SOUTH AFRICA
Diplomats gain immunity
Pretoria said it would provide diplomatic immunity to attendees of two meetings of officials from the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — a practice the government said is routine — as it prepares to host Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in August. The immunity covers a meeting of foreign ministers from the bloc who are to gather in Cape Town tomorrow and on Friday, the Government Gazette said on Monday. It also covers a summit of the BRICS heads of state scheduled for Aug. 22 to 24, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in an official notice. Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges related to Russia’s war with Ukraine and as a member of the court, South Africa would be obliged to arrest him if he attends. “These immunities do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal against any attendee of the conference,” the department said.
LEBANON
Army frees kidnapped Saudi
A Saudi Arabian who had been kidnapped in Beirut has been freed in a “special operation” by the Lebanese army near the Syrian border, it said in a statement yesterday. “An army intelligence patrol managed to free kidnapped Saudi national Mashari al-Mutairi during a special operation on the Syrian border,” the army said. “A number of those involved in the kidnapping were also arrested,” it added. A senior Lebanese security source had said on Monday that, based on preliminary information, the Saudi was kidnapped by unidentified assailants dressed as security personnel in a four-wheel drive vehicle on the Beirut seafront, where he had been in a restaurant. Saudi Arabian government-owned TV channel Al-Ekhbariya said the kidnappers had demanded a ransom.
EL SALVADOR
Ex-president sentenced
A court in El Salvador sentenced former president Mauricio Funes and former justice and defense minister David Munguia to more than a decade behind bars for their ties to criminal groups and failure to comply with duties, the Attorney General’s office said on Monday. Funes was sentenced to 14 years and Munguia to 18. “We were able to verify that these two former officials, who had the obligation to protect Salvadorans, negotiated their lives in exchange for electoral favors, acting as gang members,” Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado wrote on Twitter. Funes, who governed from 2009 to 2014 and lives in Nicaragua, was granted Nicaraguan citizenship in 2019. The Nicaraguan constitution holds that no citizen can be extradited.
UGANDA
Law aims to halt organ theft
President Yoweri Museveni has approved a law to stop the stealing of human organs and tissues, the Minister of Health Jane Aceng said yesterday, in a nation where women have been reportedly duped into unnecessary surgeries. Local media have in the past few years reported cases of women recruited for domestic work in the Middle East being conned into medical procedures after which their kidneys are sold by global trafficking rings. Aceng thanked Museveni for signing the Uganda Human Organ Donation and Transplant Bill 2023 to better regulate the area. “The door is now open for #Uganda to begin a new chapter of Organ Transplant,” she wrote on Twitter. The donation and transplant law, the first of its kind in Uganda, prohibits any commercial dealings in human organs and tissues. Punishments include life in prison and stiff fines.
SOUTH KOREA
Zelenskiy pleads for arms
Kyiv “desperately hopes” that Seoul will provide defensive military equipment such as anti-aircraft systems to fend off Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was cited as saying in an interview published yesterday by the Chosun Ilbo. Zelenskiy expressed gratitude over Seoul’s pledge to send demining vehicles and humanitarian aid totaling about US$230 million, but said Kyiv needed anti-aircraft and early warning systems, the report said. “I know there are many limitations regarding weapons support, but those principles should not be applied to defense systems and equipment for protecting our assets,” Zelenskiy said. “An anti-aircraft system is not a weapon, but purely defensive equipment. We have to have a sky shield to rebuild Ukraine, and I desperately hope that South Korea will support us in this area.” Seoul has so far ruled out sending lethal aid to Ukraine, citing business ties with Russia and Moscow’s influence over North Korea.
INDIA
Monsoon rains advance
Monsoon rains advanced into some more parts of southwest Bay of Bengal after stalling for the past 11 days at a far-flung island, the Meteorological Department said yesterday. The monsoon, the lifeblood of the nation’s US$3 trillion economy, delivers nearly 70 percent of the rain that India needs to water farms and recharge reservoirs and aquifers. Nearly half of the nation’s farmland, without any irrigation cover, depends on the annual June-September rains to grow a number of crops. Monsoon rains arrived over the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Friday, but did not make any progress until yesterday, the department said. Rains usually lash mainland Kerala around June 1 and cover the whole country by mid-July. This year, the onset of the monsoon over Kerala is likely to be delayed to June 4, with a model error of plus/minus four days, it said.
PAKISTAN
TV journalist released
A prominent television journalist who went missing last week, apparently because of his public support for former prime minister Imran Khan, returned home early yesterday after being released by his captors, his family and employer said. Sami Abrahim’s brother, Ali Raza, confirmed his release in a Twitter post. BOL TV confirmed his release in a news announcement. Abrahim went missing on Thursday when eight people in four vehicles intercepted his car on his way back home from work in Islamabad and took him away, his family and BOL TV said. No one had claimed responsibility for his abduction, but it is widely believed that he was being held by the nation’s security agencies, which are notorious for abducting, harassing and torturing journalists.
VIETNAM
Hanoi dims street lights
Authorities in Hanoi are turning off street lights to keep the national power system running as record temperatures drive a surge in demand in some parts of the nation. As weather officials warned the heat wave could run into next month, several cities have cut back on public lighting after state utility EVN said rising demand for air-conditioning could burden the national grid further. Temperatures this week are expected to range between 26oC and 38oC, weather officials said. To deal with the problem, Hanoi turns on its public lighting half an hour later than usual, and switches it off half an hour sooner, while halving illumination on some major roads and in public parks.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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