Leader of France’s ‘yellow vests’ arrested
AFP, Paris
One of the leaders of the “yellow vest” anti-government demonstrations was detained by police in Paris late Wednesday for organising an unauthorised protest, signalling a harder line by the authorities against the movement.
Eric Drouet-who already faces a trial for carrying a weapon at a previous protest-was held while heading for the Champs-Elysees, which has been the scene of violent clashes over the last month.
Death toll jumps to 37 in Russian gas blast
AFP, Moscow
The number of confirmed dead from a New Year’s Eve gas explosion in a Russian apartment block jumped to 37 on Thursday as rescuers recovered more bodies from the rubble of the partially collapsed building.
Six children were among the dead, the emergency situations ministry said in a statement, and four people were still unaccounted for.Rescuers have been braving temperatures as low as minus 27 degrees Celsius (minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit) to search through mangled concrete and metal at the site in the Ural mountains city of Magnitogorsk.
US to hold missile drill in Japan’s Okinawa
AFP, Tokyo
The US military will this year conduct its first ever missile drill around the Japanese island of Okinawa, according to a report Thursday, as Washington seeks to counter an increasingly assertive China.
The US military has told its Japanese counterpart it plans to deploy surface-to-ship missiles in the strategically important Okinawa this year for the first such drill by Japan’s key ally, the Sankei Shimbun reported, without citing sources.
North Korean diplomat seeking asylum in Italy
AFP, Seoul
North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy has sought asylum, a report said Thursday, in what would be another high-profile defection bid by one of Pyongyang’s envoys.
Jo Song Gil, the acting North Korean ambassador to Rome, applied for asylum to an unidentified Western country with his family, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo daily said, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul. “He sought asylum early last month,” the JoongAng quoted one source as saying.
9 killed as boat capsizes in Odisha
Xinhua, New Delhi
At least nine people were killed and one went missing after the boat on which they were board capsized in eastern Indian state of Odisha, officials said Thursday.
Officials said so far nine bodies have been recovered from the river Mahanadi.Reports said the dead include two women and seven children. The boat capsized Wednesday evening near Nipania in Kendrapara district, 124 km northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha.
