KOREAS
North tests rocket system
North Korea yesterday said that it had developed a new control system for a multiple rocket launcher that would lead to a “qualitative change” in its defense capabilities. Pyongyang’s Academy of Defense Science successfully carried out a “ballistic control test firing of 240mm caliber multiple rocket launcher shells” on Saturday to develop a “controllable shell and ballistic control system” for the launcher, state news agency KCNA reported. The new rocket launcher would now be “reevaluated” and its battlefield role “increased,” KCNA said. Nuclear-armed North Korea this year declared South Korea as its “principal enemy,” closing agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatening war over “even 0.001 millimeters” of territorial infringement.
INDIA
Qatar frees Indian officers
Qatar has freed eight retired Indian navy officers who had been given death sentences for alleged spying that were commuted last year, the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The eight men were accused of spying while working at Al Dahra, a consulting company in the oil-rich Gulf state that advises the Qatari government on submarine acquisitions. They were imprisoned in 2022 and handed death sentences in October that were reduced to prison sentences after New Delhi said it was exploring legal options and filed an appeal. “We appreciate the decision by the Amir of the State of Qatar to enable the release and home-coming of these nationals,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that seven of the men had returned to India. It gave no further details. The news came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai in December.
UNITED STATES
NY expands migrant curfew
New York is expanding a curfew to additional migrant shelters after violent incidents attributed to migrant shelter residents gained national attention in recent weeks. Starting yesterday, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration imposed an 11pm to 6am curfew at 20 migrant shelters, after initially placing the restrictions at four other locations, the Daily News reported. The curfew impacts about 3,600 migrants, with the largest of the emergency centers housing about 1,000 migrants in Long Island City, Queens. City officials initially placed a curfew on four shelters last month in response to neighborhood complaints.
MEXICO
Skydivers’ plane kills man
A plane carrying four Canadian skydivers came down on a beach on Sunday in the south, killing one man who was on the beach. There was no immediate information on why the plane went down, but it appeared to have made a forced landing and was largely intact. However, it fell in a relatively populated section of the beach at the Pacific coast town of Puerto Escondido, and landed almost on top of the victim, whose nationality was not disclosed. The four Canadians and one Mexican man aboard the small aircraft were removed from the plane and taken for treatment. The Oaxaca state civil defense office said they were in “stable” condition. There was no immediate information on the names or hometowns of the Canadians. The office said the dead man’s wife had been nearby, but was unharmed. The accident happened just meters away from the water and even closer to a wood beach structure of the kind frequently used in Puerto Escondido for restaurants.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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