NORTH KOREA
Ministry wants ship back
Pyongyang yesterday demanded the return of a cargo ship seized on Friday by the US Department of Justice for violating international sanctions, calling it an “unlawful and outrageous act.” The department said it had taken possession of the bulk carrier M/V Wise Honest one year after it was detained in Indonesia, citing illicit sanctions-busting activities. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said it was an “outright denial” of the spirit of a statement signed by leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump at their summit in Singapore in June last year.
BANGLADESH
Police ‘rescue’ Rohingya
Police prevented dozens of Rohingya Muslims, most of them women, about to be trafficked to Malaysia by boat, authorities said yesterday. Traffickers had picked up at least 69 Rohingya from refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district, promising them work in Malaysia where many Rohingya already live, police said. Scores of Rohingya Muslims have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, part of what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking. “After getting information from a secret source, our team carried out an operation last night and rescued them,” police officer Abul Khair said, adding that there were 43 women and 11 children. They would be returned to camps. Police did not arrest any traffickers.
UNITED STATES
Activists told to leave
Authorities on Monday served an eviction notice to activists who have stayed for more than a month inside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington and asked them to leave immediately. The activists have been inside the embassy because they consider Nicolas Maduro the legitimate president of Venezuela. The US and 50 other nations say Maduro’s re-election was fraudulent and have recognized Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido as the interim president. Venezuela’s Representative to the Organization of American States Gustavo Tarre said that after the eviction notice was served, three activists left the building, while four remained. Brian Becker, national director of the Answer Coalition, which supports the activists, said those still inside the building would not leave voluntarily.
GERMANY
Fan grounds Merkel’s plane
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s official plane was on Monday grounded by an excited fan who jumped out of her van to take a photo of it at Dortmund Airport, but forgot to put the parking brake on, and the vehicle rolled slowly into the nose of the jet. Spiegel Online yesterday posted a picture of the low-speed collision with the Global 5000 jet and reported that the van driver was an employee of the airport. The air force confirmed in a tweet that Merkel returned to Berlin by helicopter after her plane was damaged by a vehicle, but did not provide further details.
FRANCE
Gay attacks hit record
Assaults on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people hit a new record last year, “a dark year” for the LGBT community, French group SOS Homophobie reported yesterday. The non-profit association registered 231 physical attacks, up from the previous annual record of 188 anti-LGBT assaults in 2013 linked to same-sex marriage legislation. The number of assaults jumped 66 percent over 2017, with a spike toward the end of the year when a case a day was being reported to the group.
‘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