PNG POLICE END STANDOFF WITH REFUGEES AT AUSTRALIA CAMP
SYDNEY: Papua New Guinea police wielding metal rods cleared the final 320 holdouts from a shuttered Australian refugee camp on Friday, ending a 24-day standoff that put a global spotlight on Canberra’s tough policy on asylum-seekers. Videos and photos posted by the detainees showed police moving through the camp on Manus Island, swinging long metal batons and pushing men towards buses bound for PNG-run centers elsewhere on the island. Pictures showed men with some scrapes and cuts they said came from being hit and dragged by police. Several hours later, PNG and Australian officials confirmed the camp on a former PNG naval base had been emptied as ordered by the PNG Supreme Court, which said last year that the Canberra-run detention center violated the country’s constitution. Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton welcomed the news, and accused refugees and their advocates of making “inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries” during the police operation.
INDIAN TRAIN DERAILS, KILLING THREE
NEW DELHI: Thirteen coaches of an express train derailed in northern India early Friday throwing sleeping passengers from their seats in a new disaster that left three dead and nine injured. The Vasco Da Gama Express flipped off the tracks in thick fog soon after leaving Manikpur station in Uttar Pradesh state, police said. The train was heading for the Bihar state capital of Patna when the accident took place at 4: 15 a. m. ( 2245 GMT) when most travelers were asleep. The dead included a six- year- old boy and his father. Local Police Chief Pratap Gopendra Singh said the blanket of fog over the region hampered the rescue operation. He said a fractured rail was suspected to have caused the accident.
‘EXPLOSION’ DASHES LAST HOPES FOR MISSING ARGENTINE SUB WITH 44 ABOARD
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina: Argentina’s navy confirmed Thursday that an unusual noise heard in the Atlantic near the last known position of a missing submarine appeared to be an explosion, dashing the last hopes of finding the vessel’s 44 crew members alive. Relatives of the missing sailors reacted with grief and anger to the news after holding out hope since the sub was reported overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 17, two days after the explosion. “An anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event consistent with an explosion,” occurred shortly after the submarine’s last communication, navy spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi told a news conference in Buenos Aires. After days of false hopes, some of the relatives said the navy had withheld information about the sub and lied to them over the past week. Underwater sounds detected in the first days of the search by two Argentine search ships were determined to originate from a sea creature, not the vessel. Satellite signals were also determined to be false alarms.
CHINA PROBES NEW DAYCARE SCANDAL AFTER ‘NEEDLE MARKS’ ON TODDLERS
BEIJING: Chinese police have launched an investigation into alleged child abuse at a Beijing pre-school after parents found apparent needle marks on toddlers, sparking new outrage days after a scandal at another daycare. Distraught and angry parents also reported that children were given unidentified pills at the RYB Education New World kindergarten, run by a company that started trading on the New York stock exchange in September. The Chaoyang district government said police opened an investigation after parents called the authorities on Wednesday to report the suspected abuse. Authorities declined to provide more details about the allegations. RYB apologized to parents and said it was cooperating with the police investigation.