TURKEY
Saleh’s assets frozen
Authorities have frozen the assets of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in line with a decision by the UN Security Council, the government said in its Official Gazette yesterday. All of Saleh’s assets in the country’s banks and other financial institutions were frozen, it said. It did not say how much money Saleh was believed to hold in the nation. UN-appointed investigators have told the Security Council they suspect Saleh of amassing as much as US$60 billion, equivalent to Yemen’s annual GDP, during his long rule, and colluding in a takeover by the Houthi militia in 2014. Most of this wealth was believed to have been transferred abroad under false names or the names of others holding the assets on his behalf, the investigators said.
JAPAN
Abe sends Yasukuni offering
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday sent a ritual offering to a controversial Tokyo shrine for war dead, a move that could anger China as the Asian neighbors prepare for a meeting to help smooth ties. Abe’s spring festival offering of a masakaki ceremonial tree at the Yasukuni Shrine, which some see as a symbol of Japanese militarism in World War II as it honors convicted war criminals among other war dead, comes as Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida prepares to visit Beijing. Kishida is likely to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi (王毅), on Saturday next week in a bid to ease friction over issues such as sovereignty disputes over the South China Sea, media have said. “I am aware that the prime minister sent a masakaki offering,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. “He did it as a private person and did not use public funds.” Seiichi Eto, a special adviser to Abe, visited the shrine yesterday morning, media said.
NORTH KOREA
Defectors meeting sought
The government yesterday said it wanted to set up a meeting — in Seoul if necessary — between a dozen recent defectors and their parents to prove Pyongyang’s claim that the former were abducted by South Korea. Twelve women working as staff in a North Korean restaurant in China arrived in the South, along with their manager, earlier this month. Seoul said they came voluntarily, while the North insists they were tricked into defecting by South Korean spies who effectively “kidnapped” them with the connivance of the manager. A spokesman for the North Korean Red Cross said the parents of the 12 staff were demanding “direct contact” with them as early as possible.
CHINA
Islets ‘spy’ jailed
Authorities have jailed for seven years a man who gave information to an unnamed foreign power about military and other ships patrolling the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea, which Japan and Taiwan also claim, state media said. The man, named as Chen Wei from Zhejiang Province, was recruited while working overseas, state television said late on Wednesday, in its second report this week on people jailed for security-related crimes. Chen’s recruiter, Ji Tian, whose nationality was not specified, roped him in by initially feigning an interest in Christianity and saying he also wanted to learn Chinese, the report said. Ji used their growing friendship to ask Chen to take pictures of harbors in Zhejiang, which lies close to the disputed islands. Chen was caught in December 2013 after taking pictures of a military base and sentenced to seven years in jail, state television said. The report did not say when he was sentenced.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in