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Jordan prince Prince Hamzah says he has been placed under house arrest
The former crown prince of Jordan said he has been placed under house arrest and accused the country’s leadership of corruption and incompetence.
In a videotaped statement leaked to the BBC, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah, said he was visited early on Saturday by the country’s military chief and told “I was not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or to meet with them”.
He said his security detail was removed, and his phone and internet service had been cut. He said he was speaking over satellite internet, but expected that service to be cut as well. The BBC says it received the statement from Hamzah’s lawyer.
Hong Kong police seize record 700kg of cocaine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/04/hong-kong-police-seize-record-700kg-of-cocaine
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Nearly 500 ‘bricks’ of cocaine worth around $US120m was seized in Hong Kong.
Nearly 500 ‘bricks’ of cocaine worth around $US120m was seized in Hong Kong. Photograph: Laura Lezza/Getty Images
Hong Kong police have announced a record-breaking 700kg cocaine seizure with officers suspecting the huge shipment was smuggled into the city on speedboats.
The bust is the largest in the territory in nearly a decade and netted some HK$930m-worth ($119.6m) of cocaine.
Authorities say the collapse of global travel during the coronavirus pandemic has forced smugglers to make riskier bulk shipments instead of using drug mules travelling through airports.
Police said the bust was made on Friday when officers intercepted a man with a trolley in the Fo Tan industrial district and found 150 bricks of cocaine in cardboard boxes.
Another 492 bricks were later found in an industrial building and an apartment in the same district, leading to the arrest of two men aged 19 and 25.
“We believe (the drugs) were transported via long-range shipping to waters near Hong Kong from their source area in South America and then smuggled in by illegal speedboats,” senior superintendent Ng Kwok-cheung told reporters.
“We found a lot of waterproof bags that were still wet at the scene and all the cocaine bricks were carefully wrapped in plastic,” he added.
Police said Hong Kong’s previous record cocaine seizure was 649kg discovered by customs in 2012.
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