National Security - Page 533

Over 30 suspected Russian mercenaries detained in Belarus last week were passing through the country en route to Latin America, a Russian diplomat said on Monday.

Lebanese officials said on Wednesday the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday occurred when a large cargo of ammonium nitrate seized from a cargo ship in 2013 and left in a warehouse in the Port of Beirut for six years caught fire and exploded.

A major hospital in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, said it will only accept Chinese coronavirus patients amid a skyrocketing number of new cases in the region, Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported.

The Iranian news agency Mehr published an article Wednesday speculating that the deadly explosion that destroyed large parts of Beirut, Lebanon, the day before was the product of U.S. “sabotage.”

Tuesday’s explosion was devastating blow even for a city that has endured a 15-year civil war, suicide bombings, foreign bombardments, and political assassinations.

A Nigerian state governor said Nigerian soldiers, not Boko Haram, attacked his humanitarian aid convoy last week in Baga, a town in northeastern Borno State, Nigeria’s Premium Times reported on Monday.

A senior World Health Organization (W.H.O.) expert on Monday declared that the novel coronavirus did not necessarily jump from animals into humans in Wuhan, China, where health officials detected the first clusters of the highly contagious and lethal disease.

A Chinese computer company called Shanghai Zhizhen Intelligent Network Technology Co. Ltd., or “Xiao-i” for short, filed a billion-dollar lawsuit in Shanghai court against Apple, Inc. on Monday.

Human remains, as well as an amphibious assault vehicle, involved in a recent fatal training accident were found Monday.

Travelers entering Singapore not entering official isolation facilities will be fitted with a tracking device to monitor their movements, the government announced on Monday.

International law enforcement organization Interpol published a report Tuesday that found an “alarming rate of cyberattacks” occurring during the coronavirus pandemic, with hackers shifting their focus from individuals and small businesses to major corporate and government systems.

China’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States military on Tuesday of terrifying the world with mysterious biological weapons experiments, demanding the U.S. “take the concerns of the international community seriously” and cease the alleged research.

Venezuelan socialist authorities reportedly arrested a man on Monday identified as Deivis Pacheco for filming firemen in the country’s Trujillo state pushing along an ambulance that had fun out of gasoline.

A retired sociologist who writes under the pen name Zheng Yefu, formerly a professor at Peking University, penned an article about the children of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) elite choosing to live overseas that has become a viral sensation on Chinese social media.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed ongoing demonstrations outside his residence in Jerusalem are “strange manifestations” of incitement against him, including calls for his family’s murder, all funded by left-wing organizations.

CARACAS – The first Iranian supermarket in Venezuela has been generating buzz. Sold to us as a “take that, America” joint venture between both “rebellious” nations, it’s further proof of the growing Iranian influence in what’s left of this country.

A titanic explosion shook the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday, shaking buildings and sending a huge cloud of smoke over the middle of the city.

The United States Coast Guard, a branch of America’s armed forces, celebrated its 230th birthday on Tuesday.

Typhoon Hagupit made landfall in eastern China Tuesday as much of the nation’s interior continued to struggle with historic floods that, as of Tuesday, Beijing said had “affected” over 38 million people.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied recent claims it lost 48 million barrels of crude oil it shipped to China, Nigerian newspaper This Day reported on Monday.

Afghan security forces ended a nearly 20-hour-long attack on a prison and nearby shopping mall in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing ten assailants, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported.

Israel carried out airstrikes against Syrian military targets on Monday night, in response to a thwarted terrorist attack after a Syrian cell infiltrated Israeli territory the night before.

The head of the China-influenced World Health Organization (W.H.O.) argued on Monday, amid the rush to discover an effective vaccine against the coronavirus in the U.S. and beyond, that there may never be a “silver bullet” for the lethal and contagious disease.

Facebook announced on Sunday that it would comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to remove 12 accounts belonging to supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro.

The U.S. supports Ecuador in denouncing China’s illegal fishing off the Galápagos Islands, a biologically sensitive marine reserve, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Sunday.

Chinese state media fumed over President Donald Trump’s statement Friday that his administration would ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned video microblogging service tagged as a potential security risk.

India’s Education Ministry announced on Saturday that Mandarin will be dropped from the list of recommended foreign languages that should be taught in schools, citing security concerns about ties between Mandarin-language programs and the Chinese Communist government.

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, a Miami-based human rights organization, recently joined the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, a group urging companies to stop profiting from the enslavement of Uyghurs in China.

Members of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s family and other relatives of ruling African National Congress (ANC) leaders have been profiting off coronavirus emergency relief, according to an article published by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on Saturday.

Flood-ravaged areas of China faced a new threat on Monday as Typhoon Hagupit approached its eastern coast, bringing 55-mile-per-hour wind gusts and more heavy rain.

Thousands of people braved challenging weather conditions in the far eastern part of Russia for the fourth week running this weekend to demonstrate against the increasing repression of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Trump appointed Tata to a senior policy role, after Senate Democrats and Republicans fought his nomination into the top policy job.

A senior official with the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), which certifies agricultural products, warned this weekend that packages of unlabeled seeds appearing to come from China could represent “seed terrorism.”

Hong Kong police seek to arrest six pro-democracy activists for allegedly “inciting secession and colluding with foreign powers,” according to Chinese state media.

The BBC published an explosive report on Monday citing leaked government figures showing that Iran has documented nearly triple the number of Chinese coronavirus deaths internally as it has publicly and identified nearly half a million cases within its borders.

A Syrian terror cell that infiltrated Israeli territory Monday in order to carry out an attack against a military post has been thwarted, the IDF said.