News in Brief

Date: 03 August 2021 - 21:57

News ID: ۹۲۹۸۷

SEOUL (Reuters) -- North Korea wants sanctions banning its metal exports and imports of refined fuel and other necessities lifted before it restarts denuclearization talks with the United States, South Korean lawmakers said on Tuesday. The North has also demanded the easing of sanctions on its imports of luxury goods, the lawmakers said after being briefed by Park Jie-won, head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), South Korea’s main intelligence agency. The briefing came a week after the two Koreas restored hotlines that North Korea suspended a year ago, the first hint in months that North Korea might be more responsive to engagement efforts. “As a precondition to reopen talks, North Korea argues that the United States should allow mineral exports and imports of refined oil and necessities,” Ha Tae-keung, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters, citing Park.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The District of Columbia’s police department said two more police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol have died by suicide, bringing to four the number of known suicides by officers who guarded the building that day. Metropolitan Police Officer Gunther Hashida was found dead in his home Thursday, department spokesman Hugh Carew said in a statement. Hashida joined the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in May 2003. Hundreds of then-President Donald Trump supporters stormed the building that day in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s election win. Four people died on the day of the violence. A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the following day. More than 100 police officers were injured.

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India and China will continue dialogue aimed at easing tensions on their disputed border, the two countries said, amid concerns over a broader conflict as troops from both economic giants continue to face off at the disputed area. The two sides had a “candid and in-depth exchange of views”, according to a joint statement by the Indian and Chinese military, agreeing to resolve differences “in an expeditious manner”. The twelfth round of talks between the two armies - and the first meeting in three months - was the latest attempt to ward off fears of a wider conflict between the two countries. Thousands of soldiers have been facing off since April 2020 on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), or the de facto border, including at the glacial Pangong Lake. Both Indian and Chinese soldiers were killed in a clash in June last year - the first combat losses on the disputed border in more than four decades.

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BRASILIA (Reuters) -- Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) decided to open an investigation into far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for his statements claiming there will be fraud in next year’s elections. Bolsonaro, who is expected to seek a second term in 2022, has repeatedly said Brazil’s electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud. Critics say Bolsonaro, like former U.S. President Donald Trump, is sowing doubts with his unfounded claims in order to pave the way for him not to accept defeat in 2022. The TSE also decided to ask the Supreme Court to investigate whether Bolsonaro committed a crime by attacking the electoral system on social media and threatening Brazil’s democracy. The TSE voted to investigate Bolsonaro after he accused the court’s members of complicity in maintaining a voting system that would help former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva return to power.

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KYIV (Reuters) -- A Belarusian activist living in exile in Ukraine was found hanged in a park near his home in Kyiv early on Tuesday, and Ukrainian police said they had launched a murder case. Vitaly Shishov, who led a Kyiv-based organization that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution, had been reported missing by his partner on Monday after failing to return home from a run. Police said they had launched a criminal case for suspected murder, including investigating whether killers tried to disguise the crime as suicide. Shishov had felt under constant surveillance since he left Belarus last year after taking part in anti-government protests, his colleagues said in a statement. He had been warned about possible threats, including being kidnapped or killed.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Police have detained more than 40 suspects in the killing of President Jovenel Moïse, but many people fear Haiti’s crumbling judicial system could result in the assassination going unpunished. Interrogations are continuing, while dozens of suspects, including an ex-Haitian senator and former justice official, are still at large. But the judicial process has already hit significant snags, among them death threats and allegations of evidence tampering. Haiti’s Office of Citizen Protection noted that 32 high-profile killings dating from 1991 have never been resolved, including those of former government officials, lawyers, academics and journalists. It also accused corrupt judges of freeing suspects arrested by police, noting that in the past two decades there has been no significant criminal process in well-known murder cases.