UNITED KINGDOM
Yulia Skripal disharged
Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, has been discharged from hospital, reports said. Just more than a month after the pair were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury, England, after being poisoned with a nerve agent, the BBC yesterday said that Yulia Skripal, 33, had left Salisbury district hospital. The BBC said she had been taken to a secure location, though a hospital spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
BRAZIL
Jailed Lula to join election
Jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will register his candidacy to return to the nation’s highest office at the deadline for October’s election. The Workers’ Party announced after an eight-hour meeting on Monday that Lula remains its candidate and will have his bid registered on the final filing day, Aug. 15. Current legislation allows the electoral court to reject Lula’s candidacy due to his conviction. Despite being convicted of corruption and money laundering, Lula leads polls on the race for the presidency, an office he held in 2003 to 2010. He can still appeal his conviction.
UNITED STATES
Think tank on Korea closes
The US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies said that the South Korean government has terminated its funding, forcing it to close after it rejected demands to change its leadership. Institute chairman Robert Gallucci said the think tank would close next month after rejecting what he called “utterly inappropriate meddling” in its academic affairs. The institute conducts graduate studies on Korean affairs, but is best known for the Web site 38 North, a well-respected source of information on North Korea. The funding cut has been met with surprise in Washington.
AUSTRALIA
Melon farm cleared for sales
A New South Wales farm has recommenced selling cantaloupes, despite being blamed for an outbreak of the deadly listeria bacteria that the WHO said killed seven people and caused a miscarriage in the nation. The UN agency on Monday said that the Australian cantaloupes, known as rockmelons, were exported to Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and may also have been sent to the Seychelles. The agency said that between January and this month, the nation reported 19 confirmed cases and one probable case of listeria poisoning, including seven fatal. Authorities tracked the contamination to Rombola Family Farms. The New South Wales Food Authority last week said that Rombola had recommenced supplying rockmelons after testing cleared the property of contamination.
UNITED STATES
Naked jogger braves cold
With Baltimore temperatures hovering at about 4°C, a naked jogger may have pruned, but he certainly proved to be no prude. The Baltimore Sun reported that the sight of the naked man jogging through downtown Baltimore jolted commuters during Monday’s morning rush hour. In addition to clothes, the man eschewed shoes as he slowly trotted past a hospital and a courthouse. Witnesses reported the man did not seem lost or confused. Attorney Nicholas Panteleakis said he stopped at a traffic light 1.5m to 3m from the cardio enthusiast. Baltimore police spokeswoman Detective Nicole Monroe said that officers drove up the street in response to several 911 calls, but the man had disappeared, evading an indecent exposure charge.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
Botswana is this week holding a presidential election energized by a campaign by one previous head-of-state to unseat his handpicked successor whose first term has seen rising discontent amid a downturn in the diamond-dependent economy. The charismatic Ian Khama dramatically returned from self-exile six weeks ago determined to undo what he has called a “mistake” in handing over in 2018 to Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who seeks re-election tomorrow. While he cannot run as president again having served two terms, Khama has worked his influence and standing to support the opposition in the southern African country of 2.6 million people. “The return of
SOUTH CHINA SEA TENSIONS: Beijing’s ‘pronounced aggressiveness’ and ‘misbehavior’ forced countries to band together, the Philippine defense chief said The Philippines is confident in the continuity of US policies in the Asia-Pacific region after the US presidential election, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said, underlining that bilateral relations would remain strong regardless of the outcome. The alliance between the two countries is anchored in shared security goals and a commitment to uphold international law, including in the contested waters of the South China Sea, Teodoro said. “Our support for initiatives, bilaterally and multilaterally ... is bipartisan, aside from the fact that we are operating together on institutional grounds, on foundational grounds,” Teodoro said in an interview. China’s “misbehavior” in the South