YEMEN
Attacks kill at least 51
Rebels yesterday fired a ballistic missile at a military parade in Aden, killing at least 40 people, while coordinated suicide bombings targeting a police station in the port city killed 11 other. Dozens of people were wounded in the two attacks. The missile targeted a parade by forces loyal to the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. A little earlier, a car, a bus and three motorcycles laden with explosives targeted a police station during morning roll-call, said Abdel Dayem Ahmed, a senior police official. Four suicide bombers were involved in the attack, which wounded at least 29 people, Ahmed said.
AUSTRALIA
Human implant found in croc
A farmer who found an orthopedic plate inside a crocodile’s stomach yesterday said that he has been told the device was from a human and has been contacted by relatives of missing persons anxious for clues. Koorana Crocodile Farm owner John Lever said that he found the plate inside a 4.7m-long crocodile called M.J. during an autopsy in June. He initially was not sure if the find had been part of an animal or human, but has been told it is a type used in human surgery, he said. M.J. could have eaten the bone that the plate had been attached to 50 years ago, Lever said. He bought M.J., which had been trapped in the wild, from a farm six years ago.
INDONESIA
Refugee death to be probed
The government is investigating a report that a pregnant citizen who had joined the Islamic State group had died after allegedly being beaten and tortured in a refugee camp in Syria, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said. Hundreds of Indonesians are believed to have joined the Islamic State and those who survived the conflict are mostly being held in camps in Syria under Kurdish authorities. The government has floated plans to repatriate citizens from the war-torn country and enroll them in deradicalization programs, but concerns remain that they might bring violent, extremist ideology or combat skills with them. Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said that the embassy in Damascus was trying to verify a report carried in the Kurdish Hawar news agency that the woman, who was reportedly six months pregnant, had been beaten to death in the al-Hol camp, which is home to thousands of refugees.
SOUTH KOREA
Ex-envoy under protection
The National Intelligence Service yesterday told lawmakers that a North Korean diplomat who went into hiding in Italy last year is now under protection outside the country. Lawmaker Lee Eun-jae said that agency officials told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that former North Korean acting ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil has left Italy and is being protected “somewhere.” The agency apparently meant a third country, but did not reveal which one, Lee said. The officials did not provide a specific answer when asked whether Seoul was involved in protecting Jo, she said. The agency in January told lawmakers that Jo went into hiding with his wife in November last year, but it has a mixed record on tracking developments among North Korea’s ruling elite. The North, which is extremely sensitive about high-profile defections, has yet to publicly comment on Jo’s situation, the Ministry of Unification said. Separately yesterday, the military said that it was investigating a North Korean soldier who was found crossing the inter-Korean border through a river on Wednesday night and has expressed a desire to defect.
‘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