INDIA
Russia to lease third sub
New Delhi has signed a US$3 billion deal to lease a third Russian nuclear-powered submarine for 10 years, giving the nation a boost in the Indian Ocean, media reported yesterday. The deal — which reportedly took months to negotiate — comes as tensions run high between India and Pakistan, and as Chinese influence grows in the region. A Ministry of Defence spokesman declined to confirm the agreement, but the reports said that the submarine would be delivered by 2025.
INDONESIA
Flooding kills at least two
At least two people were killed and six more were missing after torrential rains and severe flooding, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, the National Board for Disaster Management said yesterday. Heavy rain has pounded the nation for days, causing the Citarum River — dubbed “the world’s dirtiest” by the World Bank — on Java to burst its banks and deadly flash floods in the east. Floods and landslides killed a pair of residents in East Nusa Tenggara Province, the agency said. Six others are still missing and three people were injured, it added. The floods have affected more than 30,000 people in parts of West Java and East Java provinces, it said.
FINLAND
PM resigns over reforms
Prime Minister Juha Sipila yesterday tendered his government’s resignation after it failed to push through a social and healthcare reform package, the president’s office said. The announcement was made just five weeks ahead of legislative elections scheduled for April 14. Sipila has since 2015 headed a coalition made up of his Center Party, the conservative National Coalition and Blue Reform, a moderate faction spun off from the far right. Sipila has made health and social reform one of his top priorities, seeing a shake-up as necessary to cut the ballooning costs of treating an aging population. The reform has been a struggle over a decade and has divided successive governments.
CHINA
Interference ‘disastrous’
Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday issued a stern warning against interfering in or imposing sanctions on Venezuela, saying history offers a clear lesson about not “following the same old disastrous road.” Responding to a question on whether China still recognized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro or had had contact with the opposition, Wang said the sovereignty and independence of Latin American nations should be respected. “The internal affairs of every country should be decided by their own people. External interference and sanctions will only exacerbate the tension situation, and allow the law of the jungle to once again run amok,” Wang told his annual news conference.
ITALY
China agreement mulled
The government appears undecided over whether to sign an agreement with China endorsing its Belt and Road Initiative, amid pressure from the US to stand down. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Guglielmo Picchi said that further reflection is needed before signing the proposed agreement. “As of today, I don’t think we should proceed with the signing,” he tweeted on Wednesday. Undersecretary of State Michele Geraci told the foreign media that while the negotiations are not over, the deal could be signed when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visits Italy later this month. On Wednesday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) criticized comments by the White House. A spokesman told the Financial Times that the US believes the initiative benefits China, not Italy. “The US statement is very absurd,” Lu said. “As a large economy and a big country, Italy is very clear about its own interests and can independently make its own policies and judgements.”
MEXICO
Migrants killed in crash
A truck packed with Central American migrants on Thursday swerved off a highway in the south, leaving at least 25 dead and 32 injured, officials said. The accident happened in Chiapas State, which borders Guatemala, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement. The 3 tonne truck ran off the road and overturned, it added. The truck involved in this accident was carrying an estimated 80 people, Isidro Hernandez of the local Red Cross said. Some who were not injured might have fled. The fatalities include at least one minor, Hernandez added.
UNITED STATES
Secret list tracked advocates
Authorities created a secret database of journalists and campaigners linked to a caravan of Central Americans who tried to enter the US last year from Mexico, NBC reported. In some cases, authorities flagged their passports for alerts, the San Diego, California, affiliate of NBC said. It cited documents leaked to it by a source in the Department of Homeland Security. It said the documents list people to be screened at the US-Mexico border. They included 10 journalists, seven of them US citizens, a US lawyer and 47 people who were labeled as organizers, instigators or with “unknown” roles.
BRAZIL
Expedition looks for tribe
A government agency has sent off a rare and high-risk expedition hoping to contact a small, isolated group in the Amazon and reunite its members with some of their relatives, saying that the move is necessary to avoid bloodshed in an area near the border with Peru. A team of nearly two dozen sponsored by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) headed up the Coari River over the weekend looking for the group of at least 22 people, who are members of the widespread Korubo indigenous community in Amazonas State. The army, police and Ministry of Health are backing the initiative, which could take weeks. Brazilian law says that contact with isolated tribes can be used only as a last resort to preserve their lives. Bruno Pereira, FUNAI’s coordinator for isolated indigenous peoples, said that the objective is to ease tensions between a group of Korubos and a group of indigenous Matis who live about 20km away. The Matis contacted the Korubos in 2013, initially in a friendly manner, but the next year there was a deadly clash between the groups, FUNAI said. The Matis have repeatedly requested an intervention because they believe the Korubos will want revenge soon, Pereira said.
‘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