JAPAN
Search for US Marines ends
The US military yesterday ended a search for five marines missing in the sea off Japan since two Marine Corps aircraft were involved in an accident during an air-to-air refueling exercise on Thursday. The five missing crew of a KC-130 Hercules refueling plane were officially declared deceased. “We know this difficult decision was made after all resources were exhausted in the vigorous search for our Marines,” Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell Maury, commander of the Marine Corps’ Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are heavy and our prayers are with all family and friends of all five aircrew.”
UNITED STATES
Pompeo blasts Russia
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the Russian government for sending “bombers halfway around the world” to Venezuela. “The Russian and Venezuelan people should see this for what it is: two corrupt governments squandering public funds, and squelching liberty and freedom while their people suffer,” Pompeo tweeted on Monday night. A group of Russian military planes crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Venezuela, the Russian state news agency TASS reported earlier, citing a Russian Ministry of Defense statement.
UNITED STATES
Migrant advocates arrested
Authorities on Monday arrested 32 people at a migrants-rights protest organized by a Quaker group at a border fence in San Diego, California, the Border Patrol said. The protesters called for an end to the detention and deportation of migrants, and for the country to welcome the caravan of Central American migrants that arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, last month. Facebook posts by protest organizer the American Friends Service Committee showed demonstrators kneeling in front of federal agents in riot gear after they approached the fence on a San Diego beach.
UNITED STATES
Nuns embezzle US$500k
Two Catholic school nuns in California have admitted to embezzling about US$500,000, and using the funds over the years for travel and gambling in Las Vegas, their order said on Monday. Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, who are said to be best friends, took the money from tuition, fees and donations at St James Catholic School in Torrance, south of Los Angeles. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said the missing money was discovered during a routine audit and it is believed the nuns had stolen the money over at least a decade. Kreuper was a former principal at the school where she worked for 20 years until her retirement earlier this year. Chang was a teacher for 20 years and she also retired this year, according to local media reports.
AUSTRALIA
Teen jailed for 12 years
A Sydney court has sentenced a teenager to at least 12 years in prison for planning an attack inspired by the Islamic State group for which he bought knives and bayonets from a gun shop. The 18-year-old male, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested outside a Muslim prayer hall in October 2016 and found guilty of plotting an attack by a jury in September. Judge Geoffrey Bellew rejected the man’s claim that he had purchased the weapons for hunting. He said he was satisfied that the man was “ready, willing and able” to carry out an attack at the time of his arrest.
‘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