WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) suffered a security breach over a week ago that compromised sensitive information, NBC News reported, citing multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials. “The affected system contains law enforcement sensitive information, including returns from legal process, administrative information, and personally identifiable information pertaining to subjects of USMS investigations, third parties, and certain USMS employees,” the agency spokesperson Drew Wade told NBC. USMS did not immediately respond a request for a comment.

 

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RAYONG, Thailand (Reuters) -- Thailand and the United States kicked off on Tuesday military exercises involving more than 7,000 personnel and forces from 30 countries, with the annual drills including a component focused on space exercises for the first time. “Cobra Gold”, launched in 1982, is one of the world’s longest-running multilateral military exercises and the biggest in Southeast Asia, serving as a key platform for Washington to shore up alliances in Asia at a time of increasing competition with China. After the drills were scaled back during the pandemic, nearly 6,000 U.S. troops will take part this year, Admiral John Aquilino, Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, said, the highest number in a decade. Speaking to reporters, Aquilino said: “we will conduct integrated ops across the land, sea, air and cyberspace with our partners.” Cobra Gold involves 7,394 personnel in total this year from 30 countries, with the seven full participants also including Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.  China, India and Australia are taking part in the humanitarian exercises.

 

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BERLIN (Reuters) -- Shots were fired near a German primary school in the north-western town of Bramsche on Tuesday, leaving two adults critically injured, a police spokesperson confirmed. The shooting occurred near the Martinusschule primary school, but was unrelated to the school, the spokesperson said. Witnesses who saw the incident informed the police at around 7.30 a.m. (0630 GMT), mass-circulation daily Bild reported, adding that police arrested the shooter shortly afterwards.

 

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TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japan’s lower house of parliament passed on Tuesday a record 114.4 trillion yen ($839.3 billion) budget for the next fiscal year, a move that promises to further increase the industrial world’s heaviest debt burden. The budget for the year beginning in April features record military spending, as well as record welfare spending for a fast-ageing population. Keeping stretched government finances under pressure, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration has also floated another plan to double childcare outlays in the hope of arresting declines in the country’s birthrate. A flurry of big spending packages and ballooning social welfare costs have left Japan with a debt pile 263% the size of its economy - double the ratio for the United States and the highest among major economies. Kishida’s controversial plan to double Japan’s defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027 contributed to a record 6.8 trillion yen increase in spending. Japan must also grapple with rising long-term interest rates, which while still well below those in the U.S. and Europe, are testing the central bank’s ability to keep borrowing costs low in a country accustomed to decades of near zero inflation.

 

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CROTONE, Italy (Reuters) -- Rescuers pulled the body of a man out of the sea on Tuesday, raising the death toll from a migrant shipwreck near the southern Italian coast to at least 64, including about 14 children. Eighty people have been rescued since the sailboat sank early on Sunday in heavy seas near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria. The boat had set sail from the port of Izmir in western Turkey. Rescuers said most of the migrants came from Afghanistan, as well as from countries including Iran, Somalia and Syria. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said 20 Pakistani citizens had been on the boat, and 16 of them had survived but four were missing. The tragedy has fuelled a debate on migration in Europe and Italy, where the recently elected right-wing government’s tough new laws for migrant rescue charities have drawn criticism from the United Nations and others.

 

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BEIJING (AFP) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, kicking off a three-day trip in which he will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The state visit by Lukashenko -- a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- comes after Beijing released a position paper on Russia’s war in Ukraine insisting it is a neutral party and calling for dialogue between the two sides. It also follows allegations by the United States and NATO that Beijing could be mulling sending arms to Russia as the conflict enters its second year. China has strenuously denied the claims. Ahead of Lukashenko’s visit, Beijing hailed its “all-weather and comprehensive” strategic partnership with Minsk. In an interview with China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, the Belarusian leader said he was looking forward to meeting with his “old friend” Xi. He also praised Beijing’s position paper as “a testimony to its peaceful foreign policy as well as a new and original step that will have a far-reaching impact all over the world”, Xinhua added.