News in Brief
PETERBOROUGH, England (Reuters) -- A sex scandal surrounding Prince Andrew has damaged the standing of Britain’s royal family, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said on Tuesday.
Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, denies an allegation that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl procured for him by his friend Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a U.S. prison in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Andrew’s explanations in a disastrous TV interview aired on Saturday left many viewers incredulous.
"It was the fact that he didn’t show any regret for that (friendship with Epstein) or sort of almost any sympathy at all for the people who had been trafficked,” Farage said during a visit to the English city of Peterborough.
Asked whether Andrew had damaged the royal family’s standing, Farage said: "They are all trying to do that apart from the queen.”
"I think the queen just becomes this ever more exalted figure and the public are beginning to look at those who come afterwards with quite a degree of scepticism at the moment,” he said. Buckingham Palace declined comment on Farage’s remarks.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday it won’t consider a recent U.S. decision to postpone a joint military exercise with South Korea a major concession that can bring it back to nuclear talks.
Senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol said the U.S. must completely scrap that military drill and abandon its hostility against his country if it wants to see the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
Kim’s comments were the first direct response to an announcement Sunday by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and his South Korean counterpart that the allies have indefinitely postponed the annual Vigilant Ace training in an "act of goodwill” toward North Korea. The moves were regarded as an effort to convince North Korea to revive the nuclear talks that largely have stalled since the February collapse of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"The U.S. tries to make a good impression as if it contributes to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, describing the suspension (of the aerial drill) as ‘consideration for and concession’ to someone,” Kim Yong Chol said in a statement carried by state media. "But we demand that the U.S. quit the drill or stop it once and for all.”
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SARAJEVO (Reuters) -- Bosnia’s tripartite inter-ethnic presidency agreed on Tuesday to nominate economist Zoran Tegeltija, a Serb, as prime minister-designate 13 months after an election, a spokesman for the Serb ruling SNSD party told Reuters.
Tegeltija was proposed a year ago by Bosnia’s presidency Serb member Milorad Dodik, who is also the SNSD head, but the Bosniak and Croat members on the body have been delaying his approval over differing views on Bosnia’s NATO path.
The presidency has yet to confirm the nomination.
Tegeltija, who had served as a finance minister of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic, needs to be approved by the national parliament.
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KIEV (Reuters) -- Ukraine wants to negotiate a clear timeline for the return of its territories and people from Russia at a four-way summit on the Donbass conflict in December, President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday.
Usually clean-shaven, Zelensky was sporting facial hair and said he would not shave until he saw with his own eyes the return of three ships captured in a skirmish with Russia last year. Russia handed back the ships on Monday.
"I would like to have results,” Zelensky said about the summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany. "We need to agree on the return of our territories. I’m talking first about some clear timelines.”
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MADRID (Reuters) -- Amnesty International on Tuesday called for the immediate release of two jailed Catalan leaders, saying that what it described as a "vague” and "overly broad” interpretation of sedition could have a chilling effect on protests across Spain.
Last month, Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine separatist leaders from the region of Catalonia to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition over their role in a failed 2017 bid for independence.
The sentences set off weeks of protests in the northeastern region, at times erupting in violent clashes that saw projectiles fired, cars torched and barricades set alight in the regional capital of Barcelona.
"It is clear that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the crime of sedition was overly broad and resulted in criminalizing legitimate acts of protest,” said Daniel Joloy, a senior policy advisor with Amnesty International.
The report homed in on the cases of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, two rights activists who were sentenced to nine years in prison for ignoring court orders by leading a protest against a police operation designed to halt the referendum.
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LAHORE, Pakistan/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -- Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif left Pakistan on Tuesday in an air ambulance to seek medical treatment in London, his party said, a month after the three-time premier was released on bail from a seven-year prison sentence for corruption.
Sharif, 69, was accompanied by his younger brother and personal physician, leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Party said.
Despite the convictions for corruption, Sharif remains popular among many Pakistanis, and his health has dominated newspaper front pages and TV channels in recent weeks.
Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, denies an allegation that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl procured for him by his friend Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a U.S. prison in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Andrew’s explanations in a disastrous TV interview aired on Saturday left many viewers incredulous.
"It was the fact that he didn’t show any regret for that (friendship with Epstein) or sort of almost any sympathy at all for the people who had been trafficked,” Farage said during a visit to the English city of Peterborough.
Asked whether Andrew had damaged the royal family’s standing, Farage said: "They are all trying to do that apart from the queen.”
"I think the queen just becomes this ever more exalted figure and the public are beginning to look at those who come afterwards with quite a degree of scepticism at the moment,” he said. Buckingham Palace declined comment on Farage’s remarks.
***
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday it won’t consider a recent U.S. decision to postpone a joint military exercise with South Korea a major concession that can bring it back to nuclear talks.
Senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol said the U.S. must completely scrap that military drill and abandon its hostility against his country if it wants to see the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
Kim’s comments were the first direct response to an announcement Sunday by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and his South Korean counterpart that the allies have indefinitely postponed the annual Vigilant Ace training in an "act of goodwill” toward North Korea. The moves were regarded as an effort to convince North Korea to revive the nuclear talks that largely have stalled since the February collapse of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"The U.S. tries to make a good impression as if it contributes to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, describing the suspension (of the aerial drill) as ‘consideration for and concession’ to someone,” Kim Yong Chol said in a statement carried by state media. "But we demand that the U.S. quit the drill or stop it once and for all.”
***
SARAJEVO (Reuters) -- Bosnia’s tripartite inter-ethnic presidency agreed on Tuesday to nominate economist Zoran Tegeltija, a Serb, as prime minister-designate 13 months after an election, a spokesman for the Serb ruling SNSD party told Reuters.
Tegeltija was proposed a year ago by Bosnia’s presidency Serb member Milorad Dodik, who is also the SNSD head, but the Bosniak and Croat members on the body have been delaying his approval over differing views on Bosnia’s NATO path.
The presidency has yet to confirm the nomination.
Tegeltija, who had served as a finance minister of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic, needs to be approved by the national parliament.
***
KIEV (Reuters) -- Ukraine wants to negotiate a clear timeline for the return of its territories and people from Russia at a four-way summit on the Donbass conflict in December, President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday.
Usually clean-shaven, Zelensky was sporting facial hair and said he would not shave until he saw with his own eyes the return of three ships captured in a skirmish with Russia last year. Russia handed back the ships on Monday.
"I would like to have results,” Zelensky said about the summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany. "We need to agree on the return of our territories. I’m talking first about some clear timelines.”
***
MADRID (Reuters) -- Amnesty International on Tuesday called for the immediate release of two jailed Catalan leaders, saying that what it described as a "vague” and "overly broad” interpretation of sedition could have a chilling effect on protests across Spain.
Last month, Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine separatist leaders from the region of Catalonia to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition over their role in a failed 2017 bid for independence.
The sentences set off weeks of protests in the northeastern region, at times erupting in violent clashes that saw projectiles fired, cars torched and barricades set alight in the regional capital of Barcelona.
"It is clear that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the crime of sedition was overly broad and resulted in criminalizing legitimate acts of protest,” said Daniel Joloy, a senior policy advisor with Amnesty International.
The report homed in on the cases of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, two rights activists who were sentenced to nine years in prison for ignoring court orders by leading a protest against a police operation designed to halt the referendum.
***
LAHORE, Pakistan/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -- Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif left Pakistan on Tuesday in an air ambulance to seek medical treatment in London, his party said, a month after the three-time premier was released on bail from a seven-year prison sentence for corruption.
Sharif, 69, was accompanied by his younger brother and personal physician, leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Party said.
Despite the convictions for corruption, Sharif remains popular among many Pakistanis, and his health has dominated newspaper front pages and TV channels in recent weeks.