MYANMAR
19 S Koreans rescued
Nineteen South Koreans who were held captive in Myanmar have been rescued, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, with a source from Myanmar’s main airport confirming the victims were flying home. Seoul has been working on its citizens’ release since being notified early last month that they had been detained by an unknown “illegal company” in Tachileik, in Myanmar’s Shan state near the border with Thailand. Tachileik is located in the infamous “Golden Triangle” region that covers parts of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar where criminal organizations thrive. South Korean authorities did not disclose specific information regarding the “illegal” entity responsible for detaining the South Koreans, nor on the individuals held captive. Following a request from Seoul, Burmese authorities raided the company late last month and rescued the South Koreans, the ministry said. A source from the airport in Yangon yesterday said that the South Koreans “left this morning from Yangon on a direct flight to Incheon airport.”
UNITED STATES
Blinken vows Kyiv support
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday promised a top Ukrainian official sustained support from Washington, including help to get through the winter, with Russia feared to strike Kyiv’s infrastructure again. Blinken met Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Washington. “We, in all of our conversations with the Ukrainian government, make clear that we will continue to stand by them, that we will continue to back them,” Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. Blinken spoke to Yarmak about “steps we can take together with Ukraine to harden its infrastructure for the upcoming winter,” Miller said. US President Joe Biden has sought to couple a request to Congress for US$61 billion to Ukraine with $14 billion for Israel, but Republicans have advanced only the Israel portion and tied it to cutting the budget of the US tax collection agency.
UNITED STATES
Biden, Widodo affirm pact
The US and Indonesia on Monday announced a new defense cooperation agreement, as Washington looks to counter Chinese influence across the Indo-Pacific region with efforts to bolster defense and trade agreements. The deal, struck after a White House meeting between President Joe Biden and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, is part of a broader agreement that would see the nations work together on peacekeeping efforts and counterterrorism programs. The announcement was made ahead of the start of the APEC summit in San Francisco yesterday. The two nations are also to hold a pair of regular meetings between senior defense officials that would include engagement with non-military stakeholders, the White House said in a statement.
THAILAND
No Chinese patrol: PM
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said there was no plan to invite Chinese police officers to patrol local tourist destinations, seeking to clear the air after comments by the tourism authority about such a program sparked a furor. The government only wants to cooperate with Chinese police on information exchange about criminal networks that might be active in the nation, which would boost the confidence of Chinese tourists, Srettha told reporters during a trip to San Francisco on Monday. The cooperation would not involve stationing Chinese police personnel in the nation, he said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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