GERMANY
McCann suspect to be freed
The main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann was yesterday due to be released from the prison where he has been serving a seven-year prison sentence for an unrelated sex crime. Prosecutors first named Christian Brueckner a suspect in 2020, when he was already serving the sentence for raping a 72-year-old woman in part of Portugal’s Algarve region where McCann went missing. His prison term ended yesterday. Der Spiegel said that his passport had been canceled, he would be electronically tagged, must declare a place of residence and cannot leave without permission. “This is an attempt by prosecutors to keep him in a kind of investigative detention where they have access to him at all times,” Der Spiegel quoted lawyer Philipp Marquort as saying. Brueckner’s lawyer denies any connection with the McCann case. Brueckner has convictions for child abuse and drug trafficking in addition to the rape of the woman, who has since died. McCann, then aged three, disappeared from her bedroom in a holiday resort as her parents dined meters away. Brueckner, 49, lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, where, according to court documents, he burgled hotels and holiday apartments. McCann’s parents continue to campaign for information about their daughter, who would now be 22.
Photo: AP
NEW ZEALAND
Chinese embassy complains
The Chinese embassy on Tuesday said that it had complained to Wellington about “harassment” of its citizens at airports, citing the case of a traveler compelled to hand over electronic devices. The embassy cited “harassment and interrogation without cause” by security and intelligence agency officials in the case of a transiting citizen, adding that some of the confiscated digital devices were not returned. “The embassy of China in New Zealand has lodged a serious representation with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and deplores the unwarranted conduct and harassment,” it said in a statement on its Web site. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said that the embassy had been advised that all those transiting or entering the country must obey its laws and regulations, including those concerning national and border security. “These laws and regulations are applied in a non-discriminatory manner, regardless of country of origin,” the spokesman said in a statement that did not refer to details of specific cases.
UNITED STATES
Xp Lee wins in Minnesota
Democrat Xiongpao “Xp” Lee on Tuesday won a special election to fill the Minnesota House of Representatives seat of a Democratic leader who was assassinated. Representative Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park held the seat until her death in June. Lee is a former Brooklyn Park City Council member. He defeated Republican real-estate agent Ruth Bittner in the heavily Democratic district. Lee’s win restores a 67-67 tie in the House, and it preserves a power-sharing deal brokered by Hortman that existed for most of the legislative session this year after elections last year cost House Democrats the majority. Hortman and her husband were gunned down in their home by a man impersonating a police officer in Brooklyn Park. Another legislator and his wife were also shot, but survived. Vance Boelter, 57, faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges in the June 14 attacks.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
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