HAITI
US missionaries freed
The remaining members of a US missionary group who were kidnapped two months ago have been freed, police and the church group said on Thursday. National Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers confirmed that the hostages had been released, but did not provide additional details. “We glorify God for answered prayer — the remaining 12 hostages are free,” Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement. “All 17 of our loved ones are now safe.” A convoy of at least a dozen vehicles, including those of the US embassy and the National Police, took the missionaries to the Toussaint Louverture International Airport late on Thursday afternoon from the missionary group’s offices in Titanyen.
THAILAND
Hundreds flee Myanmar
Hundreds of people including many children have fled a flare-up in fighting between the Burmese army and an ethnic minority insurgent group, taking refuge across the border in Thailand, authorities and an aid worker said. About 700 people had fled to Mae Sot after fighting between the Karen National Union and the Burmese army, authorities in the western border province of Tak said in a statement. Ye Min, an official at the Aid Alliance Committee, a Thailand-based Myanmar migrants group, said that 2,503 people including 545 children were sheltering on the Thai side of the border. “We are providing food assistance working together with Thai authorities,” Ye Min said by telephone, adding that most of the displaced were from Lay Kay Kaw and other villages.
UNITED STATES
Man wears thong as mask
A passenger was forced to disembark a flight in Florida because he insisted that wearing a red thong as a mask complied with COVID-19 regulations, local media said on Thursday. Adam Jenne, 38, was asked to leave the aircraft before it took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. He told local news channel NBC2 that he wanted to show the “absurdity” of forcing passengers to wear masks on planes while allowing them to be removed to eat and drink. Video of Wednesday’s incident, filmed by another passenger, showed the crew informing Jenne that he would not be able to stay on board if he kept the thong on his face. After some discussion, he finally left his seat. Jenne said he had worn underwear on his face during previous flights, and told the air crew that “it is a mask, doing its job.”
ITALY
Fake gynecologist probed
Italian police yesterday searched the house of suspected serial sexual predator believed to have posed as a gynecologist to persuade dozens of women to undergo vaginal exams over videoconferencing. Police in Bari seized several smartphones and memory cards from the 40-year-old, after wiretapping his calls following complaints from multiple victims. The man is alleged to have called women who had undergone swabs at clinics, to tell them they had been diagnosed with “several vaginal infections,” police said in a statement. “He then persuaded them to undergo an online gynaecological exam,” it said, adding that “over 400 women throughout Italy” had been targeted, from Lazio to Lombardia and Calabria. “He introduced himself as a doctor. He knew my date and place of birth and asked me if I had done a gynecological checkup in recent months,” the Repubblica daily quoted one victim as saying.
‘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