NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Iraq attack: At least four rockets hit near the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and a base hosting American troops inside the Green Zone early Sunday, but caused no casualties and only minor damage, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The attack came just before 3:30 a.m. Col. Myles Caggins III, a spokesman for the U.S. military operation in Iraq, said only that rockets hit the base hosting U.S. and other coalition forces. However, three Iraqi security officials told the Associated Press that two of the rockets fell inside the U.S. Embassy compound, while another hit near the coalition base. An Iranian missile attack on Iraq’s Ain alAsad air base on Jan. 8 injured dozens of U.S service members. It was in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iran’s most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, on Jan. 3.
_2 Cocaine bust: Costa Rican officials say they seized more than 5 tons of cocaine, the largest such haul in the nation’s history. The Public Security Ministry said 11,128 pounds of cocaine were found Saturday evening in a shipping container at the Caribbean port of Moin. The container, supposedly holding ornamental plants, was destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Authorities last year reporting seizing 45.7 tons of cocaine, but the largest individual seizures never exceeded 2 tons. Police said that as of Sunday, the only person detained in connection with the seizure was a 46yearold Costa Rican who had driven the shipment to the port.
_3 Travel ban: Sri Lanka asked the United States on Sunday to review its decision to impose a travel ban on the island nation’s army chief, who has been accused of human rights abuses during the final stage of the country’s civil war that ended 11 years ago. Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena summoned U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitz and formally conveyed Sri Lanka’s objections to the ban, which he said “unnecessarily complicates the U.S.Sri Lanka relationship.” The U.S. on Friday issued the ban on Shavendra Silva, saying there is “credible information of his involvement” in human rights violations during the final phase of the war.
_4 Prisoner exchange: Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to implement a longdelayed prisoner swap, the United Nations said Sunday, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the country’s internationally recognized government and its Houthi rebels could be making progress. It would be the “first official largescale” exchange of its kind since the beginning of the conflict, according to the U.N. The swap was seen as a breakthrough during 2018 peace talks in Sweden. The Houthis and the internationally recognized government agreed then to several confidencebuilding measures, including a ceasefire in the strategic port city of Hodeida. Implementation of the tentative peace plan stumbled amid ongoing military offensives and a deepseated distrust between the two sides.
_5 Libya fighting: Countries with interests in Libya’s civil war recommitted themselves Sunday to uphold a barely working arms embargo, four weeks after a peace summit in Berlin was followed by numerous new arms violations. Germany and the U.N., which cohosted the Jan. 19 Berlin summit, gathered foreign ministers and other officials from a dozen countries on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to try to bolster a drive to cut off outside military support for Libya’s warring parties. Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy, who was later killed. A U.N.recognized administration now holds the capital of Tripoli and parts of the country’s west. A rival government in the east supports selfstyled Gen. Khalifa Hifter.