AMERICAN RESEARCHERS LOCATE SECRET N KOREAN MISSILE DEVELOPMENT SITES
WASHINGTON : Analysts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies have located more than half of an estimated 20 secret North Korean missile development sites. The findings were released amid signs that the US negotiations with the North have stalled. Drawing from commercial satellite imagery, the researchers identified 13 secret facilities used to produce missiles and related technology. They suggest that Pyongyang is continuing its missile work, though it has halted test launches in what President Donald Trump claimed as a success since his historic June meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. The sites are not launch facilities and in some cases are rudimentary, the authors said.
China to wait on lifting ban on tiger, rhino parts trade
BEIJING: China has postponed the lifting of a ban on the trade of rhino horn and tiger parts for medicine and other uses, the government said on Monday, after a storm of protest from conservation groups over a plan to water down the decades-old prohibition. In October, the State Council issued a circular replacing a 1993 ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhinoceros horn, opening up exceptions under “special circumstances”, including medical “research”.
Exsupervisor charged in strawberry tampering
SYDNEY : A former strawberry farm supervisor was accused in court on Monday of retaliating over a workplace grievance by putting needles into the fruit, sparking recalls that devastated the Australian industry. Magistrate Christine Roney said while prosecutors were alleging My Ut Trinh was “motivated by spite or revenge” she would not consider granting bail for the woman until the reasons for her actions became clearer. While no injuries were reported, the crisis escalated to six states and New Zealand. Australia’s strawberry industry suffered major losses, with fruit recalled and destroyed.
Rohingya flee camps fearing forcible return
TEKNAF, BANGLADESH: Rohingya Muslims were fleeing Bangladeshi refugee camps to avoid being repatriated to Myanmar later this week, community leaders said on Monday. Authorities plan to begin returning Rohingya refugees, who have fled what the UN has called ethnic cleansing, to the Buddhist majority country from Thursday. But the prospect has created panic in the camps, prompting some families who were due to be among the first to be repatriated to flee, according to community leaders. More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar last year.
150 killed in battle for Yemen’s Hodeida city
HODEIDA: At least 150 people have been killed in 24 hours of clashes in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida, medics said on Monday. Government loyalists supported by a Saudi-led coalition are fighting to oust the Iran-backed Huthi rebels from the strategic Red Sea city, whose docks are a lifeline to 14 million Yemenis at risk of starvation. Asked about the possibility of a ceasefire, a coalition spokesman said in Riyadh that “the operation is still ongoing”, adding it was meant to pressure the rebels.