NORTH KOREA
Citizens allowed to return
Pyongyang yesterday said it would allow citizens staying abroad to return home in line with easing COVID-19 pandemic situations worldwide, as the country slowly eases restrictions. In a brief statement carried by state media, the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters said those returning would be put in quarantine for a week for “proper medical observation.” The statement did not elaborate, but analysts said the announcement would lead to the return of students, workers and other people who have had to stay abroad, mostly in China and Russia, because of the pandemic. The workers are a key source of foreign income for the country.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police supplier hacked
London’s Metropolitan Police force yesterday said it was taking security measures after “unauthorized access to the IT system of one of its suppliers,” following data breaches at other forces. The company in question had access to the names, ranks, photographs, vetting levels and pay numbers for officers and staff, but not addresses, phone numbers or financial details, it said. The Sun on Sunday reported that “cyber crooks penetrated the IT systems” of the firm, which reportedly prints identity cards and staff passes for police. The incident follows an admission this month by the Police Service of Northern Ireland that personal data on all serving members was mistakenly published in response to a Freedom of Information request.
ZIMBABWE
President re-elected
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was re-elected for a second and final five-year term late on Saturday in results announced much earlier than expected following another troubled vote in the country with a history of violent and disputed elections. An opposition party spokesperson said within minutes of Mnangagwa being declared the winner that they would reject the results as “hastily assembled without proper verification.” The 80-year-old Mnangagwa, who has the nickname “The Crocodile” from his days as a guerrilla fighter, won 52.6 percent of the votes in the midweek election, the Electoral Commission said in a late-night announcement in the capital, Harare. The 45-year-old main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, received 44 percent, it said. International election observers raised questions over the environment in the buildup to the vote and pointed to an atmosphere of intimidation against Chamisa’s supporters. “It’s done. It never changes,” said Gerald Chosawa, a security guard at a grocery store. “I had some hope. Now it’s better to prepare to join the others who have left the country. That’s the best option.”
UKRAINE
Pilots die in collision
Three military pilots, including a “mega talent” who yearned to fly F-16s, were killed on Friday when two L-39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv, the air force said on Saturday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that the three men included Andriy Pilshchykov, call sign Juice, “a Ukrainian officer, one of those who greatly helped our state.” Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat described Pilshchykov, who was 29, as a “mega talent” and leader of reforms. “You can’t even imagine how much he wanted to fly an F-16,” Ihnat wrote on Facebook. “But now that American planes are actually on the horizon, he will not fly them.”
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
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
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
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