UNITED KINGDOM
EU too ‘stubborn’ on Brexit
The government yesterday warned the EU that it needed to change its “stubborn” position on Brexit if a no-deal exit was to be avoided. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab said he wanted a deal, but the EU had to change its position. “We want a good deal with our EU partners,” he told the BBC, adding that there had been a “series of fairly stubborn positions staked out by the EU.” If the EU sticks to that line then the nation needs to be prepared for a no-deal Brexit, he said. “We want a good deal with EU partners and friends but that must involve the abolition of the undemocratic backstop. What the prime minister has instructed and the Cabinet has accepted is a turbo-charging of those preparations,” he added.
GERMANY
Man rescued from cave
Rescuers early yesterday freed one man trapped in Falkenstein Cave in the south of the country by rising water and are working to free a second. The two — a mountain guide and a client — were trapped about 650m inside the cave in on Sunday evening as rising water, a result of heavy rain in the region, cut off their path back to the entrance. Rescuers reached the cavity where they were sheltering and supplied them with blankets and food.
FRANCE
Tourist killed in shooting
Police are hunting at least one gunman after a vacationer and two others were killed in a shooting near a service station in the town of Ollioules near the Mediterranean. Ollioules Mayor Robert Beneventi said the traveler and her husband were caught in a settling of scores between local criminals in Sunday night’s shooting. Beneventi told local newspaper Var-Matin that the other victims were local youths known to police who appeared to be the target of the attack. The vacationer’s husband was injured.
ROMANIA
Man says he killed teens
A man has admitted to killing two teenage girls including a 15-year-old whose disappearance last week shook the country and led to the national police chief being fired, the suspect’s lawyer said on Sunday. The suspect, named as Gheorghe Dinca, 65, “has confessed his crimes,” lawyer Alexandru Bogdan was quoted as saying by Agerpres news agency. After refusing to answer any questions, Dinca eventually confessed to the murders of Alexandra, who vanished on Wednesday, and 19-year-old Luiza, who was missing since April. Alexandra was snatched on Wednesday as she tried to hitch-hike home to Dobrosloveni. On Thursday morning, she managed to ring an emergency number and give clues to police about the place she was being held. She yelled “he’s coming, he’s coming” before the line was cut, police said.
UNITED STATES
Body of two-year-old found
The body of a missing Oregon boy whose parents died in an apparent murder-suicide is believed to have been found in a remote area of Montana, police said. Police in Medford, Oregon, said Montana authorities reported finding the body on Sunday thought to be that of two-year-old Aiden Salcido, the son of Daniel Salcido and Hannah Janiak, who had formerly lived in Medford. Aiden was the subject of an intense search after his parents were found dead on Wednesday in Montana. Witnesses called in tips after seeing the story on the news and were instrumental in helping to locate a remote camp believed to have been occupied by the family, Medford police said.
AUSTRALIA
East Timor pact approved
Parliament yesterday voted to implement a maritime border treaty with East Timor that is expected to provide a major boost that nation by establishing new arrangements for sharing revenue from the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea. The vote came just days after East Timor’s parliament voted in favor of ratifying the treaty, which the two countries signed at the UN in March last year. It was the first-ever reached under a special conciliation mechanism of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
VIETNAM
Web-gambling group nabbed
Police have detained more than 380 Chinese for allegedly operating an illegal online gambling operation considered the largest of its kind in the country. They were arrested while allegedly running around-the-clock Web sites with transactions estimated at 3 billion yuan (US$435 million) in Haiphong, a statement on the Ministry of Public Security’s Web site said. “This is a criminal organization with new and sophisticated ways of operating in cyberspace under the cover of foreign investment enterprises in Vietnam,” the ministry said. Police seized about 2,000 smartphones, 533 computers, bank cards, cash and documents, it said.
JORDAN
UNRWA under scrutiny
An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of an Amman-based agency for Palestinian refugees, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), including Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl. The report by the agency’s ethics department is being reviewed by UN investigators. The allegations include senior management engaging in “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.” UNRWA said it is cooperating fully with the investigation.
SOUTH KOREA
Hormuz mission mulled
Seoul plans to join a US-led maritime force in the Middle East by sending a naval unit, which includes a destroyer, to help guard oil tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, the Maekyung newspaper reported yesterday. Citing an unidentified senior official, the paper said the government had decided to send the anti-piracy Cheonghae unit that has operating in the Gulf of Aden since 2009, possibly along with helicopters.
SOUTH KOREA
Northern fishers head home
The Unification Ministry said three North Koreans whose wooden fishing boat crossed the sea border between the two rivals on Saturday would be allowed to return home. The trio were to head back in their boat later yesterday, in accordance with their wishes, it said. A Ministry of National Defense official said the boat was intercepted on Saturday because a white towel was tied to its mast in a potential sign that those on board might want to defect. The trio said they used the towel to prevent any clash with other ships and had gone off course by mistake and wanted to go home.
NIGERIA
Sixty slain in attack
Suspected Boko Haram extremists killed more than 60 people in an attack on people leaving a funeral in northeastern village, a local official said on Sunday. Eleven others were wounded during the attack, the official said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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