NORTH KOREA
Test a ‘solemn warning’
The government yesterday said that two missiles fired on Thursday were newly designed tactical weapons that sent a “solemn warning” to South Korea over plans to hold military drills with the US. The Korean Central News Agency provided no technical specifications, but said that the tests were of a “new-type tactical guided weapon” that sent a “solemn warning to the South Korean warmongers” over their insistence on holding the drills. Leader Kim Jong-un said that the missiles were capable of low-altitude flight and cautioned Seoul against “ignoring the warning” implicit in their development, the agency reported.
MONGOLIA
Leader to visit White House
President Khaltmaa Battulga is to meet with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday next week at the White House, which said that the visit would center on deepening cooperation between the two nations. The leaders are to discuss a range of issues, including defense and security, trade and investment, sovereignty and the rule of law. The plan follows a visit to Mongolia late last month by White House National Security Adviser John Bolton. The last time Mongolia’s leader visited the White House was in June 2011.
BALKANS
Cocaine ring stymied
Police from several European nations on Thursday announced that they have dismantled a cocaine smuggling ring. After months of investigations on three continents and 1 tonne of cocaine seized, 16 people were arrested, 11 in Europe — Croatia, Czech Republic, Serbia and Switzerland — and five in Hong Kong, Europol said in a statement. The agency welcomed the disabling of the “Balkan organized criminal network suspected of large-scale cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe using private planes.”
SYRIA
Strikes kill 103 civilians
Airstrikes by the government and its allies on schools, hospitals, markets and bakeries have killed at least 103 civilians in the past 10 days, including 26 children, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement yesterday. “These are civilian objects, and it seems highly unlikely, given the persistent pattern of such attacks, that they are all being hit by accident,” Bachelet said, adding that the rising toll had been met with “apparent international indifference.” The government in April began its offensive against a rebel enclave in the northwest, the last area of insurgent opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. The offensive has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes or temporary shelters to seek refuge near the border with Turkey and has killed hundreds of civilians, according to war monitoring groups.
‘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