News in Brief

Date: 26 February 2022 - 22:00

News ID: ۱۰۰۴۳۴

NEW YORK (Xinhua) – A majority of African Americans have listed racial injustice and police violence as the most worrying problems, U.S. daily The Hill reported on Tuesday, citing a survey. Police misconduct, violence and racial discrimination were exceptionally important issues to African Americans, said the report. On the most worrying problems, 59 percent of African Americans listed racial injustice and police violence on the top of the list. The survey, conducted by Nia Johnson, a bioethicist involved in race and social justice research, found that African Americans were 3.5 times as likely as whites to be killed by police. Some 65 percent of respondents believed that the deaths of African Americans during encounters with police in recent years have been signs of a broader problem. Also, 63 percent of African Americans said that they felt unsafe because of their race or ethnicity.

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HANOI (AFP) – At least 13 people were killed and four others missing after a tourist boat capsized Saturday in bad weather off the coast of Hoi An, a world heritage-listed Vietnamese city, an official said. The accident occurred as the vessel carrying 39 local tourists and crew members was returning to Hoi An from Cu Lao Cham island -- a popular spot for diving, snorkeling and water sports. Local Communist Party chief Nguyen Sinh confirmed 13 people drowned and four were missing. Rescue efforts were suspended in the evening because of fading light, he said. “We cannot do anything further as it is too dark,” he told AFP, adding a full investigation would be carried out and some survivors were receiving medical treatment. “We will resume the search at first light tomorrow morning for the other four people.” A local border guard said among the missing were two children.

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BEIJING (Dispatches) – China has condemned as “provocative” the passage of a U.S. warship through the strategically-sensitive Taiwan Strait, which separates the self-ruled Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) from mainland China. In a statement on Saturday, the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said that Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson was conducting a “routine” transit through international waters. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” said the fleet’s spokesman Nicholas Lingo. American warships periodically carry out such voyages through the strait, often drawing angry responses from China, which has sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan. Later in the day, the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army said in a statement that it had monitored the passage, calling it a “provocative act” by Washington.

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JAKARTA (AFP) – Rescue teams in Indonesia were searching Saturday for six people still missing after a strong earthquake rocked Sumatra island a day earlier, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens, an official said. The 6.2-magnitude quake hit the island’s north at a depth of 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) minutes after a less violent tremor Friday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), displacing thousands. It damaged hundreds of homes and buildings including mosques, schools and banks, forcing terrified residents to evacuate and shuttle loved ones to safety in temporary shelters. “At the moment the search is ongoing for six people we predict have been buried by a landslide,” said Abdul Muhari, spokesman of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), in a statement Saturday. At least 86 people were injured in the quake, with 10 suffering serious injuries, according to the BNPB. More than 6,000 people have been evacuated in Sumatra’s West Pasaman and Pasaman city, where rescue workers were using heavy equipment to search for survivors in the rubble of buildings, the agency said.

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TRIPOLI (MEMO) – Hundreds of Libyans have demonstrated in the capital of Tripoli calling for holding elections, ending the transitional phase in the country and overthrowing the House of Representatives and the High Council of State. The demonstrators gathered in Martyrs’ Square in central Tripoli following an invitation by activists on social media platforms and civil society institutions to call for holding elections. The demonstrators displayed banners with phrases that read “No to extension… Yes to elections”, “No to transitional stages”, “Down with Parliament, down with the High Council of State… leave us” and “Legitimacy is for people, not for those who robbed the people.” While participating in the demonstration, political activist Salah Al-Bakush expressed: “We are all here to support the electoral process in Libya to remove the outmoded legitimacy of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State and to change the government as well.” “The main goal of these demonstrations is to call for holding elections, since 2.5 million voters have been deprived of their electoral right by the House of Representatives and the High Council of State. Despite this, the two councils are demanding an extension in their favor,” al-Bakush shared with Anadolu Agency.