UAE
US deploys F-22 jets
US F-22 fighter jets on Saturday arrived at an air base following a spate of unprecedented attacks in Abu Dhabi by Houthi fighters in Yemen, the US Air force said. In the past few weeks, the Iran-aligned Houthis have waged a string of largely failed strikes on United Arab Emirates (UAE) targets that have triggered Emirati and US air defenses and have even seen US troops based there briefly taking shelter. The jets arrived at the base as part of a multifaceted demonstration of US support after a series of attacks throughout last month threatened US and Emirati armed forces stationed at the host installation, the statement said. “The Raptors’ presence will bolster already strong partner nation defenses, and puts destabilizing forces on notice that the US and our partners are committed to enabling peace and stability in the region,” Lieutenant General Greg Guillot, commander of the US Air Force’s Middle East command, said in a statement. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the rapid deployment of the fifth-generation aircraft in coordination with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the US Air Forces Central said in a statement. The airmen and F-22s are deployed from the First Fighter Wing from Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, the US Air Force said.
YEMEN
UN employees abducted
Five UN staff have been abducted in the south of the nation while returning to Aden after a field mission, the UN said on Saturday. The staff were taken on Friday in Abyan Governorate, said Russell Geekie, a spokesman for the top UN official in the country. “The United Nations is in close contact with the authorities to secure their release,” Geekie said. The country’s internationally recognized government, based in the south, was working to safely free the UN staff abducted by unknown gunmen, the official news agency cited a cabinet statement as saying. An official at the UN office in Aden said that four of those seized were Yemeni nationals.
NICARAGUA
Torres dies in detention
Former guerrilla Hugo Torres, one of 46 opposition figures jailed since last year by the government of President Daniel Ortega, died on Saturday, his family said in a statement. He was 73. The statement offered few details on Torres’ death, but expressed his children’s “deep pain over the death of our beloved father.” It was released by the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity, of which Torres was a member. A former Sandinista dissident, Torres had been held since June 13 last year in El Chipote prison, before being transferred in December to a hospital for treatment, sources said. Torres had been vice president of the opposition Democratic Renovation Union (UNAMOS), formerly the Sandinista Renovation Movement, established in 1995 by militants unhappy with Ortega’s leadership. A retired army general, Torres in 1974 undertook a risky operation to free a group of jailed politicians — including Ortega — being held under then-president Anastasio Somoza. However, Ortega has accused dozens of opposition figures of conspiring against his government with US backing. Torres was hailed on Saturday as a “hero” by former guerrilla and exiled Sandinista dissident Monica Baltodano. She told news Web site 100% Noticias that Torres was “a true hero of the struggles against the dictatorships that have dominated Nicaragua — the dictatorship of Somoza and now the dictatorship of Ortega, which is a brutal and criminal dictatorship.”
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,
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
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
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
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