UNITED STATES
Trump claims Nobel nod
President Donald Trump on Friday said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work to open up a dialogue with North Korea. At an event at the White House, Trump spoke about his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam. Early exchanges with Kim were filled with “fire and fury,” but since their first meeting last year, the two have established a good relationship, he said. Abe gave him a copy of the letter he wrote nominating him for the Nobel Prize, Trump said. A spokesman for the Japanese embassy said he had no information about such a letter.
EL SALVADOR
Jail for abortion overturned
The Supreme Court has overturned a 30-year sentence for a woman convicted in July last year of aggravated homicide for allegedly having an abortion. The court ordered a new trial for Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz, who was released on Friday after almost three years in jail. She was greeted by advocates chanting: “Evelyn, you are not alone!” Hernandez said she was raped and did not realize she was pregnant. She also said she felt pains and passed out during what might have been a miscarriage in April 2016. Abortion is illegal in all situations in the country.
TURKEY
Missile purchase to go ahead
The government will not turn back from its deal to buy S-400 missile systems from Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying yesterday, a day after an informal deadline Washington set for Ankara to respond to a rival offer passed. US officials have said that if Ankara proceeds with the S-400 purchase, Washington would withdraw its offer to sell a US$3.5 billion Raytheon Co Patriot missile package. They have also said it would jeopardize the country’s purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 jets and possibly result in the US imposing sanctions.
GERMANY
Call to isolate Iran rejected
The country on Friday rejected an appeal by US Vice President Mike Pence for Europeans to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and isolate Tehran. Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas defended the 2015 agreement under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. “Together with the Brits, French and the entire EU we have found ways to keep Iran in the nuclear agreement until today,” Maas told the Munich Security Conference. A day earlier, Pence accused Tehran of planning a “new Holocaust” with its opposition to Israel and regional ambitions in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
UNITED STATES
Space harpoon tested
A harpoon flung from a satellite has successfully captured a piece of pretend space junk. The British-led experiment is part of an effort to clean up debris in orbit. The steel-tipped harpoon on Friday last week scored a bullseye, the University of Surrey’s Guglielmo Aglietti said on Friday. The harpoon — no bigger than a pen — pierced an aluminum panel the size of a table tennis paddle attached to the end of a satellite boom. The distance was just 1.5m, but researchers were delighted. A video shows the harpoon slamming into the target and knocking it off its perch and then the harpoon cable becoming entangled around the boom. A much bigger harpoon would be needed to snare a real dead satellite, Aglietti said.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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