NORWAY
Nobel lifts Russia ban
Ambassadors from Russia and Belarus have been invited again to Stockholm’s Nobel Prize banquet this year after being left out last year because of the Ukraine invasion, the Nobel Foundation said on Thursday. Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, was also invited to the event for the first time. The foundation said that ambassadors from all countries that are diplomatically represented in Sweden and Norway would be invited to the prize award ceremonies in December. It said it sought to include even those who did not share the values of the Nobel Prize to promote dialogue and understanding. Akesson said he would not attend. “Unfortunately I’m busy that day,” he wrote on Facebook.
UNITED STATES
US, China officials meet
US and Chinese military officials met at a defense chiefs conference in Fiji last month, in a rare direct engagement between the armed forces of the two superpowers. US Admiral John Aquilino, who leads the US Indo-Pacific Command, held a meeting with a senior Chinese official at the event held from Aug. 14 to 16, the Pentagon said. Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian (吳謙) told reporters in Beijing on Thursday that General Xu Qiling (徐起零), deputy joint chief of staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, met US representatives there. Neither side gave further details on the discussions.
GEORGIA
President under fire over EU
The ruling Georgian Dream party yesterday said that it would begin impeachment proceedings against the president due to her visits to the EU, which were made against the will of the government, news agency Interpress reported. President Salome Zourabichvili had “flagrantly violated” the country’s constitution, Interpress cited Georgian Dream party leader Irakli Kobakhidze as saying, adding that the party would begin impeachment proceedings. Kobakhidze said the impeachment is unlikely to succeed, as Georgian Dream, which has a simple majority in parliament, would need the support of the opposition for it to pass. Zourabichvili, a former French diplomat of Georgian descent, was elected to the nation’s mostly ceremonial presidency in 2018 with Georgian Dream’s backing. She has since broken with the party, which she has repeatedly accused of being pro-Russian and insufficiently committed to the nation joining the EU and NATO.
SRI LANKA
Piano-playing cop fired
The nation’s police force yesterday said it had sacked an officer who had entertained protesters with an impromptu piano performance after they stormed the presidential compound last year. Constable R. M. D. Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residence on the day it was taken over by protesters who forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Instead, he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song to the crowd streaming through its rooms. “Dayaratne was on social media playing the piano while the building was being vandalized,” a senior officer said on condition of anonymity. “He was our Nero,” the officer added, referring to the ancient Roman emperor said to have played the fiddle while the city burned in a weeklong fire. Police authorities concluded that the constable had breached discipline after a lengthy investigation.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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