SOUTH AFRICA
Haul of ‘miracle’ drug seized
Customs officials at the country’s main international airport have seized hundreds of thousands of tablets of a drug some people claim could be a remedy against COVID-19, police said on Saturday. The Police Service said in a statement that “tablets suspected to be ivermectin” worth 6 million rand (US$395,465) had been seized at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport in the past two weeks. Six suspects have been arrested, and charged with carrying unregistered medicine and importing drugs without a license, the statement said. “The unregistered medicine, which are mainly in tablet form, are believed to have been imported for sales purposes and would have been utilized in the treatment of the COVID-19 virus,” it said.
FRANCE
Security bill protested
Tens of thousands of protesters on Saturday turned out in dozens of cities against a security bill they say would restrict the filming and publicizing of images of police brutality, but also to protest the restrictions imposed against COVID-19. Those joining the demonstrations included activists from the “yellow vests” movement that gripped the country for more than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic restricted large-scale protests. Others were there to stand up for the cultural sector, hit hard by the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Also among the protesters were young people calling for the right to hold rave parties such as the one in Brittany that attracted 2,400 at the start of the year.
TURKEY
Four held over artwork
Police detained four people after artwork depicting Islam’s holiest site viewed as offensive by Ankara was hung at an Istanbul university at the center of protests, officials said on Saturday. Police were on the hunt for two others, the Istanbul Governor’s Office said, describing the artwork as an “ugly attack” on Islam. Minister of the Interior Suleyman Soylu said on Twitter that “four LGBT deviants” had been detained in comments that caused upset on social media. The artwork, which also included a rainbow flag, a symbol associated with the LGBT community, was on Friday hung opposite the rector’s office at Bogazici University.
GERMANY
Vaccines ordered in advance
The country is ordering COVID-19 vaccines for next year in case regular or booster doses are needed to keep the population immune against variants of the novel coronavirus, Minister of Health Jens Spahn said on Saturday, amid growing frustration in Europe at the slow pace of vaccination. Speaking at an online town hall of healthcare workers, Spahn defended the progress made on procuring and administering vaccines, saying 2.3 million of the country’s 83 million people had already received a dose.
UNITED STATES
Fire engulfs recycling plant
A huge fire on Friday night engulfed a recycling plant in northern New Jersey and raged into Saturday as firefighters battled flames, wind and frigid cold that turned the water from their hoses into treacherous ice. Officials said the fire could burn for days. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, but all 70 employees at the Atlantic Coast Fibers plant are accounted for, Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said. There were at least two explosions, one involving a truck with gas tanks on it, Lora said.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS