AP, Managua
The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expelling a United Nations human rights team two days after the body published a report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests.
Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, chief of the U.N.’s human rights mission in Nicaragua, said in a news conference Friday that he and his team would leave the country Saturday.
Russian airport worker dies
AP, Moscow
Russia’s transportation minister says a supervisor at Sochi airport has died during an emergency response after a landing plane careered off the end of the runway into a riverbed and caught fire.
The health ministry says 18 people were injured in the accident, which occurred about 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) as the Utair-operated Boeing 737 from Moscow, carrying 164 passengers and six crew members, was landing.
Taiwan to produce new military
aircraft
AP, Taipei:
Taiwan will manufacture 66 trainer planes by 2026, develop new engines and key components of state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, the defence ministry announced today.
The island’s military has commissioned the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation to develop military aircraft as part of its five-year plan to bolster its capabilities, aimed at countering China’s maneuvers in the region, Efe reported.
Pakistan closes consulate in Afghanistan
AP, Islamabad
Pakistan temporarily closed its consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad because of “intervention” by the provincial governor and a lack of security, but an Afghan official said Saturday there was simply a misunderstanding and the matter would be resolved.
In a letter to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul requested that the governor of Nangarhar province refrain from interfering in the functioning of the consulate..
