
CANADA
Ford ticketed for jaywalking
It seems that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford cannot cross the street these days without getting into trouble. The mayor’s spokesman, Amin Massoudi, confirmed on Saturday that Ford received a jaywalking ticket on Friday night. Ford was in a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was attending the funeral of a friend’s mother. Toronto’s embattled mayor last year made international headlines when he admitted to having smoked crack cocaine while in a drunken stupor. The Toronto Sun quoted Ford as saying he was shocked officers gave him a jaywalking ticket and that “they went out of their way to do this.” The Royal Canadian Mounted Police refused to comment on the reasons Ford received the ticket.
UNITED STATES
Christie booed at event
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was greeted with audible boos and a few loud cheers during a Super Bowl-related appearance in New York City on Saturday, a day after a former appointee said the popular Republican knew about politically motivated lane closures near a busy commuter bridge. The Super Bowl was to be played yesterday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Christie’s introduction was met with a chorus of audible boos and chants of support from the thousands of people gathered in the area for a Super Bowl street fair. He did not mention the scandal during brief remarks in which he thanked the NFL and his New York counterpart and Super Bowl cohost, Governor Andrew Cuomo.
ITALY
Nation hit by floods, snow
Heavy rains and windstorms battered the nation on Saturday, swelling rivers and flooding fields and roads, while alpine areas saw abundant snow. The spate of bad weather was expected to last until Tuesday. Agence France-Presse images of Ponte Milvio bridge in northern Rome show the Tiber river’s level nearing the tops of its arches. The river Arno in Pisa was also swollen. Fields and roads were flooded along the length of many rivers in central Italy. Near Pisa, in Ponsacco, 1,600 residents were forced to find shelter with relatives and friends after floodwaters invaded or threatened the ground floors of their homes, media reports said. Venice experienced an especially severe acqua alta (high water) measuring 1.04m, leaving some tourist areas under water, including Saint Mark’s Square. In the mountains, temperatures began to warm up, raising fears of avalanches. Heavy snowfall has made communications difficult and caused power outages. A strong sirocco wind swept the Gulf of Naples, while fog and heavy rains plagued Calabria in the far south, where driving was difficult and trees had fallen.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion