TRIPOLI (AFP) – The bodies of 28 migrants have washed up on Libya’s western coast after their boat sunk, a security official said Sunday, the latest tragedy on the world’s deadliest migration route. “Libyan Red Crescent teams recovered 28 bodies of dead migrants and found three survivors at two different sites on the beaches of al-Alous,” some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Tripoli, the source said. “The bodies’ advanced state of decomposition indicates that the shipwreck happened several days ago,” he said, adding the toll could rise in the coming hours. Images published by Libyan media outlets showed corpses lined up along the shore then placed in body bags. Libya, wracked by a decade of conflict and lawlessness, has become a key departure point for African and Asian migrants making desperate attempts to reach Europe. Migrants often endure horrific conditions in Libya before embarking northwards on overcrowded, often unseaworthy vessels that frequently sink or get into trouble. The latest tragedy comes just days after 160 migrants died within a week in similar incidents, bringing the total number of lives lost this year to 1,500, according to the International Organization for Migration. The IOM says more than 30,000 migrants have been intercepted in the same period and returned to Libya.

***
MOSCOW (Xinhua) – The Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI), the Pentagon’s program to counter China, is doomed to fail before it even gets started, Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, has said. The U.S. Congress has authorized 7 billion U.S. dollars for the PDI, which continues Washington’s “flawed practice of throwing money at the military to solve problems created by bad policy,” Ritter said in an article recently published by the Russian broadcaster RT. At best, the PDI will be a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar waste of time and money, he wrote in the article titled “You can’t win against China with billions of Pentagon dollars.” “At worst, the United States will find itself on the losing end of a proposition by which an inadequately funded military initiative, backed by incoherent policy, and fueled by domestically driven political ambition, flounders on the shoals of Chinese reality,” he concluded.

***
BERLIN (DPA) – Angela Merkel’s government approved record 9 billion euros worth of weapons exports this year, the Germany Economy Ministry data shows. That amount topped the previous record of 2019 by almost 1 billion euros, according to the report. Egypt was the largest buyer, with approved contracts totaling 4.34 billion euros. Almost the entire amount is for agreements that were signed nine days before the Merkel government stepped down.

***
LONDON (The Guardian) – Suicidal asylum seekers were subject to force by guards who the British Home Office allowed to remain on duty despite being “effectively uncertified” in the safe use of restraint techniques, according to internal documents charting conditions inside one of the UK’s most controversial immigration centers. Experts say the department endangered lives last year by deploying custody staff whose training in the safe use of force had expired, as it detained hundreds of people who had crossed the Channel in a fast-track scheme to remove them. The cache of 180 documents, obtained through freedom of information laws by the Observer and Liberty Investigates, reveal the desperation of those held at Brook House as the Home Office mounted an intensive program of flights removing people who had arrived in small boats to mainland Europe. They show that the proportion of detainees subjected to force inside the removal center near Gatwick airport more than doubled last year. The documents – which include officers’ written accounts, minutes taken during oversight meetings and complaints filed by detainees and staff – also offer a rare insight into allegations of excessive force by staff. The disclosures reveal that after the first lockdown in March 2020, custody officers, who Home Office guidance states should take at least eight hours of training in the safe use of control and restraint techniques every year, were given a “dispensation” allowing them to keep working.

***
SALVADOR (AFP) – More than 11,000 people have been displaced in the Brazilian state of Bahia due to flooding, with authorities scrambling to provide relief to residents without alternate housing. The heavy rains have killed 17 people since November, including the latest death on Thursday, the state’s civil protection agency said. A total of 4,185 people were seeking shelter, according to data released by the agency on Friday, after the rains struck 19 cities particularly hard, including Guaratinga, Itororo and Coaraci in the state’s south. The agency reported that a total of 11,260 people had been forced to flee their homes. The Bahia and federal governments mounted a joint operation on Saturday, in collaboration with other states, to mobilize personnel, aircraft and equipment, as well as provide relief to residents in the flooded areas. “We are fully mobilized, taking all measures to ensure the necessary support to the victims of the heavy rains that hit Bahia this Christmas,” the state’s governor, Rui Costa, said in a video message. Flooding and traffic blocks were reported on 17 roads, with some caused by landslides and rockslides, the state’s infrastructure secretary reported. December rainfall in Bahia’s capital Salvador totaled 250 millimeters (9.8 inches) through Friday, a figure five times the historic average, city officials said.

***
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities said on Sunday that 58 police personnel had been injured during protests the previous day against military rule, and that tear gas had been used only to confront attacks on security facilities and vehicles, state TV reported. The Khartoum security committee’s statement added that 114 people had been arrested and faced prosecution after Saturday’s protests, the latest in a series of rallies against an October 25 coup that upended a transition towards democratic elections. Medics aligned with the protest movement said earlier that violence by security forces had caused 178 injuries among demonstrators, including eight with live bullet wounds. At least 48 people have been killed in crackdowns on protests against the coup, the medics say.