UNITED STATES
Troops to move to Poland
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Washington plans to move some troops from Germany to Poland, speaking as he hosted Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House. “We are going to be reducing our forces in Germany” from 52,000 to 25,000 troops, Trump said after an Oval Office meeting with Duda. “Some will be coming home and some will be going to other places. Poland would be one of those other places.” Duda called it a “very reasonable decision” and said he had asked Trump not to withdraw US troops from Europe “because the security of Europe is very important to me.” Asked what kind of a message the redeployment sends to Russia, Trump said: “I think it sends a very strong signal.”
TANZANIA
Gems fetch US$3.3m
A hand-miner became an instant millionaire after selling the two of the largest tanzanite gems ever discovered to the government. The central bank paid Saniniu Laizer 7.7 billion shillings (US$3.3 million) for the stones, which weighed 9.2kg and 5.8kg. Laizer, clad in the traditional red and white checkered robes of the Maasai community, received the payment at a ceremony in the northeastern Manyara region and broadcast on national television on Wednesday. President John Magufuli said that the purchase from Laizer was vindication of reforms to the mining industry that the government has implemented since he came to power in 2015. The changes include the introduction of centers where small-scale miners can trade their finds.
SWEDEN
Groups worry for democracy
More than 500 political and civil society leaders, Nobel laureates and rights groups, yesterday warned that some governments were using the COVID-19 pandemic to “tighten their grip on power,” undermining democracy and civil liberties. In an open letter signed by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi, Lech Walesa and Jose Ramos-Horta, and actor Richard Gere, among others, the authors called the ongoing pandemic a “formidable global challenge to democracy.” They wrote: “Democracy is under threat, and people who care about it must summon the will, the discipline, and the solidarity to defend it.”
SOUTH KOREA
Fishing boat boarded
Pirates allegedly kidnapped five citizens and a Ghanaian after boarding their fishing vessel off the coast of Benin, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Maritime Bureau said yesterday. The Ghanaian-flagged Panofi Frontier with 30 crew onboard was attacked on Wednesday about 60 nautical miles (111km) south of Benin’s capital, Cotonou, they said.
CHINA
Detentions formalized
Authorities have formally arrested two detained activists, relatives and fellow campaigners said yesterday. Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) and Xu Zhiyong (許志永) attended a meeting involving lawyers and human rights advocates in December last year, many of whose attendees have since been detained. Ding, a disbarred Beijing-based lawyer previously jailed for protesting against official corruption, is accused of “inciting subversion of state power,” said his wife, Luo Shengchun (羅勝春). “My greatest hope now is that Jiaxi can meet his lawyer and to see that he is well.”
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
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