TURKEY
Talks on murder probe held
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor held talks overnight with intelligence officials in Istanbul on the investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate, Demiroren news agency said yesterday. Saud al-Mojeb left his hotel shortly after midnight and went to the regional offices of the National Intelligence Agency, it said. Mojeb last week contradicted previous statements by Riyadh, saying Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated.
AUSTRIA
Vienna pulls out of UN pact
The nation is to follow the US and Hungary in backing out of a UN pact on migration over concerns that it will blur the line between legal and illegal migration, the government said yesterday. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved in July by all 193 UN member nations except the US, which backed out last year. The government would not send an envoy to next month’s signing ceremony in Morocco and will abstain from a UN vote on the pact next year, ORF and news agency APA said, citing Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Hungary has said it would not sign the final document and Poland is considering doing the same.
PHILIPPINES
Hunt on for landslide victims
Rescuers yesterday used hand tools in a desperate search for about 23 people buried after a landslide unleashed by Typhoon Yutu engulfed a building, as the death toll from the storm that hit Luzon on Tuesday rose to 11. Six people have been rescued so far and two bodies pulled out from the building that collapsed in northern Mountain province. About 360 police, soldiers, firefighters and others were taking part in the rescue.
DENMARK
Envoy to Iran recalled
The government on Tuesday recalled its ambassador to Iran after accusing Tehran of plotting a foiled “attack” against three Iranians living in the country. “Denmark can in no way accept that people with ties to Iran’s intelligence service plot attacks against people in Denmark,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen told reporters. “It is the Iranian government, it is the Iranian state that is behind” the plot. He said he was consulting with “partners and allies” about possible sanctions. Iran has denied the allegations.
UNITED STATES
FBI to probe Mueller claims
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s office has referred to the FBI allegations that women were “offered money to make false claims” about him, Mueller’s spokesman Peter Carr said. He said that once the office learned of the allegations, it immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation. The attempt to spread what Mueller’s office says are false claims about him appears to be an effort to discredit the former FBI director as his team enters a critical stage of its investigation into whether then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia and whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice.
NEW ZEALAND
Woman survives avalanche
Well-known adventurer Jo Morgan dug herself out of an avalanche on Mount Hicks yesterday morning, while two guides with her died. The three were roped together as they tried to reach the summit. “I’m absolutely broken,” Morgan told Television New Zealand. “They were buried and I was buried, but had my face out so I could breathe.” Police said the bodies have been recovered.
‘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
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
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