SEOUL: North Korea test-fired two ballistic missile Monday but one of them possibly flew abnormally, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new US military drill with South Korea and Japan.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart in a northeasterly direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea.
It said the first missile flew 600 kilometers and the second missile 120 kilometers, but didn’t say where they landed. North Korea typically test-fires missiles toward its eastern waters, but the second missile’s flight distance was too short to reach those waters.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon later told a briefing the second missile suffered a possible abnormal flight during the initial stage of its flight. He said if the missile exploded, its debris would likely have scattered on the ground though no damages was immediately reported. Lee said an additional analysis of the second missile launch was under way.
South Korean media, citing unidentified South Korean military sources, reported that it was highly likely the second missile crashed in an inland area of the North. The reports said the first missile landed in the waters off the North’s eastern city of Chongjin.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned the North’s launches as a provocation that poses a serious threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula. It said South Korea maintains a firm readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea in conjunctions with the military alliance with the United States.
The launches came two days after South Korea, the US and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.
The “Freedom Edge” drill was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day drill involved a US aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.
On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” drill, calling the US-South Korea-Japan partnership an Asian version of NATO. It said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a US intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.
The statement said North Korea will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.”
Monday’s launches were the North’s first weapons firing in five days. On Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known test of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat US and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.
In recent weeks, North Korea has floated numerous trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons. Last month, North Korea and Russia also struck a deal vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked, a major defense pact that raised worries that it could embolden Kim to launch more provocations at South Korea.
Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting Friday to determine what it called “important, immediate issues” related to works to further enhance Korean-style socialism. Observers said the meeting was continuing Monday.
North Korea test-launches 2 ballistic missiles, after end of new US-South Korea-Japan drill
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North Korea test-launches 2 ballistic missiles, after end of new US-South Korea-Japan drill
- Missiles launched 10 minutes apart in a northeasterly direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea
- South Korea maintains a firm readiness to repel any provocations by Pyongyang
Rights group accuses Ethiopia of attacks on medical facilities
- Documented attacks by federal forces and a pro-government militia against ‘medical workers, health care facilities, and transports in at least 13 towns’
The northern region was under a state of emergency until last month after fighting erupted there between federal forces and the Fano “self-defense” militia in August 2023.
In a 66-page report based on interviews with 58 people, including victims and eyewitnesses, global rights watchdog HRW said it had documented attacks by federal forces and a pro-government militia against “medical workers, health care facilities, and transports in at least 13 towns.”
“Soldiers beat, arbitrarily arrested, and intimidated medical professionals for providing care to the injured and sick, including alleged Fano fighters,” HRW said, adding that troops also “unlawfully attacked ambulances” and prevented hospitals from functioning.
“Federal forces have obstructed access to medical facilities, including by wrongfully arresting patients on mere suspicion of a Fano affiliation, causing widespread fear for those that may seek or need treatment,” it added.
The rights group said that international humanitarian law offered “special protections to health facilities, medical professionals, patients, and ambulances.”
But HRW deputy Africa director Laetitia Bader said Ethiopia’s federal forces “operating with near impunity are unsurprisingly disregarding civilian lives by attacking medical facilities.”
HRW noted that humanitarian agencies have struggled to operate in the region of 23 million people, with nine aid workers killed since fighting erupted, including four fatalities this year.
Media access to Amhara has also been heavily restricted, while the mandate of a UN commission of experts investigating atrocities in Ethiopia expired in October, leading to limited subsequent monitoring of rights abuses in the country, HRW said.
A report released last month by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that “Ethiopian federal forces and the Fano militia had been involved in numerous violations of international humanitarian law, resulting in over 2,000 civilian casualties in the Amhara region,” HRW said.
Bader called for “much greater international scrutiny” of the rights situation in Ethiopia.
“So long as the government feels no pressure to hold abusive forces to account, such atrocities are likely to continue,” she warned.
The violence in Amhara reignited concerns about Ethiopia’s stability, months after a peace agreement was signed in November 2022 to end a two-year conflict in the neighboring region of Tigray.
Amhara forces and the Fano supported Ethiopian troops during that war but fell out after Addis Ababa signed the 2022 peace deal, fueling a sense of betrayal among the Amhara, who have a history of land disputes with the Tigray region.
An Afghan woman wanted to be a doctor. Now she makes pickles as the Taliban restricts women’s roles
- Few jobs are still available to women
- Just obtaining permission from the Taliban to work is challenging for women
KABUL, Afghanistan: Frozan Ahmadzai is one of 200,000 Afghan women who have the Taliban’s permission to work. She should have graduated from university this year in pursuit of her dream of becoming a doctor, but the Taliban have barred women from higher education and excluded them from many jobs.
Now, instead of suturing, she sews in a basement in Kabul. Instead of administering medication, she makes pickles.
Half of Afghanistan’s population now finds itself locked out of the freedom to work at a time when the country’s economy is worse than ever.
Few jobs are still available to women. They include tailoring and making food, which the 33-year-old Ahmadzai now does along with women who once were teachers or aspired to be one.
Women’s participation in the workforce in Afghanistan, always limited by conservative cultural beliefs, was 14.8 percent in 2021, before the Taliban seized power and imposed harsh restrictions on women and girls. They include banning female education beyond sixth grade, barring women from public spaces like parks, and enforcing dress codes.
Women’s participation in the workforce was down to 4.8 percent in 2023, according to World Bank data.
Ahmadzai’s eyes flare when talking about the new reality for Afghan women. “We are only looking for a way to escape,” she said, referring to the work in the basement. It’s a step, at least, beyond being confined at home.
But profits are slim for her and her 50 colleagues in the collective. In a good month, the pickle-making and tailoring businesses bring in around 30,000 afghanis ($426).
The women also have other complaints familiar to anyone in Afghanistan: The rent and utility bills are high. The sewing machines are old-fashioned. The electricity supply is erratic. Local retailers don’t compensate them fairly. They don’t receive support from banks or local authorities to help their businesses grow.
Just obtaining permission from the Taliban to work is challenging for women, though under Afghan labor laws, the process for work permits ought to be the same for both sexes.
The ministry responsible for issuing permits has banned women from its premises, setting up a female-only office elsewhere. It’s to “speed things up and make things easier” for women, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Samiullah Ebrahimi.
There, women submit their paperwork, including their national identity card, a cover letter and a health certificate from a private clinic. That’s assuming they have the documents along with the money to cover any costs. It also assumes they can move around without being harassed if unaccompanied by a male guardian.
Last year, a top United Nations official said Afghanistan had become the most repressive country in the world for women and girls. Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN political mission in Afghanistan, said that while the country needed to recover from decades of war, half of its potential doctors, scientists, journalists and politicians were “shut away in their homes, their dreams crushed and their talents confiscated.”
The Taliban have a different view. They have tried to provide women with a “safe, secure and separate” working environment in line with Islamic values and Afghan traditions in sectors where women’s work is needed, according to ministry spokesman Ebrahimi. They can work in retail or hospitality, but it must be a female-only setting.
He said women don’t need degrees for the majority of permissible work including cleaning, security screening, handicrafts, farming, tailoring or food manufacturing.
It’s heartbreaking for Ahmadzai and her colleagues to see their expertise go unused. Several also were training to be makeup artists, but beauty parlors have been closed.
Some jobs for women remain in education and health care, so Ahmadzai has pivoted to a nursing and midwifery course so she can become a medical professional. But not a doctor. The Taliban don’t want more female doctors.
The challenges for Afghan women of obeying Taliban edicts while helping to support their families while living conditions worsen is a strain on health, including mental health.
Ahmadzai said one of the few positives about her work in the basement in Kabul is the camaraderie and support system there.
“Afghan women nowadays all have the same role in society. They stay at home, care for children, mind the house and don’t work hard,” she said. “If my family didn’t encourage me, I wouldn’t be here. They support me because I work. My husband is unemployed and I have small children.”
Salma Yusufzai, the head of Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, acknowledged that working under Taliban rule is a challenge.
The chamber has almost 10,000 members, but the lack of female representation within the Taliban-controlled administration is a challenge.
Yusufzai said the chamber supports women by giving them a platform at local markets and connecting them with the international community for participation in overseas exhibitions and other opportunities.
Chamber members include key Afghan industries like carpet-making and dried fruit. The businesses are male-owned but kept alive by women who want to support the economy, which she said would collapse without them.
She acknowledged that the chamber’s limited work was only possible through engagement with the Taliban: “If I close the door then nothing will happen, nothing will remain.”
Yusufzai once had three gemstone businesses and gave them up because of her chamber role. But she can’t own them anyway under Taliban rule, so the businesses are in her husband’s name.
“Since we are living in this country, we have to follow the rules,” she said. Her smile was tight.
“From nothing, it is better to have something.”
Boy accused of stabbing student at Sydney university has faced previous charges, officials say
- Suspect remains at a Sydney hospital for a mental health assessment the day after the early Tuesday attack
- He was charged last year with threatening to shoot fellow students and with threatening to engage in self-harm
MELBOURNE: A state government minister said on Wednesday a 14-year-old boy accused of stabbing a student at the University of Sydney has faced charges that were dismissed by a court, while newspapers reported he was accused of threatening to shoot fellow students.
The boy remained at a Sydney hospital for a mental health assessment the day after the early Tuesday attack, New South Wales Police Minister Yasmin Catley said.
“We have to make sure that we wrap services and support around these kids who are being radicalized online and their families,” Catley told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Police say the boy took a bus from the site of the stabbing to the hospital seeking treatment for a cut on his hand. He was arrested at the hospital.
The 22-year-old student who was stabbed once in the neck was discharged from the same hospital overnight, Catley said.
The boy wore miltary clothing and used a kitchen knife in the attack, police allege.
Catley said the suspect was charged by police last year and a court dismissed the charges. She added that he had been attending a Department of Communities and Justice program, which news media have described as a deradicalization program.
Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources, that the suspect was charged last year with threatening to shoot fellow students at his Sydney school and with threatening to engage in self-harm, but a magistrate dismissed the charges in February on mental health grounds.
Police have yet to determine a motive or file charges.
Hurricane Beryl kills seven as it churns toward Jamaica
- Beryl is the first storm since US National Hurricane Center records began to reach the Category 4 level in June
- Beryl had maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour as it headed toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Tuesday
KINGSTON: Hurricane Beryl churned toward Jamaica Tuesday, with forecasters warning of potentially deadly winds and storm surge, after the storm killed at least seven people and caused widespread destruction across the southeastern Caribbean.
The powerful hurricane, which is rare so early in the Atlantic season, weakened Tuesday but was still an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, and is expected to pass “near or over” Jamaica on Wednesday, meteorologists said.
Beryl is the first storm since US National Hurricane Center records began to reach the Category 4 level in June, and the earliest to reach Category 5 in July.
A hurricane warning was in place for the island nation, according to the NHC, which said rain and flash flooding was to be expected in addition to the life-threatening wind and high water levels.
Across Jamaica, emergency response preparations were underway, with shelters stocking up on provisions, people safeguarding their homes and boats being pulled from the water.
“I urge all Jamaicans to stock up on food, batteries, candles, and water. Secure your critical documents and remove any trees or items that could endanger your property,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on X.
Hurricane warnings were also issued in the Cayman Islands, which Beryl is “expected to pass near or over” on Wednesday night or early Thursday, according to the NHC.
In the Dominican Republic, massive waves were seen crashing into the shore along Santo Domingo as the storm passed to the country’s south, AFP photographers reported.
Beryl has already left a trail of death in its wake with at least three people killed in Grenada, where Beryl made landfall Monday, as well as one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and three in Venezuela, officials said.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the island of Carriacou, which was struck by the eye of the storm, has been all but cut off, with houses, telecommunications and fuel facilities there flattened.
“We’ve had virtually no communication with Carriacou in the last 12 hours except briefly this morning by satellite phone,” Mitchell told a news conference.
The 35-square kilometer island is home to around 9,000 people. At least two people there died, Mitchell said, with a third killed on the country’s main island of Grenada when a tree fell on a house.
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, one person on the island of Bequia was reported dead from the storm, and a man died in Venezuela’s northeastern coastal state of Sucre when he was swept away by a flooded river, officials there said.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the region, saying on X that his organization “stands ready to support the national authorities with any health needs.”
Experts say it is extremely rare for such a powerful storm to form this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November.
Warm ocean temperatures are key for hurricanes, and North Atlantic waters are currently between two and five degrees Fahrenheit (1-3 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Beryl “sets an alarming precedent for what is expected to be a very active hurricane season.”
NOAA said in late May that it expects this year to be an “extraordinary” hurricane season, with up to seven storms of Category 3 or above.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell, who has family on the island of Carriacou, said climate change was “pushing disasters to record-breaking new levels of destruction.”
“Disasters on a scale that used to be the stuff of science fiction are becoming meteorological facts, and the climate crisis is the chief culprit,” he said Monday, reporting that his parents’ property was damaged.
As of 2300 GMT, Beryl had maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour as it headed toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Tuesday, according to the NHC.
A hurricane watch and tropical storm warnings have also been issued for parts of Haiti.
UN experts say Russia violated international law by imprisoning Wall Street Journal reporter
- Russia should provide Evan Gershkovich ‘proper reparations’ for holding him for over a year in detention without a legitimate basis
- Wall Street Journal reporter went on trial behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested on March 29, 2023
GENEVA: United Nations human rights experts say Russia violated international law by imprisoning Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and should release him “immediately.”
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, made up of independent experts convened by the UN’s top human rights body, said there was a “striking lack of any factual or legal substantiation” for spying charges leveled against Gershkovich, 32.
The five-member group said Gershkovich’s United States nationality has been a factor in his detention, and as a result the case against him was discriminatory.
Matthew Gillett, the working group’s chair, said its opinion was grounded in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was adopted in 1966 and nearly all UN member countries have ratified.
“The covenant is something that Russia has freely signed up to and accepted the obligations under, and therefore as a matter of international law, it is obliged to implement the provisions of the covenant,” he said in an interview.
Gillett said Russia should provide Gershkovich “proper reparations” for holding him for over a year in detention without a legitimate basis.
Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors on Wednesday in the Russian city Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested on March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US government vehemently deny.
The UN group said in its findings that because the detention of Gershkovich was arbitrary, no trial should take place. The group cannot compel any response from Russia, and is mandated to look into cases in which countries violate international commitments that they make.
“Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Gershkovich immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” the United Nations group said.
Almar Latour, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, commended the UN panel and said: “Evan’s wrongful detention is a flagrant violation of his fundamental human rights.”
“As the UN working group recognizes, Russia is violating international law by imprisoning Evan for his journalism, silencing critical reporting, and depriving him of due process and other rights,” Latour said, calling on the US and world leaders “to do everything they can to bring Evan home now.”
Gershkovich, the US-born son of immigrants from the USSR, is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. Russian authorities, without presenting evidence, claimed he was gathering secret information for the United States.
He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, which is almost a certainty since Russian courts convict more than 99 percent of the defendants who come before them.
The State Department has declared Gershkovich “wrongfully detained,” thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release.
Russia has signaled the possibility of a prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, but it says a verdict — which could take months — would have to come first.
