News in Brief

Date: 17 May 2023 - 22:42

News ID: ۱۱۵۱۳۸

BEIJING (CGTN) - Former UK prime minister Liz Truss’s recent visit to China’s Taiwan region is a “dangerous political show” which will do nothing but harm to the UK, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the UK said in a statement on Wednesday. By playing the “Taiwan card” and engaging in political shows, Truss and the like are colluding with the “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces to provoke confrontation and escalate tensions across the Taiwan Straits, the spokesperson said.

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Russia agreed to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to parts of the world struggling with hunger, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday, a boost to global food security after the war launched more than a year ago drove up prices. Turkey and the UN brokered the breakthrough accord with the warring sides last summer, which came with a separate agreement to facilitate shipments of Russian food and fertilizer that Moscow insists hasn’t been applied.

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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen has targeted a convoy of U.S. Embassy staffers in southeast Nigeria, killing two of its local workers and two policemen, the police said. The assailants opened fire on the convoy along a major road in Ogbaru local government area in Anambra State, one of the epicenters of separatist violence in the region, according to the police. “The hoodlums murdered two of the Police Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the Consulate, and set their bodies ablaze and their vehicles,” said Tochukwu Ikenga, a police spokesman in Anambra.

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QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly in a decree on Wednesday, bringing forward legislative and presidential elections, a day after he presented his defense in an impeachment process against him. Lasso denies the accusation, saying his administration made changes to the contract signed years before he took office, in order to benefit the state, on advice from Ecuador’s comptroller. A majority of lawmakers backed a resolution saying Lasso allowed the corrupt contract to continue, even though a congressional oversight committee, which heard testimony from opposition lawmakers, officials and Lasso’s lawyer said in its report it did not recommend impeachment.

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BEIJING (AP) — Several ships and aircraft searched Wednesday for 39 people reported missing after a Chinese fishing boat capsized in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the accident happened around 3 a.m. Tuesday. The report said the crew includes 17 from China, 17 from Indonesia and five from the Philippines. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang have ordered Chinese diplomats abroad, as well as the agriculture and transportation ministries, to assist in the search for survivors.