South Korea investigates 17 US soldiers for drug crimes

South Korea investigates 17 US soldiers for drug crimes
Seventeen American soldiers stationed in South Korea are being investigated by the local police for "alleged illegal drug behaviour", the United States Forces Korea said Wednesday. (AFP/File)
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Updated 20 September 2023
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South Korea investigates 17 US soldiers for drug crimes

South Korea investigates 17 US soldiers for drug crimes
  • Two women, a South Korean and a Filipino, involved in the case have been arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs from the United States through military mail
  • The 17 American soldiers have been referred to prosecutors and could face charges but have not been detained

SEOUL: Seventeen American soldiers stationed in South Korea are being investigated by the local police for “alleged illegal drug behavior,” the United States Forces Korea said Wednesday.
Two women, a South Korean and a Filipino, involved in the case have been arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs from the United States through military mail, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
The women also engaged in the use, sale, or distribution of the banned substances, it said.
The 17 American soldiers have been referred to prosecutors and could face charges but have not been detained, Yonhap said.
“United States Forces Korea is aware of the Korean National Police’s investigation of 17 Soldiers for alleged illegal drug behavior and misuse of the military mail system,” the USFK said in a statement Wednesday.
“Currently, no Soldiers are in confinement or being detained in relation to this incident.”
South Korean police have seized drug sales proceeds of $12,850 as well as 80 ml of synthetic cannabis and other related material from the suspects, according to Yonhap.
Consumption, possession or sale of illegal substances are criminal offenses under South Korea’s tough illicit drugs legislation.
Smoking synthetic cannabis, which is classified as one of the most strictly regulated psychoactive substances in South Korea, is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of 100 million won ($75,332).
Selling the banned substance is punishable by up to life in prison.
USFK said it “does not condone any behaviors among its personnel that violate South Korean laws, rules or directives” and that it “supports this investigation.”
Some 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea.


Kosovo closes two border crossings with Serbia

Kosovo closes two border crossings with Serbia
Updated 2 sec ago
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Kosovo closes two border crossings with Serbia

Kosovo closes two border crossings with Serbia
The Kosovo government shut the border at Brnjak and the larger Merdare crossing overnight from Friday to Saturday
On Friday, dozens of demonstrators in Serbia blockaded the two border crossings to prevent traffic entering Serbia from Kosovo

PRISTINA: Kosovo has closed two of its four border crossings with Serbia following protests on the Serbian side that have blocked cross-border traffic, the interior minister said on Saturday.
The Kosovo government shut the border at Brnjak and the larger Merdare crossing overnight from Friday to Saturday.
Both are in the troubled north of Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs are the majority in several districts, outnumbering the ethnic Albanians who overwhelmingly populate the rest of the Balkan country.
Justifying the move, Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on Facebook “masked extremists” on the Serbian side of the border were “selectively stopping... citizens who want to transit through Serbia” to third countries.
“And all this in plain sight of the Serbian authorities,” he complained.
On Friday, dozens of demonstrators in Serbia blockaded the two border crossings to prevent traffic entering Serbia from Kosovo.
They said they were protesting against the closure of parallel administrations that ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo had set up to rival the official ones.
The Serbian government in Belgrade — which has never recognized the independence of Kosovo, its former southern province — finances a parallel health, education and social security system in Kosovo for the latter’s ethnic Serb population.
The Serbian demonstrators told the media their border blockade would last until Kosovo police were “withdrawn from the north of Kosovo and the usurped institutions are returned to the Serbs.”
They also demanded that the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) “take over control in the north of Kosovo.”
The border blockade began a few days after police in northern Kosovo raided and then closed five administrative offices linked to the Belgrade government.
On Saturday, Kosovo’s foreign ministry urged people to avoid trying to transit through Serbia because of the protests on the Serbian side.
Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla told reporters on Friday the Serbian protests were “yet more proof” that Belgrade was trying to provoke and destabilize its southern neighbor.
Animosity has persisted between Serbia and Kosovo since a war in the 1990s between Serbian armed forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian separatists.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008. But Serbia has refused to recognize the move and has encouraged ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo to remain loyal to Belgrade.
Tensions ratcheted up a notch earlier this year, when Kosovo made the euro the only legal currency, effectively outlawing the use of the Serbian dinar.

US confirms first bird flu case without animal contact

US confirms first bird flu case without animal contact
Updated 22 min 38 sec ago
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US confirms first bird flu case without animal contact

US confirms first bird flu case without animal contact
  • The CDC said it had not identified any transmission to the patient’s close contacts or any other person
  • Scientists have voiced concern about the growing number of mammals becoming infected by bird flu, even if cases in humans remain rare

WASHINGTON: A person in the state of Missouri has become the first in the United States to test positive for bird flu without a known exposure to infected animals, authorities said on Friday.
The adult patient, who has underlying conditions, was admitted to hospital on August 22, received antiviral medications against influenza, then recovered and was discharged, according to statements from the Centers for Control and Disease Prevention (CDC) and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
As the patient’s flu type appeared suspicious on an initial test, it was sent for additional testing in state and federal laboratories, which revealed it was H5, also known as avian flu or bird flu.
The CDC said it had not identified any transmission to the patient’s close contacts or any other person.
Scientists have voiced concern about the growing number of mammals becoming infected by bird flu, even if cases in humans remain rare.
They fear a high rate of transmission could facilitate a mutation of the virus, which could enable it to be passed from one human to another.
Contacted by AFP, the World Health Organization said on Saturday it was “encouraging that the national disease surveillance system has identified this case, that the patient received antiviral treatment, and that no further cases have been detected among close contacts.”
“It is critical that investigations into the patient’s exposure are continued, as indicated by national and state authorities, to inform further prevention and response activities,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention.
“WHO strongly supports US efforts for surveillance of zoonotic influenza across human, environmental and animal sectors,” Van Kerkhove continued.
“It is important to understand the circulation of avian influenza in poultry, wild birds and other animals in the state,” she said of Missouri.
“Stronger disease surveillance in animals is essential to protect animal and human health.”
The person who tested positive for bird flu was the 14th to do so in the US this year, and the first without known contact with animals.
Indeed, “no H5 infection in dairy cattle has been reported in Missouri,” said the Missouri health department, though “some H5 cases in commercial or backyard flocks and wild birds have been reported.”
All previous bird flu cases in the United States have been among farmworkers, including the very first, in 2022.
Bird flu is most commonly found in wild birds and poultry, but has more recently been detected in mammals, with an outbreak in cattle seen across the country this year.
It can occasionally infect humans through close contact or contaminated environments.
While the CDC continues to assess the risk to the public as low, “circumstances may change quickly as more information is learned,” it said.
In the decades since H5 has been found in humans, there have been rare cases where an animal source cannot be identified.
But there has so far not been evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, which would significantly increase the threat level.


Indian diplomats, intellectuals ask Supreme Court to stop arms sales to Israel

Indian diplomats, intellectuals ask Supreme Court to stop arms sales to Israel
Updated 30 min 34 sec ago
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Indian diplomats, intellectuals ask Supreme Court to stop arms sales to Israel

Indian diplomats, intellectuals ask Supreme Court to stop arms sales to Israel
  • Petitioners say weapons exports to Israel violate India’s Constitution
  • Petition is expected to be read by India’s top court on Monday

NEW DELHI: Indian academics, retired diplomats, and civil servants are seeking the Supreme Court’s intervention to cancel any existing licenses for the export of military equipment to Israel during its war on Gaza.

A 417-page writ petition filed to India’s top court on Wednesday and supplemented on Thursday includes information about public and private sector companies in India “dealing with manufacture and export of arms and munitions (that) have been granted licenses for the export of arms and munitions to Israel, even during this period of the ongoing war in Gaza.”

Petitioners request that the Supreme Court issue an order to the government of India to cancel these licenses and halt the granting of new ones as the sales are in violation of India’s obligations under international law and in breach of its own constitutional provisions of the right to life and equality, and the state’s duty uphold international treaties.

“This act of giving weapons to a state which is engaged — I quote the ICJ (International Court of Justice) — in probable genocidal activities, is a clear violation of India’s domestic law and international law, that is what is argued out in the main text of the petition,” Vijayan Malloothra Joseph, a renowned policy analyst and one of the 11 petitioners, told Arab News.

Indian arms sales to Israel came into the spotlight in May, when two cargo ships were prevented from docking in a Spanish port.

“Spain blocked and stopped all ships from entering their territorial waters and parking in Cartagena port. They outrightly declined. They said the ships were carrying ammunition and they gave a list of ammunition,” Joseph said.

This triggered an uproar among Indian civil society, and a group of lawyers and judges in July called on Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to cancel the licenses of companies supplying military equipment to Israel in the wake of its ongoing genocide case in the International Court of Justice over its deadly onslaught on Gaza.

The Ministry of Defense did not respond to the call, but its spokesperson told Arab News last week that the government “has not authorized the supply of any weapons to Israel during the last several months.” The spokesperson did not comment on canceling existing licenses.

“We have written earlier to the defense minister requesting him to stop the sales of lethal weapons to Israel. In these circumstances we did not get a response, then we went to the Supreme Court,” Deb Mukharji, former ambassador to Bangladesh, Nigeria and Nepal, who also signed the petition, told Arab News.

“Our expectation is that the Supreme Court might take notice because we have said that the permission to sell weapons to Israel is an illegal act. The point is that if something illegal is being done then we have to approach the Supreme Court to stop it from being done.”

At least 40,900 people, most of them children and women, have been killed and more than 94,600 wounded in Israeli military attacks on the enclave since October last year, according to Gaza Health Ministry estimates.

The real toll, however, is believed to be much higher, as the ministry’s data does not include people buried under rubble, those who died of their injuries, or who starved to death while Israeli forces have been blocking international aid.

“It’s a violation of human rights by Israel and we should not be a party to this. This has been the main motivation for the petition,” said Ashok Kumar Sharma, another petitioner, and India’s former ambassador to Finland and Kazakhstan.

“All of us petitioners have no vested interests except humanitarian interests. I have been a diplomat for 36 years and I have seen many such incidents in this history, and we the Indian people and the Indian state have never supported any genocide anywhere in the world.”

Cheryl D’Souza, advocate and member of the legal team that filed the writ petition, told Arab News that the petition is expected to be read in the court on Monday.

“The matter is listed before the chief justice on Monday. Let’s see what happens. We have appealed to the judicial conscience of the court to do something about this matter because it involves the lives of so many people,” she said.

“Let’s hope the Supreme Court steps in.”

 


French man fatally stabs partner, two young children

French man fatally stabs partner, two young children
Updated 45 min 41 sec ago
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French man fatally stabs partner, two young children

French man fatally stabs partner, two young children
  • The man was arrested at around 6.30 a.m. by a police officer as he was attacking passers-by with a knife in Mormant
  • One pedestrian was wounded in the arm and another in the neck

PARIS: A French man with a history of mental illness on Saturday fatally stabbed his partner and their two children and injured two pedestrians in a small town outside Paris, officials said.
The man was arrested at around 6.30 a.m. by a police officer as he was attacking passers-by with a knife in Mormant, a small town located 60 kilometers southeast of Paris, said the local public prosecutor.
One pedestrian was wounded in the arm and another in the neck, but their injuries were not life-threatening, public prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles told AFP.
After the attacker was apprehended he said he had killed his wife and their two children, according to the public prosecutor and sources close to the case.
At the man’s home, the police found the bodies of his partner and their two children, aged five and 22 months.
Bourles said that the man had no criminal record, but had a history of mental illness. The attacker was taken to hospital to assess his condition.
On average, a woman is killed every three days in France.
According to the justice ministry, 94 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner in France in 2023, compared with 118 in 2022.
In 2023, more than 60 children were killed by their parents, according to the La Voix de l’Enfant (Voice of the Child) association.


Harris and Trump are getting ready for Tuesday’s debate in sharply different ways

Harris and Trump are getting ready for Tuesday’s debate in sharply different ways
Updated 56 min 19 sec ago
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Harris and Trump are getting ready for Tuesday’s debate in sharply different ways

Harris and Trump are getting ready for Tuesday’s debate in sharply different ways
  • The vice president is cloistered in a historic hotel in downtown Pittsburgh where she can focus on honing crisp two-minute answers, per the debate’s rules
  • Trump, the Republican nominee, publicly dismisses the value of studying for the debate

PITTSBURGH: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are veering sharply in how they gear up for Tuesday’s presidential debate, setting up a showdown that reflects not just two separate visions for the country but two politicians who approach big moments very differently.
The vice president is cloistered in a historic hotel in downtown Pittsburgh where she can focus on honing crisp two-minute answers, per the debate’s rules. She’s been working with aides since Thursday and chose a venue that allows the Democratic nominee the option of mingling with swing-state voters.
Trump, the Republican nominee, publicly dismisses the value of studying for the debate. The former president is choosing instead to fill his days with campaign-related events on the premise that he’ll know what he needs to do once he steps on the debate stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
“You can go in with all the strategy you want but you have to sort of feel it out as the debate’s taking place,” he said during a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Trump then quoted former boxing great Mike Tyson, who said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Harris has said she is prepared for Trump to rattle off insults and misrepresent facts, even as her campaign has seen value in focusing on the middle class and the prospects of a better future for the country.
“We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth,” Harris said in a radio interview for the Rickey Smiley Morning Show. “He tends to fight for himself, not for the American people, and I think that’s going to come out during the course of the debate.”
In her own preparation, Harris has the Democratic consultant Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, portraying Trump. She likes to describe Trump as having a “playbook” of falsehoods to go after Democrats such as Clinton and former President Barack Obama.
Harris has said she understands Trump on a deeper psychological level. She has tried in speeches like her remarks at the Democratic National Convention to show that she would be a stronger leader than him — an argument that gets at Trump’s own desire to project and show strength.
Trump’s June 27 debate against President Joe Biden shook up the election, with Biden’s disastrous performance ultimately leading to him stepping aside as the Democratic nominee and endorsing Harris. Both campaigns know the first in-person meeting between Harris and Trump could be a decisive event in a tight race.
Trump is preemptively criticizing the ABC News debate moderators, claiming he will not be treated fairly. But he said he plans to let Harris speak, just as he did during his debate with Biden.
“I let him talk. I’m gonna let her talk,” he said during the Hannity town hall.
Trump aides said that this time would be no different than the previous debate and that the former president would not be doing any more traditional prep. There are no stand-ins, no sets, no play-acting.
Instead, they point to Trump’s frequent interviews, including taking questions at lengthy press conferences, sitting for hourlong podcasts, and participating in town halls with friendly hosts like Hannity.
Trump also meets regularly with policy advisers who are experts on issues that may come up during the debate. During these informal sessions, they talk about the issues, Trump’s policies while he was in office, and the plans he’s put forth for a second term.
“I have meetings on it. We talk about it. But there’s not a lot you can do. You either know your subject or not. You either have good policy or not,” he said in a New Hampshire radio interview.
Before the last debate Trump held sessions with notable Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who at the time was under consideration to be Trump’s vice presidential pick. This time he has held sessions with Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate who is now backing Trump.
Gabbard, who is also now a member of Trump’s transition team, was brought in specifically to help Trump this time around because she knows Harris, having debated her when the two were running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. She also hosted a recent town hall with Trump in Wisconsin.
Trump, aides insist, intends to put Harris on the defensive. He wants to portray her as too liberal as he tries to tie her to Biden’s economic record and points out her reversals on issues such as a fracking ban that she no longer supports.
“We look forward for the opportunity for Americans to see her on stage, incapable of defending her policies and flip-flops,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “The president’s proven he has a command of the issues, she does not.”
Harris’ team is banking that Trump will come off as extreme and that they can use the debate as a springboard to further build on the momentum that her short campaign has generated. The campaign plans to use the pre-debate weekend to hold 2,000 events with volunteers and reach more than one million voters.
“With hundreds of offices and thousands of staff across the battlegrounds, we are able to harness all the buzz around the debate and break through to hard-to-reach voters,” said Dan Kanninen, the campaign’s battleground states director, in a statement.