N Korea fires more suspected missiles

FLOUTING SANCTIONS: Two suspected short-range ballistic missiles were fired east from an airport in Pyongyang early yesterday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said

North Korea yesterday fired two suspected ballistic missiles, Seoul said, its fourth weapons test this month, as Pyongyang flexes its military muscle while ignoring offers of talks from the US. Despite biting international sanctions, Pyongyang has conducted a string of weapons tests this year, including hypersonic missiles, as leader Kim Jong-un pursues his avowed goal of further strengthening the military. Reeling economically from a self-imposed COVID-19 blockade, impoverished North Korea has not responded to Washington’s offers of talks, doubled down on weapons tests, and vowed a “stronger and certain” response to any attempts to rein it in. The launches come at a delicate time in the region, with North Korea’s sole major ally, China, set to host the Winter Olympics next month and South Korea gearing up for a presidential election in March. Two suspected “short-range ballistic missiles” were fired east from an airport in Pyongyang early yesterday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, with Japan also confirming the launch. Fired just before 9am, they flew 380km at an altitude of 42km, the JCS added. The frequent and varied tests this year indicate North Korea “is trying to improve its technology and operational capability in terms of covert actions,” Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi told reporters. Pyongyang said it successfully tested hypersonic gliding missiles on Jan. and on Tuesday last week, with the second launch personally supervised by Kim. In response, the US last week imposed fresh sanctions on five North Koreans connected to the country’s ballistic missile programs, prompting an angry reaction from Pyongyang. A North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman described the move as a “provocation,” the Korean Central News Agency said. If “the US adopts such a confrontational stance, the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will be forced to take stronger and certain reaction to it,” the spokesman said hours before

Kiev says it has ‘evidence’ Russia behind cyberattack

Ukraine on Sunday said it had evidence that Russia was behind a massive cyberattack that knocked out key government Web sites last week, as Microsoft warned the hack could be far worse than first thought. Tensions are at an all-time high between Ukraine and Russia, which Kiev accuses of having massed troops on its border ahead of a possible invasion. On Friday, Washington also accused Russia of sending saboteurs trained in explosives to stage an incident that could be the pretext to invade its pro-Western neighbor. “All the evidence points to Russia being behind the cyberattack,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation said in a statement. “Moscow is continuing to wage a hybrid war,” it added. The purpose of the attack “is not only to intimidate society, but also to destabilize the situation in Ukraine, halting the work of the public sector and crushing Ukrainians’ trust in the authorities,” it said. The Kremlin has insisted there was no evidence Russia was behind the attack. “We have nothing to do with it,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN. “Ukrainians are blaming everything on Russia, even their bad weather in their country,” he said in English. Kiev said late on Friday it had uncovered the first indications that Russian security services could have been behind the cyberattack. Ukraine’s SBU security service said the attacks, in the early hours of Friday, had targeted a total of 70 government Web sites. The Web site of the foreign ministry for a time displayed a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish that read: “Be afraid and expect the worst.” Within hours of the breach, the security service said access to most affected sites had been restored and that the fallout was minimal. However, Microsoft on Sunday warned that the cyberattack could prove destructive and affect more organizations than initially feared. It said it was continuing

Taliban fighters fire pepper spray at female protesters

Taliban forces on Sunday fired pepper spray at a group of female protesters in Kabul demanding rights to work and education, three demonstrators said. Since seizing control of the country by force in August, the Taliban authorities have imposed creeping restrictions on Afghans, especially on women. About 20 women gathered in front of Kabul University, chanting “equality and justice” and carried banners that read “Women’s rights, human rights,” an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported. However, the protest was later dispersed by Taliban fighters who arrived at the scene in several vehicles, three female protesters said. ‘SHAME’ “When we were near Kabul University, three Taliban vehicles came, and fighters from one of the vehicles used pepper spray on us,” said a protester, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “My right eye started to burn. I told one of them ‘shame on you,’ and then he pointed his gun at me,” she said. Two other protesters said that one of the women had to be taken to hospital after the spray caused an allergic reaction to her eyes and face. An AFP correspondent saw a fighter confiscate a mobile phone of a man who was filming the demonstration. The Taliban authorities have banned unsanctioned protests and frequently intervened to forcefully break up rallies demanding rights for women. PROHIBITIONS They have blocked female public sector employees from returning to work, many secondary schools have still not reopened for girls and public universities are shut. Long-distance trips for women who are not accompanied by a close male relative have been banned. The authorities have also issued guidelines that prevent television channels from broadcasting serials featuring female actors.

COVID-19: Chinese cities ratchet up virus alerts

OMICRON THREAT: People have been advised not to take unnecessary trips during the Lunar New Year holiday, while dozens of flights have been suspended

Several Chinese cities yesterday went on high COVID-19 alert as the Lunar New Year holiday travel season began, requiring travelers to report their trips days before their arrival, as the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 reached more areas, including Beijing. Authorities have warned the highly contagious Omicron variant adds to the increased risk of COVID-19 transmission as hundreds of millions of people travel around China ahead of Lunar New Year on Feb. 1. Cities such as Luoyang and Jieyang on Sunday said that travelers would need to report their trips to communities, employers or hotels three days ahead of arrival. The southwestern city of Yulin on Saturday said that those who want to enter should fill in an online form, including their health credentials and details of their trip, one day in advance. Over the weekend, the capital Beijing and the southern technology hub Shenzhen each detected one domestically transmitted case of the Omicron variant. The possibility that the person in Beijing was infected through imported goods could not be ruled out, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention Deputy Director Pang Xinghuo (龐星火) said yesterday. Beijing Municipal Health Commission Vice Director Li Ang (李昂) said that a local hospital had admitted nine people infected with the Omicron variant, with six still being treated. He did not say when the people were admitted or why they had not been disclosed earlier. The city of Meizhou, Guangdong Province, reported one Omicron infection linked to an outbreak in Zhuhai, state television said yesterday. So far, at least five provinces and municipalities have reported domestic Omicron infections, while 14 provincial areas have found the variant among travelers arriving from overseas. China is yet to show any solid sign of shifting its guideline of quickly containing any local infections, despite a high vaccination rate of 86.6 percent. The strategy has taken on extra urgency in the

Return of the flu: EU facing threat of a ‘twindemic’

Influenza has returned to Europe at a faster-than-expected rate this winter after almost disappearing last year, raising concerns about a prolonged “twindemic” with COVID-19 amid some doubts about the effectiveness of flu vaccines. Lockdowns, mask-wearing and social distancing that have become the norm in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic knocked out flu last winter, temporarily eradicating a virus that globally kills about 650,000 a year, EU data showed. However, that has now changed as nations adopt less strict COVID-19 disease prevention measures due to widespread vaccination. Since the middle of last month, flu viruses have been circulating in Europe at a higher-than-expected rate, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported this month. The number of flu cases in European intensive care units (ICUs) last month rose steadily to peak at 43 in the final week of the year, ECDC and WHO data showed. That is well below pre-pandemic levels — with weekly flu cases in ICUs peaking at more than 400 in the same period in 2018, but it is a big increase on last year, when there was only one flu case in an ICU in the whole of December, data showed. The return of the virus could be the start of an unusually long flu season that could stretch well into the summer, said Pasi Penttinen, the ECDC’s top expert on influenza. “If we start to lift all measures, the big concern I have for influenza is that, because we have had such a long time of almost no circulation in the European population, maybe we will shift away from normal seasonal patterns,” Penttinen said. He said dismantling restrictive measures in the spring could prolong the circulation of flu far beyond the normal end of the European season in May. A “twindemic” could put excessive pressure on already overstretched health systems, the ECDC said

Manila implements ‘no vax, no ride’

People who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 were yesterday banned from using public transport in the Philippine capital region in a desperate move that has sparked protests from labor and human rights groups. The Philippines’ vaccination campaign has been dogged by public hesitancy and delays, while the highly contagious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has fueled a spike in infections. From less than 1,000 new cases daily during the Christmas holidays, the Philippine Department of Health reported a record of more than 39,000 cases on Saturday. Under the Philippine Department of Transportation’s “no vax, no ride” policy, commuters who are not fully vaccinated are not allowed to ride public jeepneys, taxis, buses, sea ferries and commercial planes to and from and within Metropolitan Manila unless they show proof that they are on urgent errands or cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. The restriction is to last at least to the end of this month and is an offshoot of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s warning that unvaccinated people who defy orders to stay at home to ease community infections could face arrest. “There are indeed legitimate reasons for aiming to vaccinate as many people as possible. However, these reasons should not prevent people from freedom of movement,” said Butch Olano of Amnesty International in the Philippines. Experts say the policy’s legality could be questioned before the Philippine Supreme Court. There were concerns how poor drivers of jeepneys, the capital’s popular public transport icon, could efficiently enforce the restriction and check vaccination certificates while driving with passengers constantly getting on and off at the back exit away from view. Police said that commuters who show fake proofs of vaccination could be fined or jailed. The transportation department said that the policy aims to foster public health and prevent public commuter train systems from being shut down again like last year after

Japan mulls stricter disease prevention measures in Tokyo

Japan is considering stricter COVID-19 disease prevention measures in Tokyo and its three surrounding prefectures as soon as this week as a new wave of infections fills up hospital beds, local broadcaster Fuji News Network reported yesterday, without citing a source. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to speak with ministers and make a decision as early as tomorrow, the report said. The government might include Mie and Kumamoto prefectures in the quasi-emergency measures, as well as Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, which encircle Tokyo, it said. In Tokyo, home to the greatest number of cases, about 19 percent of hospital beds designated for COVID-19 patients were occupied as of Sunday. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has said she would consider seeking quasi-emergency measures when that figure hits 20 percent. Japan reported more than 25,000 new cases each day over the weekend, from just double-digit cases a month ago. The nationwide daily case count is closing in on the record from August last year. The number of severe cases rose by just two on Sunday, bringing the total to 235, data compiled by national broadcaster NHK showed. Japan did not report any deaths on Sunday, NHK said. Tokyo on Sunday recorded 4,172 new cases, more than triple the number a week ago. The majority of the infections were in people in their 20s and 30s. New cases in children 10 years old or younger rose to 294, risking clusters that could lead to schools being closed. As recently as last month there were days when the capital logged zero new cases among young children. The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was suspected in 84 percent of a sample of sequenced cases in Japan between Jan. 3 and Jan. 9, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare documents showed. Almost 80 percent of Japanese have received two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine, one of the

Millions in UK drinking harmful levels of alcohol

‘NEW NORMAL’? The switch to drinking at home during the pandemic is partly to blame, with sessions sometimes lasting several hours longer, an expert said

Millions of Britons are causing themselves “silent harm” through hazardous drinking at home, experts have warned, as figures reveal levels of “higher risk” alcohol consumption have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the new figures concern only England, the phenomenon has been seen in all parts of the UK. Eight million people in England are drinking so much wine, beer or spirits that it is harmful to their health, British Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data showed, with a large increase in the numbers drinking at levels considered to be dangerous. Julia Sinclair, the chair of the addictions faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the switch to drinking at home during the pandemic was partly to blame for the rise, with drinking sessions sometimes lasting several hours longer than they would in a bar. Data based on YouGov surveys showed that 18.1 percent of adults in England were drinking at “increasing or higher risk” in the three months to the end of October last year, which equates to 8 million people. That is much higher than in February 2020, before the pandemic, when 12.4 percent, or about 6 million people, drank at those levels. In October 2019, 11.9 percent, or about 5 million people, were drinking at those levels. The UK’s National Health Service recommends that adults consume no more than 14 units of alcohol per week. Increasing or higher-risk drinking is defined by the alcohol use disorders identification test, which asks questions about people’s drinking habits. It looks at how often people drink, how many units in one session, whether they ever feel guilty and whether they sometimes miss out on usual activities due to drinking. Sinclair said the latest data, which suggests more than twice as many men as women are drinking alcohol at hazardous levels, showed people were still dealing with uncertainty and

Italian nurse accused of giving fake jabs

Italian police have arrested a nurse in Palermo for allegedly pretending to give COVID-19 vaccines to anti-vaccine protesters so they could benefit from official health certificates to travel and access bars, restaurants and public transport. Investigators used a hidden camera to film the nurse, a 58-year-old woman working at a major inoculation center in the Sicilian capital. The video, released on Saturday on Twitter, shows the health worker apparently loading up a dose of COVID-19 vaccine and then emptying the syringe into a tissue before injecting it into the arms of anti-vaccine protesters. Police said the woman’s own booster dose was fake, and arrested her on charges of forgery and embezzlement. It was not the first time a nurse has been arrested in Italy for pretending to inject vaccines. Dozens of health workers, including at least three doctors, have been charged or investigated on suspicion of administering fake jabs to people, with some paying up to 400 euros (US$457) each for the service. An Italian nurse in Ancona in the Marche region on Wednesday last week was arrested for allegedly giving fake vaccines to at least 45 people. The health worker allegedly emptied vaccines into a medical waste bin. Italian anti-vaccine protesters were willing to pay up to 300 euros for the service to receive the so-called “super green pass” introduced by the Italian government last month, and required to access cinemas, gyms, nightclubs and stadiums, as well as to be served indoors at bars and restaurants, investigators said. The nurse arrested on Friday in Palermo is the second health worker from the same hospital in the city to end up in prison. Police on Dec. 21 uncovered another alleged scam with dozens of anti-vaccination holdouts, including a police officer, paying a nurse up to 400 euros to give them fake jabs. The woman, who faces charges of

Winter storm blasts snow, ice through US southeast

EXPANSIVE: While there hundreds of road accidents and tens of thousands were left with power, a tornado struck southwest Florida, destroying 30 mobile homes

A dangerous winter storm combining high winds and ice on Sunday swept through parts of the US southeast, knocking out power, felling trees and fences, and coating roads with a treacherous, frigid glaze. Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Highway patrols reported hundreds of vehicle accidents, and a tornado ripped through a trailer park in Florida. More than 1,200 flights at Charlotte Douglas International were canceled — more than 90 percent of the airport’s Sunday schedule, flight tracking service flightaware.com said. Winter Storm Izzy dumped as much as 25.4cm of snow in some areas of western North Carolina as the system moved across the US Southeast, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. North Carolina Highway Patrol spokesman First Sergeant Christopher Knox said that by midafternoon, the agency had responded to 300 vehicle crashes and nearly 800 calls for service. Two people died when their car drove off the road and into trees in a median east of Raleigh, North Carolina. The driver and passenger, both 41-year-old South Carolina residents, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Investigators believe they were driving too fast for the conditions, described as mixed winter precipitation, Knox said. Durham police posted on Twitter a photograph of a tractor-trailer that slid off the North Carolina Highway 147 overpass in Durham. The truck’s cab appeared to have landed upright on Highway 15-501 below, while the trailer came down in a vertical position from the bridge to the highway below. Police spokesperson Kammie Michael said the driver was stable with injuries that did not appear life-threatening. Outages, which had affected 250,000 customers earlier in the day, left about 130,000 customers without power by late on Sunday, poweroutage.us said. North Carolina was hardest

Dimming sun’s rays should be off-limits, experts say

PLAYING MOTHER NATURE: Reducing the sun’s radiative force could decimate rain-fed crops, but could also could lower the risk of drought in southern Africa

Planetary-scale engineering schemes designed to cool Earth’s surface and lessen the effects of global heating are potentially dangerous and should be blocked by governments, more than 60 policy experts and scientists said on yesterday. Even if injecting billions of sulfur particles into the middle atmosphere — the most hotly debated plan for so-called solar radiation modification (SRM) — turned back a critical fraction of the sun’s rays as intended, the consequences could outweigh any benefits, they said in an open letter. The letter, supported by a commentary in the journal WIREs Climate Change, said: “Solar geoengineering deployment cannot be governed globally in a fair, inclusive and effective manner.” “We therefore call for immediate political action from governments, the United Nations and other actors to prevent the normalization of solar geoengineering as a climate policy option,” it said. An increase of 1.1°C above mid-19th-century levels has already boosted the intensity, frequency and duration of deadly heat waves, droughts and megastorms. The world’s nations have committed to capping the rise in Earth’s surface temperature to 1.5°C above mid-19th-century levels, but UN-backed scientists have said that threshold would be breached, possibly within a decade. The failure to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive global heating has led some policymakers to embrace solar geoengineering — widely dismissed not long ago as more science fiction than science — to buy time for a more durable solution. It has long been known that injecting a large quantity of reflective particles into the upper atmosphere could cool the planet. Nature sometimes does the same: Debris from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines lowered Earth’s average surface temperature for more than a year. However, the open letter said there are several reasons to reject such a course of action. Artificially dimming the sun’s radiative force is likely to disrupt monsoon

Teen dodges wildfires, missiles in record flight

Avoid typhoon in the Philippines. Check. Steer clear of massive California wildfires. Check. Keep away from test missiles in North Korea. What? Wait. As teenage pilot Zara Rutherford flew ever onward in a record-challenging global odyssey, she met little as strange or scary as when she tried to squeeze in between North Korean airspace and a massive cloud threatening to cut off passage for her ultralight plane. “Well, they test missiles once in a while without warning,” Rutherford said. She was just 15 minutes from flying over one of the last places one should enter uninvited, so she radioed her control team to ask if she could cut the corner over the isolationist communist dictatorship on her way to Seoul. “Straight away they said: ‘Whatever you do, do not go into North Korean airspace,’” Rutherford said. Fortunately the clouds cooperated enough and she did not have to continue the crash course in applied geopolitics. At the age of 19, she was yesterday set to land her single-seater Shark sport aircraft in Kortrijk, Belgium, more than 150 days after setting out to become the youngest woman to circumnavigate the world solo. US aviator Shaesta Waiz was 30 when she set the previous benchmark. Flying runs in her blood, as both her parents are pilots and she has been traveling in small planes since she was six. At 14, she started flying herself and about 130 hours of solo flights prepped her for the record attempt, which she hopes will also have a bigger meaning. With the final touchdown in a plane that looks like a fly among the giants parked at international airports, the Belgian-British teenager wants to infuse young women and girls worldwide with the spirit of aviation — and an enthusiasm for studies in the exact sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology. Two statistics

Record-holding Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee dies at the age of 102

Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who flew 409 fighter combat missions over three wars, and later helped to bring attention to the black pilots who had battled racism at home to fight for freedom abroad, died on Sunday. He was 102. McGee died in his sleep at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, said his son, Ron McGee. After the US’ entry into World War II, McGee left the University of Illinois to join an experimental program for black soldiers seeking to train as pilots. In October 1942, he was sent to the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama for flight training, his biography on the Web site of the National Aviation Hall of Fame says. “You could say that one of the things we were fighting for was equality,” he told The Associated Press in a 1995 interview. “Equality of opportunity. We knew we had the same skills, or better.” McGee graduated from flight school in June 1943, and in early 1944, joined the all-black 332nd Fighter Group, known as the “Red Tails.” He flew 136 missions as the group accompanied bombers over Europe. More than 900 men trained at Tuskegee from 1940 to 1946. About 450 deployed overseas and 150 lost their lives in training or combat. In the past few years, the Tuskegee Airmen have been the subject of books, movies and documentaries highlighting their courage in the air and the doubts they faced on the ground because of their race. In 2007, a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award from the US Congress, was issued to recognize their “unique military record that inspired revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces.” McGee remained in the Army Air Corps, later the US Air Force, for 30 years. He flew low-level bombing and strafing missions during the Korean War and returned to combat again during

US thieves switch focus to snatching French bulldogs

The two thieves who brutally robbed 27-year-old Marieke Bayens at gunpoint on a street in Oakland, California, were not after her purse — or her. They wanted the little dog at the end of her leash: Merlyn, a French bulldog. From New York to Los Angeles, and from Miami to Chicago, thefts of the prized breed have been on the rise. Small and friendly, and thus easy to grab, French bulldogs are hugely popular, selling for thousands of dollars on the black market. They have the added draw of being a “dog of the stars.” The most famous victim so far has been Lady Gaga. Armed men last year stole her pet bulldogs Koji and Gustav, even opening fire on an employee who was walking them. He was wounded but survived. The superstar singer offered a US$500,000 reward for their return and eventually got them back. Police made five arrests in the case. Bayens survived a similar attack in November last year while walking Merlyn, a friend’s dog. The attack occurred in broad daylight. “I was waiting for Merlyn to go about his business when I saw two people coming,” she said. “Before I knew it, one was in front of me pointing a gun at my face and said: ‘Give me the dog.’” “The other had already grabbed Merlyn off the ground, and when I didn’t respond to the one pointing the gun, the other pulled ... Merlyn’s leash out from my hand. They ran away towards their car and sped away down a street,” she said. Similar tactics have been used elsewhere in the country. Last year, people in San Francisco heard the story of 30-something Sarah Vorhaus, who was stopped by three armed men and brutally beaten by one, before they made off with her five-month-old French bulldog Chloe. So why are French bulldogs such a tempting

Eruption felt worldwide, serious damage in Tonga

HOUSES FLOODED: The ground shook in Tonga as explosions were heard, followed by gushing water and pelting rocks, sending people running to higher ground

A massive volcanic eruption in Tonga that triggered tsunami waves around the Pacific caused “significant damage” to the island nation’s capital and smothered it in dust, but the full extent was not apparent with communications still cut off yesterday. The eruption on Saturday was so powerful that it was recorded around the world, triggering a tsunami that flooded Pacific coastlines from Japan to the US. Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, suffered “significant” damage, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, adding that there had been no reports of injury or death, but a full assessment was not possible with communication lines down. “The tsunami has had a significant impact on the foreshore on the northern side of Nuku’alofa, with boats and large boulders washed ashore,” Ardern said after contacting the New Zealand embassy in Tonga. “Nuku’alofa is covered in a thick film of volcanic dust, but otherwise conditions are calm and stable,” she said, adding that water sources have been contaminated by ash and fresh water is needed. There has been no word on damage in the outer islands, and New Zealand is sending an air force reconnaissance aircraft “as soon as atmospheric conditions allow,” the New Zealand Defence Force said on Twitter. “We’re working hard to see how we can assist our Pacific neighbors after the volcanic eruption near Tonga.” Tonga has also accepted Canberra’s offer to send a surveillance flight, the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs office said, adding that it is prepared to immediately send “critical humanitarian supplies.” The US was “deeply concerned for the people of Tonga,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, pledging support for the island nation. A 1.2m wave swept ashore in the Tongan capital, with residents reporting that they fled to higher ground, leaving behind flooded houses, some with structural damage, as small stones and ash fell from the sky. “It

UN envoy pushes peace in Sahara

The UN envoy for the disputed Western Sahara on Saturday visited refugee camps in Algeria housing those displaced by fighting decades ago, in a renewed effort to find a diplomatic solution for the territory. Staffan de Mistura’s visit to camps in Smara, shown on Algerian state television, was met with skepticism by supporters of the Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975. Sahrawi independence advocates are increasingly frustrated after decades of diplomatic deadlock, and some young people are taking up arms against the Moroccan forces they see as occupiers. The envoy started his first trip to the region last week in Morocco, and travels next week to the Algerian capital of Algiers before visiting Mauritania. Algeria backs the Polisario, and severed diplomatic relations with Morocco in August last year in a dispute linked to the Western Sahara conflict. After talking with de Mistura, Moroccan officials reiterated the country’s “commitment to the resumption of the political process conducted under the exclusive auspices of the UN.” Morocco has proposed granting Western Sahara greater autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, but the Polisario Front wants a referendum for self-determination under the supervision of the UN. “The Sahrawis are not asking for the impossible,” said Azza Ibrahim Babi, leader of the Boujdour refugee settlement. “We are only asking for the organization of a referendum.” She expressed doubt that De Mistura, an Italian diplomat and former UN envoy for Syria, could find the long-elusive solution. “We will continue the armed struggle,” she said. The Polisario in 2020 ended a 29-year ceasefire with Morocco after a border confrontation with the Moroccan army, a decision fueled by impatience among younger Sahrawi who have spent their lives waiting for the UN-promised referendum. Morocco won a major diplomatic victory when former US president Donald Trump recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara

Cyprus extradition riles US lobbyists

A Chinese mother and son’s fight against extradition from Cyprus to face fraud charges at home has attracted criticism by US-based right-wing lobby groups who say the charges are politically motivated. Cyprus police said the mother, 61, and her son, 39, were arrested on Dec. 8 under a warrant issued by Chinese authorities for alleged investment fraud in China between March 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. The pair are due in court in the resort town of Paphos for the resumption of their extradition hearing on Friday. A US pro-democracy organization supported by former US president Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has contacted Cypriot authorities to demand that the extradition request be rejected, Cypriot media said. The mother and son have been described as members of the New Federal State of China, a US-based political movement lobbying against the Chinese government. The group is tied to exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui (郭文貴) and Bannon, a China hawk. The two also had links to another US group that lobbied against China, the Rule of Law Foundation. The justice and interior ministries received a letter from the Rule of Law Foundation, an organization aiming to “protect individuals speaking out against corruption and illegal activities in China,” Cypriot newspaper Politis said. “China has a proven record of falsely accusing people outside the country in hopes they would end actions against the Chinese Communist Party,” Politis quoted the letter as saying. The paper said that the Chinese suspects acquired Cypriot residency through investment. Defence lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou told Politis that the case against his clients was “politically motivated.” “Hidden behind the extradition is political persecution because of their ties to a political movement, the New Federal State of China, headquartered in the United States,” he said. Cyprus would prefer to keep the case low-profile as it has an extradition treaty with China and good