News in Brief
NAYPYIDAW (Reuters) -- Myanmar police have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for illegally importing communications equipment and she will be detained until Feb. 15 for investigations, according to a police document. The move followed a military coup on Monday and the detention of Suu Kyi and other civilian politicians. A police request to a court detailing the accusations against Suu Kyi, 75, said six walkie-talkie radios had been found in a search of her home in the capital Naypyidaw. The radios were imported illegally and used without permission, it said. The document reviewed on Wednesday requested Suu Kyi’s detention "in order to question witnesses, request evidence and seek legal counsel after questioning the defendant”. A separate document showed police filed charges against ousted President Win Myint for violating protocols to stop the spread of coronavirus during campaigning for an election last November.
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SEOUL (Reuters) -- The United States should flexibly enforce sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear programs to revive denuclearization talks, South Korea’s point man on North Korea said on Wednesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to work towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula at their first summit in 2018, but a second summit and subsequent working-level talks fell apart. The new administration of President Joe Biden has not announced any North Korea policy, but Seoul, keen to resuscitate stalled cross-border economic cooperation, has expressed hopes that Biden would restart negotiations with Pyongyang. Lee In-young, South Korea’s unification minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs, said reinforcing sanctions may not be the key to bringing North Korea back to the table. "If we were to talk about additional sanctions, it’s time to review what achievements the sanctions have brought so far. Strengthening it might not be everything,” Lee told a news conference.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin said on Wednesday Russia would supply the rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine with its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 despite Kyiv’s ban on using the Russian shots. Ukraine expects to receive shipments of Western-made vaccines soon and has prohibited the use of Russian vaccines against COVID-19, with its relations with Moscow essentially severed by the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov about Ukraine’s rebel-held regions come after a local news outlet in self-proclaimed Donetsk republic reported on Sunday that Russia had begun shipments of its vaccine there. "As far as I understand, there will be deliveries there,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call, referring to the regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a review of asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border and the immigration system as he seeks to undo some of former President Donald Trump’s hardline policies. Biden also created a task force to reunite migrant families who were separated at the border by Trump’s 2018 ‘zero tolerance’ strategy. The executive orders called for a dizzying array of reviews and reports that could trigger policy changes in the weeks and months ahead, but provide limited immediate relief to immigrants barred by Trump-era rules. Immigration advocates have urged the new Democratic administration to quickly undo Trump’s policies but Biden aides say they need time to unravel the many layers of immigration restrictions and to put in place more migrant-friendly systems. "It’s not going to happen overnight,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.
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PARIS (AP) -- A court on Wednesday ruled that the French state failed to take sufficient action to fight climate change in a case brought by four nongovernmental organizations. The NGOs cheered the decision as "historic” for their country and a boon to those elsewhere using the law to push their governments in the fight against global warming. The four organizations are Greenpeace France, Oxfam France, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and Notre Affaire a Tous (Our Shared Responsibility). In its ruling, the Paris administrative court recognized ecological "deficiencies” linked to climate change and held the French state responsible for failing to fully meet its goals in reducing greenhouse gases. The government said in a statement that it "took note” of the decision, and provided a list of actions in the pipeline to "allow France to respect in the future the objectives it set.”
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TUNIS (Reuters) -- An improvised explosive device killed four Tunisian soldiers patrolling in a mountain region near the Algerian border, Defense Ministry spokesman Muhammad Zekri said on Wednesday. The mountainous Moghila area, near the impoverished city of Kasserine, is home to a takfiri militant group that the Tunisian army has been fighting for years. Tunisia faces a small but persistent militant threat, foreign diplomats focused on security say. As well as takfiri cells holed up in remote mountain regions, who have not made successful forays beyond their strongholds in recent years, there is also a threat from militants radicalized online.
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SEOUL (Reuters) -- The United States should flexibly enforce sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear programs to revive denuclearization talks, South Korea’s point man on North Korea said on Wednesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to work towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula at their first summit in 2018, but a second summit and subsequent working-level talks fell apart. The new administration of President Joe Biden has not announced any North Korea policy, but Seoul, keen to resuscitate stalled cross-border economic cooperation, has expressed hopes that Biden would restart negotiations with Pyongyang. Lee In-young, South Korea’s unification minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs, said reinforcing sanctions may not be the key to bringing North Korea back to the table. "If we were to talk about additional sanctions, it’s time to review what achievements the sanctions have brought so far. Strengthening it might not be everything,” Lee told a news conference.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin said on Wednesday Russia would supply the rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine with its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 despite Kyiv’s ban on using the Russian shots. Ukraine expects to receive shipments of Western-made vaccines soon and has prohibited the use of Russian vaccines against COVID-19, with its relations with Moscow essentially severed by the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov about Ukraine’s rebel-held regions come after a local news outlet in self-proclaimed Donetsk republic reported on Sunday that Russia had begun shipments of its vaccine there. "As far as I understand, there will be deliveries there,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call, referring to the regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a review of asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border and the immigration system as he seeks to undo some of former President Donald Trump’s hardline policies. Biden also created a task force to reunite migrant families who were separated at the border by Trump’s 2018 ‘zero tolerance’ strategy. The executive orders called for a dizzying array of reviews and reports that could trigger policy changes in the weeks and months ahead, but provide limited immediate relief to immigrants barred by Trump-era rules. Immigration advocates have urged the new Democratic administration to quickly undo Trump’s policies but Biden aides say they need time to unravel the many layers of immigration restrictions and to put in place more migrant-friendly systems. "It’s not going to happen overnight,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.
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PARIS (AP) -- A court on Wednesday ruled that the French state failed to take sufficient action to fight climate change in a case brought by four nongovernmental organizations. The NGOs cheered the decision as "historic” for their country and a boon to those elsewhere using the law to push their governments in the fight against global warming. The four organizations are Greenpeace France, Oxfam France, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and Notre Affaire a Tous (Our Shared Responsibility). In its ruling, the Paris administrative court recognized ecological "deficiencies” linked to climate change and held the French state responsible for failing to fully meet its goals in reducing greenhouse gases. The government said in a statement that it "took note” of the decision, and provided a list of actions in the pipeline to "allow France to respect in the future the objectives it set.”
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TUNIS (Reuters) -- An improvised explosive device killed four Tunisian soldiers patrolling in a mountain region near the Algerian border, Defense Ministry spokesman Muhammad Zekri said on Wednesday. The mountainous Moghila area, near the impoverished city of Kasserine, is home to a takfiri militant group that the Tunisian army has been fighting for years. Tunisia faces a small but persistent militant threat, foreign diplomats focused on security say. As well as takfiri cells holed up in remote mountain regions, who have not made successful forays beyond their strongholds in recent years, there is also a threat from militants radicalized online.