PHILIPPINES
US-bound Afghans arrive
A group of Afghan nationals yesterday arrived to process special immigrant visas for their resettlement in the US, as part of an agreement between Manila and Washington. The Philippines agreed in July last year to temporarily host a US immigrant visa processing center for a limited number of Afghan nationals aspiring to resettle in the US. Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Teresita Daza said the US government would cover the costs for the Afghan nationals’ stay in the Philippines, including their food, housing, security, medical and transportation expenses, she said.
Photo: US embassy manila via AFP
INDONESIA
Rohingya refugees land
More than 260 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, arrived in the westernmost province of Aceh after floating at sea for days, an official said yesterday. East Aceh official Iskandar said that 117 men and 147 women, as well as about 30 children, arrived in West Peureulak on Sunday night. He said they had initially been on two boats, one of which had sunk off the coast while the second managed to move closer to shore, allowing them to walk ashore when the tide was low. “They told me they were rejected in Malaysia,” Iskandar said, adding that the local government has not decided where to move the refugees.
Photo: AFP
CHINA
Beijing to address dementia
The government has launched a national plan to address the rapidly growing prevalence of dementia, which authorities said is becoming “a widespread societal concern” and poses “significant challenges” to the well-being of the elderly and their families. A continuous “prevention and control system for dementia, covering prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and care, will be established by 2030,” Xinhua news agency said, adding that the growth of dementia would be controlled through widespread cognitive screenings, with early intervention. More than 16 million Chinese have dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type, an official report released last year showed.
RUSSIA
Oil spill kills dolphins: group
Thirty-two dolphins have died since fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, an animal rescue group said on Sunday. The Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Center said the deaths are “most likely related to the fuel oil spill.” The center wrote on the messaging app Telegram that 61 dead cetaceans had been recorded since the emergency, but the condition of the bodies suggested that 29 had died before the spill.
ISRAEL
Soldier helped out of Brazil
The government helped a former soldier leave Brazil after legal action was initiated against him by a group accusing Israelis of war crimes in the Gaza Strip based in part on soldiers’ social media posts. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday said it had helped the former soldier safely leave Brazil on a commercial flight after what it described as “anti-Israel elements” sought an investigation. It warned Israelis against posting on social media about their military service. The Hind Rajab Foundation said Brazilian authorities had launched an investigation into the soldier after it filed a complaint based on video footage, geolocation data and photographs showing the soldier participating in the demolition of civilian homes.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, US President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science. Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor in a White House
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei yesterday on a regional tour to drum up support ahead of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term. Venezuelan authorities have offered a reward of US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of Gonzalez Urrutia, who insists he beat Maduro at the polls in July last year and is recognized by the US as Venezuela’s “president-elect.” The 75-year-old fled to Spain in September after being threatened with arrest by Maduro’s government, but has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in as
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