PHILIPPINES
Duterte arrest defended
Officials yesterday defended the arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) of former president Rodrigo Duterte amid allegations that he was illegally abducted at the behest of a foreign institution. Officials told a Senate inquiry that the handover of Duterte was above board, as it was at the request of Interpol and not in cooperation with the ICC. “The ICC tries people for individual crimes, not states. So the Philippines as a state cannot be called upon by the ICC to do something for them,” Secretary of Justice Juanito Remulla said, citing “international humanitarian law” as the basis of the arrest. Duterte is set to be the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC after he was arrested last week and sent to The Hague, where he faces accusations of murder as a crime against humanity over a “war on drugs.” Duterte has assumed full responsibility for the killings, but denies he led a campaign of systematic murder and says he instructed police to kill only in self-defense. The government’s decision to hand Duterte over triggered a backlash among his supporters, family and allies, who have petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that the arrest was illegal and the ICC no longer has jurisdiction in the Philippines. “Justice rendered by a foreign country is not justice. It’s slavery,” said Senator Imee Marcos, who presided over yesterday’s televised hearing. Duterte’s arrest followed years of him taunting the ICC in speeches since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court’s founding treaty.
Photo: AFP
NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang warns Japan
Pyongyang yesterday warned Japan against deploying long-range missiles in the Kyushu region in March next year, saying such attack capability would “bring about constant escalation of tension” in Northeast Asia, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Tokyo was considering deploying long-range missiles on Kyushu as part of attempts to acquire “counterstrike capabilities” to hit enemy targets in the event of an emergency, Japan’s Kyodo News reported this month, citing government sources. Pyongyang accused Japan of continuing aggression through moves such as a constant strengthening of the Japan-US military alliance and collusion with NATO forces, KCNA said, citing the policy section chief of the Institute for Japan Studies. “All military means and various forms of movement directly targeting the DPRK ... are an object to be wiped out,” it said, using the abbreviation of North Korea’s official name.
UNITED STATES
Greenpeace found liable
A North Dakota jury on Wednesday found that Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions of dollars to a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The jury found Greenpeace liable for defamation and other claims, and awarded Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access more than US$650 million in damages. The lawsuit accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts. Greenpeace said earlier that a large award to the pipeline company would threaten to bankrupt the environmental group. Following the nine-person jury’s verdict, Greenpeace’s senior legal adviser said the organization’s work “is never going to stop.”
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
‘INCREDIBLY TROUBLESOME’: Hours after a judge questioned the legality of invoking a wartime power to deport immigrants, the president denied signing the proclamation The US on Friday said it was terminating the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, giving them weeks to leave the country. US President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations. The order affects about 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the US under a scheme launched in October 2022 by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and expanded in January the following year. They would lose their legal protection 30 days after the US Department of Homeland Security’s order is published in the Federal
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