NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 North Korean claim: North Korea’s U.N. ambassador accused the United States on Tuesday of imposing “an economic blockade” on his country and deploying nuclear assets on the Korean peninsula aimed at toppling leader Kim Jong Un. Ja Song Nam said at U.N. headquarters in New York that the U.S. push for countries to implement what he called “illegal and unjustifiable” U.N. sanctions on North Korea is part of America’s “frantic attempt to completely block our peaceful economy for people’s everyday lives and humanitarian cooperation.” The U.N. Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions ever on North Korea in response to its continuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests, with the aim of pressuring Kim’s government into returning to negotiations on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. The measures include a ban on countries importing North Korean coal, iron ore and textiles and new limits on its crucial oil and petroleum product imports.
2 Gays arrested: At least 34 people have been arrested in Cairo as part of an expanding crackdown on the gay and transgender community following a rock concert last month when audience members waved a rainbow flag. The crackdown has been fueled by social media, where images of the flag-waving were widely shared, and by dating apps and other websites, which the Egyptian police have used to entrap suspected gay and transgender people, activists and officials say. Photographs and video of Ahmed Alaa, a 22-year-old law student, and others waving the flag at the concert by Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebanese band with an openly gay singer, stoked public outrage. Ahmed Moussa, an influential talk show host, suggested last week that Alaa and the others had been funded by unidentified enemies who wanted to “disgrace” Egypt by making it appear to accept homosexuality.
3 Polanski accused: Renate Langer, a 61-yearold former German actress, has reported to the Swiss police that film director Roman Polanski raped her at a house in Gstaad in February 1972, when she was 15. Langer is the fourth woman to publicly accuse Polanski of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Switzerland has eliminated its statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases, but the law limits prosecution in cases that happened many years ago.
4 Corruption case: A scandal involving a Brazilian construction giant has widened with the jailing of Ecuador’s vice president as part of an investigation into accusations of bribery. The authorities ordered Vice President Jorge Glas, 48, held in pretrial detention in Quito on Monday night and froze his assets. The case relates to Odebrecht, an international construction company, which admitted last year to playing a role in one of the world’s largest bribery rings. The case implicated governments throughout Latin America.
5 Officials quit: The Netherlands’ defense minister and the country’s military chief both resigned Tuesday night following a critical report into a 2016 artillery training accident that killed two peacekeeping troops and wounded a third. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who has been a caretaker minister since national elections in March, had been under pressure since the publication last week of the independent Dutch Safety Board report into the accident in Mali. Defense Chief Gen. Tom Middendorp also stepped down as a result of the report.