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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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