IRAQ
Rockets strike air base
Four rockets on Saturday hit the Balad Air Base north of Baghdad, the military said, as security sources said that a local contractor for a US company managing Iraq’s F-16s was wounded. The attack came hours after Iraqi security forces raided an Islamic State hideout in the plains of Tarmiyah, with clashes leaving five militants and two pro-government fighters dead, the military said. F-16s at the base were backing the ongoing Tarmiyah operation against Islamic States sleeper cells at the time of the rocket attack, two security sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. A local army source said that Katyusha-style rockets were fired at the base. One of the rockets hit a part of the base hosting employees of Sallyport, the US contractor charged with maintaining the F-16 aircraft purchased from the US in the past few years, the security sources said. “An Iraqi contractor sustained moderate injuries,” one of the sources said.
UNITED STATES
Nazi guard sent to Germany
A Tennessee man has been sent back to Germany for his role in acts of persecution while serving as an armed guard at a Nazi concentration camp in the final months of World War II. Friedrich Karl Berger, 95, was found removable to Germany after a two-day trial in February last year. His service as an armed guard at an outpost of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Meppen in western Germany constituted assistance in Nazi-sponsored persecution, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Berger is the 70th Nazi persecutor removed from the US, the department said. In Germany, a criminal investigation against Berger was closed in December last year and he does not face arrest, the Bild newspaper reported.
UNITED STATES
Three killed in gun store
A person on Saturday entered a gun store and shooting range in a New Orleans suburb and fatally shot two people, prompting customers and staff to open fire on the shooter, a sheriff said. The shooter also died. The shooting happened at about 2:50pm at the Jefferson Gun Outlet in the suburb of Metairie, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a release. Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said that the shooter initially struck two people inside, and then several other people — whether employees or store customers — opened fire on the shooter, both inside and outside of the building. Lopinto said two other people were also hit by gunfire and were in hospital in a stable condition. “We’re trying to put it all together,” the sheriff said during a short briefing with journalists. None of the dead or wounded were immediately identified.
UNITED STATES
Trump to speak at CPAC
Former president Donald Trump is on Sunday to give a speech in Orlando, Florida, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the country’s largest annual gatherings of political conservatives, a source familiar with the plans said on Saturday. It would be his first extended public address since leaving the White House on Jan. 20. Trump would be “talking about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement,” the source said. He is also expected to challenge the “disastrous amnesty and border policies” of his successor, President Joe Biden, the source added. Three-quarters of Republicans want Trump to play a prominent role in the party, a poll released this week by Quinnipiac University said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in