News in Brief
COPENHAGEN (AFP) -- A Norwegian man suspected of killing his stepsister and opening fire in a mosque near Oslo last weekend has admitted to the crimes though he has not officially entered a plea, police said Friday.
Philip Manshaus, 21, was remanded in custody Monday, suspected of murder and a "terrorist act” that police say he filmed himself committing.
Answering police questions on Friday, "the suspect admits the facts but has not taken a formal position as to the charges,” Oslo police official Pal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said in a statement.
Manshaus is suspected of murdering his 17-year-old step sister Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, before entering the Al-Noor mosque in an affluent Oslo suburb and opening fire before he was overpowered by a 65-year-old man.
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BEIJING (Dispatches) – China on Saturday warned the United States against moving forward with a new controversial plan to provide self-ruled Taiwan with F-16 fighter jets, saying Washington will be held responsible "for all related consequences.”
In yet another move to further escalate tensions with Beijing, U.S. President Donald Trump approved an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taipei on Friday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said such moves "severely violate" the one-China policy and that Washington should "fully recognize the highly sensitive and harmful nature of the relevant issue.”
"Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences.” she said.
"China firmly opposes this and has lodged stern representations with the US," she said. "It must be stressed that the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests."
China has sovereignty over the island and almost all world countries recognize that sovereignty under the policy known as One China.
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MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry has lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser for his remarks alleging that Moscow was stealing U.S. military technology.
The reaction came after John Bolton accused Russia of developing hypersonic glide vehicles and cruise missiles based on stolen U.S. military technology.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected Bolton’s accusations and pointed to past incidents involving the seizure of Russia’s diplomatic property by Washington.
"Since the issue of theft popped into John Bolton’s head, then I’ll remind him that Washington stole the buildings of the Russian Consulate General and the residence of Russia’s Consul General in San Francisco, the Russian trade mission in Washington, the residence of the Russian Consul General in Seattle, along with two Russian diplomatic facilities in Maryland and New York," the diplomat said.
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BRASILIA (Reuters) -- Brazil’s backsliding on Amazon conservation under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and a likely Peronist return to power in Argentina could delay or even derail ratification of an EU-Mercosur trade agreement that took two decades to negotiate.
Deforestation has surged since Bolsonaro’s election last year. His plans to develop the Amazon and moves to weaken rainforest protection have alarmed environmentalists and given ammunition to European opponents of the trade deal with the South American common market.
Two former Brazilian environment ministers, Jose Sarney Filho and Izabella Teixeira, said Bolsonaro has rapidly undermined Brazil’s hard-won reputation as a responsible food producer and a leader in world environmental forums.
"Nobody imagined he would dismantle Brazil’s command and control mechanisms for protecting the environment so fast and effectively,” Sarney said in a interview.
He said Bolsonaro has deliberately demoralized environmental agencies and given wildcat miners an incentive to cut down trees and invade indigenous reservations.
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MELBOURNE (Reuters) -- Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of insulting leaders of Pacific island nations during a regional summit earlier this week, and said Chinese officials were far more tactful and better mannered.
The Fijian prime minister’s comments come after the Pacific Islands Forum failed to agree on tough new climate change commitments at the insistence of the pro-coal Australian government, upsetting leaders of island nations at risk from rising sea levels.
Bainimarama said Morrison tried to force his country’s policies onto the other nations, and insulted them by saying how much money Australia has given to the region.
"The prime minister was very insulting, very condescending, not good for the relationship,” Bainimarama told Guardian Australia late Friday, a day after the summit of 18 Pacific nations in Tuvalu.
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BANGKOK (Reuters) -- The main group fighting an insurgency in Thailand’s largely Muslim south said it had held its first meeting with officials from the new Thai government and had set out demands as a condition for any formal peace talks.
The insurgency in the Malay-speaking region of the predominantly Buddhist country has killed some 7,000 people over the past 15 years and has flared on and off for decades.
Officials of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) said they met a Thai delegation at a location in Southeast Asia on Friday and demanded the release of all people detained over suspected links to the insurgency and a transparent investigation into abuses by security forces.
That could be a step toward formal talks, the officials said, while emphasizing that it was very early in the process.
Philip Manshaus, 21, was remanded in custody Monday, suspected of murder and a "terrorist act” that police say he filmed himself committing.
Answering police questions on Friday, "the suspect admits the facts but has not taken a formal position as to the charges,” Oslo police official Pal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said in a statement.
Manshaus is suspected of murdering his 17-year-old step sister Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, before entering the Al-Noor mosque in an affluent Oslo suburb and opening fire before he was overpowered by a 65-year-old man.
***
BEIJING (Dispatches) – China on Saturday warned the United States against moving forward with a new controversial plan to provide self-ruled Taiwan with F-16 fighter jets, saying Washington will be held responsible "for all related consequences.”
In yet another move to further escalate tensions with Beijing, U.S. President Donald Trump approved an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taipei on Friday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said such moves "severely violate" the one-China policy and that Washington should "fully recognize the highly sensitive and harmful nature of the relevant issue.”
"Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences.” she said.
"China firmly opposes this and has lodged stern representations with the US," she said. "It must be stressed that the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests."
China has sovereignty over the island and almost all world countries recognize that sovereignty under the policy known as One China.
***
MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry has lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser for his remarks alleging that Moscow was stealing U.S. military technology.
The reaction came after John Bolton accused Russia of developing hypersonic glide vehicles and cruise missiles based on stolen U.S. military technology.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected Bolton’s accusations and pointed to past incidents involving the seizure of Russia’s diplomatic property by Washington.
"Since the issue of theft popped into John Bolton’s head, then I’ll remind him that Washington stole the buildings of the Russian Consulate General and the residence of Russia’s Consul General in San Francisco, the Russian trade mission in Washington, the residence of the Russian Consul General in Seattle, along with two Russian diplomatic facilities in Maryland and New York," the diplomat said.
***
BRASILIA (Reuters) -- Brazil’s backsliding on Amazon conservation under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and a likely Peronist return to power in Argentina could delay or even derail ratification of an EU-Mercosur trade agreement that took two decades to negotiate.
Deforestation has surged since Bolsonaro’s election last year. His plans to develop the Amazon and moves to weaken rainforest protection have alarmed environmentalists and given ammunition to European opponents of the trade deal with the South American common market.
Two former Brazilian environment ministers, Jose Sarney Filho and Izabella Teixeira, said Bolsonaro has rapidly undermined Brazil’s hard-won reputation as a responsible food producer and a leader in world environmental forums.
"Nobody imagined he would dismantle Brazil’s command and control mechanisms for protecting the environment so fast and effectively,” Sarney said in a interview.
He said Bolsonaro has deliberately demoralized environmental agencies and given wildcat miners an incentive to cut down trees and invade indigenous reservations.
***
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -- Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of insulting leaders of Pacific island nations during a regional summit earlier this week, and said Chinese officials were far more tactful and better mannered.
The Fijian prime minister’s comments come after the Pacific Islands Forum failed to agree on tough new climate change commitments at the insistence of the pro-coal Australian government, upsetting leaders of island nations at risk from rising sea levels.
Bainimarama said Morrison tried to force his country’s policies onto the other nations, and insulted them by saying how much money Australia has given to the region.
"The prime minister was very insulting, very condescending, not good for the relationship,” Bainimarama told Guardian Australia late Friday, a day after the summit of 18 Pacific nations in Tuvalu.
***
BANGKOK (Reuters) -- The main group fighting an insurgency in Thailand’s largely Muslim south said it had held its first meeting with officials from the new Thai government and had set out demands as a condition for any formal peace talks.
The insurgency in the Malay-speaking region of the predominantly Buddhist country has killed some 7,000 people over the past 15 years and has flared on and off for decades.
Officials of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) said they met a Thai delegation at a location in Southeast Asia on Friday and demanded the release of all people detained over suspected links to the insurgency and a transparent investigation into abuses by security forces.
That could be a step toward formal talks, the officials said, while emphasizing that it was very early in the process.