NEW ZEALAND
Envoy rapped over tweets
A top diplomat in Washington was reportedly censured yesterday over social media posts expressing fears “we will all die” if US President Donald Trump is re-elected. Caroline Beresford, the No. 2 diplomat in the US, tweeted “get your shit together” discussing a Democratic ticket of US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren against Trump in the 2020 election. “Please get your shit together or we will all die,” she tweeted, since deleted, later adding: “They’ve learned nothing.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told stuff.co.nz it “does not in any way endorse the content or tone of the tweets” and that Beresford’s tweets were prompting “appropriate action.”
SINGAPORE
Firms probed over N Korea
The government yesterday said it was investigating two local companies accused of supplying luxury goods to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. Citing a leaked draft of a UN report, the BBC earlier this week said the two firms were OCN and T-Specialist, sister companies that share the same director. “The Singapore authorities are aware of these cases and we are in correspondence with the UN Panel on them,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “However, we are unable to provide additional details as investigations are ongoing.” OCN and T-Specialist could not be immediately reached for comment, neither could lawyer Edmond Pereira, who local media reported was representing the firms.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Quake death toll rises to 125
The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary yesterday said that an earthquake last month killed at least 125 people and forced another 35,000 from their homes. It said that major relief efforts are under way in the central region where the magnitude 7.5 quake struck on Feb. 26. The official death toll rose from 55 last week and police said it could rise further. The region is remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries have been slow to filter out. Strong aftershocks have continued to rattle the area.
UNITED STATES
Dog dies in overhead bin
A dog died on a United Airlines plane after a flight attendant ordered its owner to put the animal in the plane’s overhead bin. United on Tuesday said that it took full responsibility for the incident on the Monday night flight from Houston to New York. The dog was in a small pet carrier designed to fit under an airline seat. Passengers reported that they heard barking during the flight and did not know that the dog had died until the plane landed at LaGuardia Airport. United spokesman Charles Hobart said the airline is investigating the incident and talking to the flight attendant, whom he declined to identify.
UNITED STATES
VA chief may be replaced
President Donald Trump is considering putting Secretary of Energy Rick Perry in charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), replacing David Shulkin as he faces criticism within his department. Two people familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president has floated the notion of moving Perry to the VA. One official said Trump raised the idea with Perry on Monday, but did not offer him the job. The VA inspector general is looking into a complaint by a member of Shulkin’s security detail. Two people familiar with the allegation said that the person was asked to accompany Shulkin to a Home Depot and carry furniture into his home.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
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