PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Police unit sent to Manus
Paramilitary police have been deployed for three months to a refugee encampment on Manus Island amid “daily” suicide attempts and rising tension there, Manus Provincial Police Commander David Yapu said yesterday. The unit has a reputation for brutal tactics and has in the past been accused of rape and murder. The would-be refugees have been refused access to Australia and moved to the remote island and the Pacific nation of Nauru, where they have remained in limbo for years. They had hoped that an expected win for Australia’s opposition Labor Party in May 18 elections would open up new options for resettlement. The surprise return to power of the conservative coalition of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison prompted a rash of suicide attempts among asylum-seekers on Manus.
HUNGARY
Hopes fade after boat crash
Hopes of finding any more survivors from a boat accident on the Danube river in Budapest were fading yesterday, with 21 people still missing most of them South Korean tourists. Police and army boats continued search operations for a second night, but their work has been hampered by high river levels and a strong current after weeks of heavy rain. The Mermaid sightseeing boat overturned after colliding with a much larger river cruise ship on a busy stretch of the Danube on Wednesday evening. At least seven South Korean tourists were killed and 21 people remain missing — including the boat’s captain and a crew member, both Hungarian. Only seven people are known to have survived. Late on Thursday, police announced that the captain of the larger ship, the 135m four-story Viking Sigyn, had been taken into custody and “questioned as a suspect ... in relation to ‘endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths.’”
COLOMBIA
Venezuelan aid redistributed
US-supplied humanitarian aid that was earmarked for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is now to be distributed in Colombia, officials said on Thursday. Colombia’s government said that it had reached the decision with the US and representatives of Guaido, because of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s continued “blocking” of the aid. In a statement, the national disaster agency said that some of the aid would now be redistributed to some of the 1.2 million Venezuelan migrants who have crossed into Colombia fleeing hyperinflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Poor Colombians would also benefit, it said. Whatever remaining amounts of aid not distributed inside Colombia or directly controlled by the US Agency for International Development would continue to be stored on behalf of Guaido, the agency said.
Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights calling for the release of his critics as “blatant interference.” The EU Parliament resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority the day before, called for the release of lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison on Thursday, but remained under judicial supervision. “The European Parliament [resolution] is a blatant interference in our affairs,” Saied said. “They can learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms.” Saied’s condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU’s ambassador for “failing to respect diplomatic rules.” He also
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
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