News in Brief

Date: 08 February 2022 - 21:32

News ID: ۹۹۸۲۰

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States has approved a possible $100 million sale of equipment and services to Taiwan to “sustain, maintain, and improve” its Patriot missile defense system, the Pentagon said, drawing an angry threat of retaliation from Beijing. China, which claims self-governed Taiwan as its own, routinely objects to U.S. arms sales, adding to existing Sino-U.S. tensions. A statement from the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it had delivered the required certification notifying Congress following State Department approval for the sale, which was requested by Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington. The main contractors would be Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, it said. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian offered strong condemnation. “China will take appropriate and forceful measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty and security interests,” he told reporters. Asked what measures China would take, Zhao said: “I wish to ask everyone to wait and see”. China has imposed sanctions on Lockheed Martin and other U.S. companies in the past for selling weapons to Taiwan, though it is unclear what form the penalties have taken.

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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United Nations World Food Program. People in a region including Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya face the driest conditions recorded since 1981, the agency reported Tuesday, calling for immediate assistance to forestall a major humanitarian crisis. Drought conditions are affecting pastoral and farming communities across southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, south-eastern and northern Kenya, and south-central Somalia. Malnutrition rates are high in the region. WFP said it needs $327 million to look after the urgent needs of 4.5 million people over the next six months and help communities become more resilient to extreme climate shocks. “Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have decimated crops and caused abnormally high livestock deaths,” it said in a statement. “Shortages of water and pasture are forcing families from their homes and leading to increased conflict between communities.” More forecasts of below-average rainfall threaten to worsen conditions in the coming months, it said.

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TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japan’s health ministry said on Tuesday it had ordered the suspension of shipments of black rockfish caught off Fukushima prefecture after radiation exceeding an upper limit was detected in a catch late last month. The development comes on the heels of an announcement by Taiwan that it would relax a ban on food imports from Japan put in place after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The suspension means the targeted fish would not be shipped, regardless of the destination, a ministry official said.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The U.S. National Archives said it had retrieved 15 boxes of records that had been improperly removed from the White House and taken to Donald Trump’s southern Florida home -- including “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The documents and mementos -- which also included correspondence from ex-U.S. president Barack Obama -- should by law have been turned over at the end of Trump’s presidency but instead ended up at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) pursues any records it learns have been “improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts,” Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero told AFP. The recovery of the boxes has raised questions about Trump’s adherence to presidential records laws enacted after the 1970s Watergate scandal that require Oval Office occupants to preserve records related to administration activity. “It’s all a pristine example of Trump’s approach to the Presidency, namely that the vast power exists for him and not for the American people, to whom these records in fact belong,” former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman said on Twitter .

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LONDON (Reuters) -- After protesters hounded Britain’s Labour leader Keir Starmer, Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced pressure on Tuesday to withdraw a claim that the opposition leader had failed to prosecute one of the country’s most notorious child abusers. Johnson, who won a landslide in a 2019 election, is facing the gravest crisis of his premiership after a series of scandals including revelations that he and his staff attended Downing Street parties during COVID lockdowns. As Johnson apologized to parliament for the parties on Jan. 31, he falsely claimed Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile, a late TV star who abused hundreds of children, during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Starmer was confronted by angry protesters on Monday who surrounded him after an anti-COVID vaccination demonstration. Before being escorted into a police car, some of the protesters can be heard shouting “Traitor!” and “Were you protecting Jimmy Savile?” at him. The row risks further undermining Johnson’s authority as he battles to reshape his Downing Street team and face off claims from opposition parties that he is unfit to govern. Opposition lawmakers called on Johnson, who cast the harassment of Starmer as disgraceful, to apologize for the Savile remarks.