News in Brief
KIEV (Dispatches) - Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that President Trump was wrong to call Ukraine one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Speaking with CNN at the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky said that Trump’s designation of Ukraine as the "third-most corrupt country in the world” was "not true.” "When I had a meeting with President Trump and he said that in previous years Ukraine was such a corrupt country, I told him very honestly and I was very open with him,” Zelensky said. "I told him that we fight with corruption. We fight each day.” "Please, please stop saying that Ukraine is a corrupt country,” Zelensky said. "We want to change this image.”
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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid tribute to the statue of former leader Kim at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, his first public appearance since he attended Lunar New Year celebrations on Jan. 25, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the new coronavirus, but state media said the government was extending to 30 days the quarantine period for people showing symptoms, and all government institutions and foreigners living in the country were expected to comply "unconditionally.”
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BEIJING (Dispatches) - The foreign ministers of China and the Vatican have met in the first high-level encounter between the sides -- a new sign of improving relations between two states with no diplomatic ties. The talks between China’s Wang Yi and Archbishop Paul Gallagher in the German city of Munich on Friday come as relations steadily improve following a landmark agreement on the appointment of bishops in 2018. "Today is the first meeting between the Chinese and Vatican foreign ministers,” Wang said, according to the People’s Daily newspaper, a Communist Party mouthpiece. "This is a continuation of the exchanges between China and the Vatican for a period of time. It will open up more space for the future exchanges between the two sides,” he said
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ABUJA (Dispatches) - Armed bandits have killed at least 30 people in raids on two villages in northwestern Nigeria. Gambo Isah, a spokesman for police in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Katsina, said on Sunday that dozens of gunmen on motorcycles had attacked the villages of Tsauwa and Dankar on Friday. "The bandits killed 21 people in Tsauwa and another nine in nearby Dankar,” media outlets quoted the spokesman as saying. "Most of those killed were old people and children who couldn’t escape.” Isah said police and military forces were deployed in the area after the attack and detained one suspect. Tukur Mu’azu, the traditional chief of Batsari, a district that straddles the two villages attacked, said the assailants burnt homes, livestock, and food supplies before fleeing.
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TRIPOLI (Dispatches) - A United Nations (UN) official has warned that the situation in Libya is "deeply troubling,” a fragile ceasefire in the crisis-hit country has seen dozens of violations, and a UN arms embargo imposed on the country has become a "joke.” UN Deputy Special Representative to Libya Stephanie Williams made the comments at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Sunday and after a meeting of foreign ministers to follow up on a Berlin summit on Libya last month. "The situation on the ground remains deeply troubling. The truce is holding only by a thread. It is the Libyan people that continue to suffer the most. The economic situation continues to deteriorate, exacerbated by the oil blockade,” the U.S. official said, referring to the blockade of oil facilities by rebel forces in Libya.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Fifteen children were killed when a fire swept through an unlicensed orphanage outside Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, a judge told AFP, highlighting the severe shortcomings of the island nation’s child welfare institutions. Two children died in the blaze and 13 others died at a hospital as a result of smoke inhalation, said magistrate Raymonde Jean Antoine. The building -- which had not been authorized to operate as an orphanage since 2013 -- housed about 66 children, she said. The fire in Kenscoff -- a town of 50,000 south of the capital -- began shortly after 9:00 pm Thursday (0200 GMT Friday), Antoine added.
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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid tribute to the statue of former leader Kim at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, his first public appearance since he attended Lunar New Year celebrations on Jan. 25, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the new coronavirus, but state media said the government was extending to 30 days the quarantine period for people showing symptoms, and all government institutions and foreigners living in the country were expected to comply "unconditionally.”
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BEIJING (Dispatches) - The foreign ministers of China and the Vatican have met in the first high-level encounter between the sides -- a new sign of improving relations between two states with no diplomatic ties. The talks between China’s Wang Yi and Archbishop Paul Gallagher in the German city of Munich on Friday come as relations steadily improve following a landmark agreement on the appointment of bishops in 2018. "Today is the first meeting between the Chinese and Vatican foreign ministers,” Wang said, according to the People’s Daily newspaper, a Communist Party mouthpiece. "This is a continuation of the exchanges between China and the Vatican for a period of time. It will open up more space for the future exchanges between the two sides,” he said
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ABUJA (Dispatches) - Armed bandits have killed at least 30 people in raids on two villages in northwestern Nigeria. Gambo Isah, a spokesman for police in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Katsina, said on Sunday that dozens of gunmen on motorcycles had attacked the villages of Tsauwa and Dankar on Friday. "The bandits killed 21 people in Tsauwa and another nine in nearby Dankar,” media outlets quoted the spokesman as saying. "Most of those killed were old people and children who couldn’t escape.” Isah said police and military forces were deployed in the area after the attack and detained one suspect. Tukur Mu’azu, the traditional chief of Batsari, a district that straddles the two villages attacked, said the assailants burnt homes, livestock, and food supplies before fleeing.
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TRIPOLI (Dispatches) - A United Nations (UN) official has warned that the situation in Libya is "deeply troubling,” a fragile ceasefire in the crisis-hit country has seen dozens of violations, and a UN arms embargo imposed on the country has become a "joke.” UN Deputy Special Representative to Libya Stephanie Williams made the comments at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Sunday and after a meeting of foreign ministers to follow up on a Berlin summit on Libya last month. "The situation on the ground remains deeply troubling. The truce is holding only by a thread. It is the Libyan people that continue to suffer the most. The economic situation continues to deteriorate, exacerbated by the oil blockade,” the U.S. official said, referring to the blockade of oil facilities by rebel forces in Libya.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Fifteen children were killed when a fire swept through an unlicensed orphanage outside Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, a judge told AFP, highlighting the severe shortcomings of the island nation’s child welfare institutions. Two children died in the blaze and 13 others died at a hospital as a result of smoke inhalation, said magistrate Raymonde Jean Antoine. The building -- which had not been authorized to operate as an orphanage since 2013 -- housed about 66 children, she said. The fire in Kenscoff -- a town of 50,000 south of the capital -- began shortly after 9:00 pm Thursday (0200 GMT Friday), Antoine added.