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China should come clean on vanishing minister, top EU official says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

BRUSSELS — Beijing is facing calls from the European Union’s most senior Asia policy official to explain the sudden disappearance of China’s former foreign minister. In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, the EU’s outgoing Asia chief Gunnar Wiegand said Beijing should set out the reasons why Qin Gang — who has not been seen in public for two months — was relieved of his duties in July, after only seven months in the job.“I do not wish to comment on the sudden disappearance of the former minister Mr. Qin Gang, whom I happen to know from the time when he was vice-minister,” Wiegand said in the interview earlier this month. “I do hope that, indeed, the Chinese leadership will give more information about what has happened,” he added. “Was it a health issue? Or was it another reason which has brought about this sudden disappearance from the public scene and from the international projection of China?” The intervention from the se...

UK confirms fifth delay to post-Brexit border checks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. has confirmed a further delay to post-Brexit border checks on food coming from the EU for a fifth time in order to give businesses “additional time to prepare” for the changes.New checks on some food and animal products coming from the EU will now begin in January, instead of October 31 as previously planned, with further checks introduced in two stages throughout 2024.The delay was initially reported last week, with suggestions that the government chose to enact this latest delay to avoid further inflationary pressures on the British economy.POLITICO first reported in April that businesses were expecting red tape connected to the new checks at the border to add to Britain’s inflation woes by decreasing the supply of goods coming from the EU.The U.K. has the highest inflation rate in the G7, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) growing by 6.8 percent in the 12 months to July.The U.K. has the highest inflation rate in the G7, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) ...

Orioles minor league report: From Cade Povich to Seth Johnson, a look at how Baltimore’s pitching prospects are performing

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

For much of Mike Elias’ tenure, the Orioles’ best two pitching prospects were drafted by the previous regime.Since taking over as Baltimore’s general manager in November 2018, Elias’ front office built the sport’s best farm system, but that was mostly because of elite position player prospects such as Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday. Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall, pitchers selected by the Orioles in the first round of the two drafts before Elias took over, have headlined Baltimore’s crop of pitching prospects for several years, including entering the 2023 season inside Baseball America’s top 100 list.Now, both Rodriguez and Hall are in the major leagues. Rodriguez has graduated from prospect status and emerged this summer as one of the Orioles’ best starters, while Hall has battled through an up-and-down 2023 to join Baltimore as a reliever for the stretch run.With the two talented arms both no longer in the mino...

UNC Chapel Hill shooting suspect’s motive in the killing of a faculty member is unclear, police say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Police were searching for both the weapon and the motive in a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that left one faculty member dead and prompted an hourslong lockdown amid a search for the suspect. The assailant in Monday afternoon’s shooting at a science building in the heart of the flagship university’s campus was taken into custody about an hour and a half after the gunfire was first reported, officials said at a news conference. Neither the suspect nor the victim was immediately identified and it wasn’t clear whether they knew each other. Formal charges were pending.“To actually have the suspect in custody gives us an opportunity to figure out the why and even the how, and also helps us to uncover a motive and really just why this happened today. Why today, why at all?” UNC Police Chief Brian James said. “And we want to learn from this incident and we will certainly work to do our best to ensure that this never h...

UN warns hundreds of thousands in Southeast Asia roped into online scams

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office says criminal gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia into participating in unlawful online scam operations, including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches, and illegal gambling schemes.The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a new report, cites “credible sources” that at least 120,000 people in strife-torn Myanmar and roughly 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.”The report sheds new light on cybercrime scams that have become a major issue in Asia, with many of the workers trapped in virtual slavery and forced to participate in scams targeting people over the internet. Laos, the Philippines and Thailand were also cited among the main countries of destination or transit for tens of thousands of people. Criminal gangs have increasingly targeted migrants, and lure some victims by false recruitment — suggesting they are destine...

Cyprus police arrest 21 people after protesters tried to attack Syrian migrants

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Police in Cyprus say they have arrested 21 people and used tear gas and a water cannon after a group of Greek Cypriots wearing hoods and brandishing bats tried to attack protesting Syrians in a small village that has been a hotbed of tensions between locals and migrants.Police said Tuesday parallel protests by some 250 Syrians and an equal number of Greek Cypriots in the village of Chloraka in the island’s southwest Monday evening degenerated into violence, as smaller numbers of protesters from both groups began setting fire to garbage bins and also torching a building’s fence.Anti-riot squad officers managed to keep the two groups separated, while one officer suffered second degree burns to his hand from a Molotov cocktail hurled by rioters.Police spokesman Christos Andreou told state broadcaster CyBC Tuesday that the clashes began when Greek Cypriots attempted to assault the migrants. He said nine Greek Cypriots and a dozen migrants were detained.They face c...

BMO Financial Group reports $1.45B Q3 profit, up from $1.37B a year earlier

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

TORONTO — BMO Financial Group reported its third-quarter profit edged higher compared with a year ago even as the amount it set aside for bad loans grew.The bank says it earned $1.45 billion or $1.97 per diluted share for the quarter ended July 31, up from $1.37 billion or $1.95 per diluted share a year earlier.Revenue totalled $7.93 billion, up from $6.10 billion in the same quarter last year.BMO’s provision for credit losses totalled $492 million, up from $136 million in its third quarter last year.On an adjusted basis, BMO says it earned $2.78 per diluted share, down from an adjusted profit of $3.09 per diluted share a year earlier.Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $3.13 per share, based on estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:BMO)The Canadian Press

Germany arrests a man accused of illegally exporting electronic components for drones to Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

A German-Russian dual citizen has been arrested in Germany on allegations of violating the country’s foreign trade act multiple times by exporting electronic components to a company in Russia involved in the production of military materiel and accessories, Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.The suspect, who was only identified as Waldemar W. in line with Germany privacy rules, was arrested in March. However, on Monday, the arrest warrant issued by a local court in the city of Mannheim at the time was replaced by an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge of the country’s Federal Supreme Court.The federal prosecutor’s office said that W. was managing director of two companies he founded in the western German state of Saarland for international trade in electronic components. In the period from January 2020 to March 2023, he exported electronic components on 26 occasions to a company in Russia whose production included the “Orlan 1...

US given OK to enforce maritime law around Palau as Washington vies with China for Pacific influence

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The United States has signed a new agreement with Palau, which gives American ships the authorization to unilaterally enforce maritime regulations in the tiny Pacific island nation’s exclusive economic zone, the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday.The agreement comes as both the U.S. and China are seeking to expand their influence in the Pacific, and follows pleas from Palau’s president for Washington’s help to deter Beijing’s “unwanted activities” in its coastal waters. In the agreement, concluded a week ago, U.S. Coast Guard ships can enforce regulations inside Palau’s exclusive economic zone on behalf of the nation without a Palauan officer present, the Coast Guard said in a statement.“This agreement helps Palau monitor our exclusive economic zone, protect against Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and deter uninvited vessels from conducting questionable maneuvers within our waters,” Palau’s president, Surangel S. Whipps Jr....

Australian prime minister will set a referendum date for Indigenous Voice to Parliament

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:31:51 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday he expects public support for creating a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament will grow after he focuses the nation’s minds on the issue by setting a date for Australia’s first referendum in a generation.Albanese will announce on Wednesday a date for a referendum that would enshrine in the constitution an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a collection of advocates aimed at giving the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority more say on government policy.Media speculation favors Oct. 14 as the most likely date for Australia’s first referendum since 1999.Albanese has long maintained confidence that the referendum would succeed despite opinion polls showing marginal majority support for the Voice waning in recent months as the public debate has become more heated and divisive.“I think people will begin to focus more. I expect that many Australians won’t focus until the last few weeks,” Albanese told repor...