SOUTH KOREA
Hunger striker hospitalized
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was hospitalized yesterday, days into a hunger strike in protest against government policies, while prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for him over corruption allegations. The leader of the Democratic Party of Korea began the protest on Aug. 31, citing the government’s economic mismanagement, threats to media freedom and failure to oppose Japan’s Fukushima wastewater release, among other reasons. The former presidential candidate was transferred to a hospital from the National Assembly in Seoul yesterday morning after suffering from dehydration and dizziness, his party said. Kim Gi-hyeon, the head of the ruling People Power Party, has urged Lee to stop fasting, saying he was ready to talk with him on policy issues. Prosecutors later said they had requested an arrest warrant for Lee as part of an investigation into a development project and bribery allegations. Lee has denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “fiction” and a “political conspiracy.”
GREECE
Aid team members killed
Five members of a Greek humanitarian aid team, sent to Libya after the devastating floods that hit Derna, have been killed in a road accident, the army said yesterday, raising a previous toll. “Five bodies, including three officials of the Greek army and two translators from the Greek foreign ministry who were part of the aid team will be repatriated to Athens on Monday,” the chiefs of staff said in a statement. Libyan authorities had on Sunday said four people had died in an accident when the Greek team was en route from Benghazi to Derna. Libyan Minister of Health Othman Abdeljalil said the accident took place when a vehicle carrying 19 members of the Greek team collided with a car carrying a Libyan family. Three people in the family car died and two were seriously injured, he said.
CHINA
‘Dictator’ Xi raises ire
Beijing yesterday lashed out at German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock for calling President Xi Jinping (習近平) a “dictator,” branding the comment “an open political provocation” that was “extremely absurd.” Baerbock made the remarks in a Fox News interview on Thursday during a visit to the US. While talking about the Ukraine war, she said: “If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president? So therefore Ukraine has to win this war.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied” and that it had made “solemn representations to the German side through diplomatic channels.”
AUSTRALIA
Python surfer fined
As if sharks were not already enough to worry about, a surfer has been seen paddling out with a python coiled around his neck. The intrepid surfer caused a stir on the Gold Coast after footage emerged of him carving through the azure waves while carrying his pet carpet python. Authorities said he did not possess a permit to have the reptile in public, and fined the man A$2,322 (US$1,495). “To take an animal out in public or display it requires a separate permit,” Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science said in a statement yesterday. “Snakes are obviously cold-blooded animals, and while they can swim, reptiles generally avoid water.” It added that “the python would have found the water to be extremely cold, and the only snakes that should be in the ocean are sea snakes.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) removed former minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) from his post after an investigation concluded that he had conducted an affair and fathered a child while serving as ambassador to the US, the Wall Street Journal reported. Top officials were told in August that a CCP inquiry into Qin uncovered “lifestyle issues,” the newspaper reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the situation that it did not describe. That phrase usually means sexual misbehavior of some type in the parlance of Chinese officialdom. Two of the people said the affair led to the birth of a child in
NO MORE LONG LINES: Swift border crossings for people traveling between Russia and areas it occupies in Ukraine show how quickly Moscow is seeking to absorb them To enter Russia from occupied Ukraine, all Tatiana has to do is arrive at the edge of the war-battered Donetsk region, show guards her Russian passport, say “thank you” and cross. Moscow has controlled several key border points since 2014, but the frontier has become more porous since the Kremlin annexed four Ukrainian territories last year, encouraging residents to take up new citizenship. “It’s become more comfortable because we’ve become Russians,” said the 37-year-old, who is from a Russian-occupied town. Tatiana used to have to go through a more arduous procedure to enter Russia: a check run by Moscow-sponsored separatists, then through Russian
GUNNED DOWN: The Canadian PM said there were credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey on June 18 India yesterday dismissed allegations that its government was linked to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada as “absurd,” expelling a senior Canadian diplomat and accusing Canada of interfering in India’s internal affairs. It came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described what he called credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an advocate of Sikh independence from India who was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, and Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a
SECURITY: Wang met with the US national security adviser in Malta over the weekend, with the US side noting the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday headed to Russia for security talks after two days of meetings with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan over the weekend in Malta. China’s top foreign policy official will be in Russia until Thursday for a round of China-Russia strategic security consultations, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement. The US and China are at odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China has refrained from taking sides in the war, saying that while a country’s territory must be respected, the West needs to consider Russia’s security concerns about NATO’s
RSS