PHILIPPINES
War games pact threatened
President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to end a pact key to annual war games with US troops if Washington does not restore the travel visa of the former national police chief who initially oversaw his drug war. Senator Ronald Dela Rosa said the US had canceled his visa, but did not tell him why. Duterte went on the attack in a speech late on Thursday, saying: “If you do not make a correction there, one, I will terminate the — Visiting Forces Agreement. I’m giving ... the American government one month from now.”
NORTH KOREA
Foreign minister confirmed
The government has named as its new foreign minster a former senior army officer with little experience in dealings with the US. Ri Son-gwon’s new post was announced yesterday in a Korean Central News Agency dispatch that said he attended a reception for foreign diplomats in Pyongyang on Thursday. Ri, a retired army colonel who recently headed a government body responsible for relations with South Korea, has taken part in numerous inter-Korean talks over the past 15 years. He replaced Ri Yong-ho, a career diplomat who had taken part in nuclear negotiations with the US since early 2018.
SRI LANKA
Missing to be investigated
Death certificates for thousands of people missing and presumed dead from the nation’s civil war will only be given out after proper investigations, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said yesterday. The statement followed his comment that those missing were “actually dead,” upsetting relatives that the government would close the issue without addressing what happened to their loved ones. “After the necessary investigations, steps would be taken to issue a death certificate and the necessary support for the families to rebuild their lives,” the office said. Official figures show that more than 23,500 complaints about missing people have been registered.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Last detainees freed
Eighteen men who were held in isolation and poor conditions in Bomana immigration detention center have been released. They were part of a group of 52 arrested in August last year after previously being detained on Manus Island for seeking asylum in Australia.The 18 men were released last night and moved to three boutique hotels in Port Moresby. Shaminda Kanapathi, a refugee in Port Moresby, tweeted that the men had lost a lot of weight during their detention, and their physical and mental health had deteriorated. Refugee advocate Anne Moon said she had spoken to some of the men since their release, and that some had lost as much as 15kg in detention.
JAPAN
Charges possible over mail
A former postal carrier could face charges after police discovered he stockpiled a mountain of mail at his home, reportedly telling police that “it was too much bother to deliver them.” The man was “referred to prosecutors for allegedly violating postal law,” a Kanagawa prefectural police spokesman said yesterday. The 61-year-old had about 24,000 undelivered items dating from 2003 to last year at his home in Kanagawa. “I didn’t want my colleagues to think I was less capable than younger people,” he told police. If convicted, he faces prison time of less than three years or fines of about US$4,500. Japan Post fired the man late last year.
UNITED STATES
‘Text suicide’ woman freed
Michelle Carter, the woman convicted of manslaughter for urging her suicidal boyfriend to kill himself in text messages that included: “Just do it, babe,” was released from jail on Thursday after more than three months was shaved from her sentence for good behavior. Carter, 23, walked out of the Bristol County jail in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, wearing the same white blazer, dark slacks and a dark turtleneck she wore in February, when a judge ordered her to begin serving a 15-month sentence. The Plainville native did not speak as two jail staffers escorted her to an SUV, where her lawyer and parents were waiting for her. State officials said Carter’s probation ends on Aug. 1, 2022.
GREECE
Bitcoin suspect extradited
A high court on Thursday rejected Russian bitcoin fraud suspect Alexander Vinnik’s final appeal against his extradition to France, ending a more than two-year legal tug-of-war between three countries seeking to put him on trial. Vinnik’s Greek lawyer, Zoi Konstandopoulou, said her client was flown to France hours after the Council of State’s decision, citing his lawyer in France. She said he had been taken to a hospital as he was on the 35th day of a hunger strike protesting the prospect of his extradition to France. Earlier, the council upheld last month’s decision by Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras that Vinnik should be extradited first to France, then to the US and finally to Russia.
SPAIN
Storm death toll rises to 11
The death toll from Storm Gloria, which has wrought havoc across huge swathes of the eastern and southern coastline, rose to 11 on Thursday, with rescue workers still searching for four people. Seven more storm-related deaths had already been reported since Sunday, when the storm hit the region, bringing strong winds, torrential rains and heavy snow, battering the southern and eastern flanks before moving north. Authorities said the death toll could rise further, with four people still listed as missing in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
UNITED STATES
Russian admits fraud
A Russian national on Thursday pleaded guilty to running a Web site that helped people commit more than US$20 million in credit card fraud. Aleksei Burkov, 29, of St Petersburg entered the plea to charges including fraud and money laundering in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. He was extradited to the US from Israel in November over the objection of Russian officials. An indictment accused Burkov of running a Web site called Cardplanet that let people buy stolen credit card numbers for anywhere from US$3 to US$60. People used the numbers to make more than US$20 million in fraudulent purchases.
BULGARIA
Three Russians indicted
Authorities on Thursday charged three Russian nationals with the attempted murder of the owner of an arms factory and two other people. The three unnamed Russians are accused of having attempted to kill the victims “in a way endangering the lives of many,” the chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The alleged assailants are suspected of using a phosphorus-like substance to poison Emilian Gebrev, his son and a company employee in 2015. The three victims fell ill at the time of the poisoning, but recovered soon after. Prosecutors have issued European arrest warrants for the three Russians, and are working closely on the case with the FBI and British authorities.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the