UNITED STATES
Syria’s role in forum protested
The US plans to stage a walkout in protest at Syria’s presidency of the Conference on Disarmament at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, US Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters yesterday. “We are going to walk out at some point this morning and we will be taking other actions that you will see over the course of Syria’s presidency, so please stay tuned,” Wood said. Washington did not plan a boycott of the four-week presidency, but wanted to hold Syria to account for its use of chemical weapons, he said.
ISRAEL
Mortar shells fired from Gaza
More than 25 mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward communities in southern Israel, the military said. No one was hurt in the barrage. The military says most were intercepted yesterday by the Iron Dome defense system. However, the volume of mortars would appear to be the largest fired in a single incident since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The border area has been tense in recent weeks as the Palestinians have held mass protests aimed at lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power in 2007.
ISRAEL
Abramovich gets citizenship
An official said Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has received Israeli citizenship after his British visa was not renewed. The Chelsea soccer club owner arrived in Israel on Monday, the Ministry of Immigration official said. Israel grants automatic citizenship to anyone of Jewish descent. The official was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. Another official told Channel 10 News that Abramovich submitted a citizenship request “like any other person” with Israel’s Moscow embassy and was accepted. Britain said this month that it would review long-term visas of rich Russians after the March poisonings of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.
NEPAL
Sherpa honored for successes
Several Sherpa guides were honored for their own Everest successes on the anniversary of the first conquest of the world’s highest peak. Government minister Bina Magar, who herself is an Everest climber, honored the guides for their achievements at a ceremony yesterday. It is held every year on the date in 1953 that New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his guide Tenzing Norgay first set foot on the summit of the 8,850m mountain. Those honored included Kami Rita, who just climbed the mountain for a record 22nd time, and Lhakpa Sherpa, whose nine climbs are the most for a woman.
FRANCE
Terrorism convicts to be freed
The anti-terrorism prosecutor said that about 40 convicted terrorists are due to be released from prisons this year and next, calling the re-entry into society of the unrepentant ones a “major risk.” The nation still faces a significant threat from homegrown supporters of the struggling Islamic State (IS) group, Francois Molins said on BFM television on Monday. Molins estimated that 600 to 700 French extremists are unaccounted for in the areas of Iraq and Syria claimed by IS, although many have probably been killed. He says authorities think some organizers of the November 2015 attacks in Paris are among the dead in the Middle East. Molins said the investigation of the simultaneous attacks at the Bataclan concert hall, Paris cafes and the national stadium that killed 130 people should conclude next year.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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