A former village official in South China's Guangdong Province was executed on Thursday for producing and trafficking drugs up to 180 kilograms, a move hailed by the media as a reaffirmation of China's zero-tolerance policy for such crime.

Cai Dongjia, former secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) branch in Boshe village of Lufeng city was sentenced to death in the first ruling in 2016 for making and selling meth, news site thepaper.com reported on Thursday.

Apart from the said crimes, Cai, also dubbed the "godfather of meth," used his power as a village official, also a deputy to the Local People's Congress of Shanwei and Lufeng, to protect other drug dealers from the law.

The death sentence was delivered by the Intermediate People's Court in Foshan, which also confiscated all his personal belongings, said the report.

Cai appealed the first verdict that was upheld by Guangdong Higher People's Court. The Supreme People's Court approved the death sentence.

According to China's Criminal Law, persons who smuggle, traffick, transport or manufacture opium of not less than 1,000 grams, heroin or meth of not less than 50 grams or other narcotics in large quantities shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 15 years, life in jail or death. Their property shall also be confiscated.

The recent death sentence pronounced on Canadian drug smuggler Robert Lloyd Schellenberg for smuggling drugs and participating in organized international drug trafficking has drawn broad support of the Chinese public, who said it showed China's strict policy on drug-related crimes.

Those involved in drug-related crimes, be it Chinese or foreigners, will be judged equally by Chinese law, said a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, requesting anonymity.

Global Times

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1136235.shtml

Up to 117 migrants missing in capsizing off Libya, survivors say

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3 survivors plucked to safety after rubber dinghy sank in Mediterranean

The Associated Press · Posted: Jan 19, 2019 12:03 PM ET | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

Crew members on the migrant search and rescue ship are seen in the Mediterranean late last year. Flavio Di Giacomo of International Organization for Migration says three survivors were plucked to safety by an Italian navy helicopter on Friday, from a dinghy that may have had 120 aboard. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

A rescue official says survivors have told rescuers that up to 117 migrants might have died when a rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya.

Flavio Di Giacomo of International Organization for Migration says three survivors were plucked to safety by an Italian navy helicopter on Friday, and they say 120 were aboard when the dinghy left Libya.

The navy says its airplane launched life rafts after it spotted the sinking dinghy Friday with about 20 people aboard. It wasn't immediately clear if some migrants had already fallen off.

The Italian Coast Guard says Libya asked a nearby cargo ship to search for survivors, but no one was found.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Libyan authorities as saying a dispatched Libyan coast guard boat turned back after mechanical problems.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/migrants-missing-1.4985408?cmp=rss

Trump to propose immigration compromise to end shutdown, says source

A boy looks at US border patrol guards through the US-Mexico border fence, in Tijuana, Mexico.

A boy looks at US border patrol guards through the US-Mexico border fence, in Tijuana, Mexico.PHOTO: AFP

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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US President Donald Trump will propose a compromise on immigration in an afternoon speech on Saturday (Jan 19), but not relent on his demand for funding for a US-Mexico border wall, a source familiar with his plan said.

While maintaining his demand for US$5.7 billion (S$7.7 billion) in wall funding, Trump will also offer backing for legislation to protect young immigrants known as "Dreamers," as well as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, the source said, confirming a report by Axios.

Vice-President Mike Pence, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, have been instrumental in crafting the deal, the source said.

Trump planned to make the announcement in a 3pm EST (4am on Sunday, Singapore time) speech from the White House.

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/trump-to-propose-immigration-compromise-to-end-shutdown-says-source

Chilean AFEP’s president slams US imprisonment of Press TV anchor

Chile's Association of the Relatives of Executed Political Prisoners (Agrupación de Familiares de Ejecutados Políticos) says the detention of Press TV news presenter Marzieh Hashemi, who has been imprisoned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on unspecified charges, is horrific.

Speaking to Iran's Spanish-language television channel, Hispan TV, on Saturday, Alicia Lira Matus, the AFEP's president, said the association condemned the US ill-treatment of Hashemi, particularly when she was forced to remove her Hijab (the head covering for Muslim women).

Matus said the US would have adopted a quite different attitude if such an incident had happened to another American journalist, adding that although Hashemi is an American-born journalist, she opposes the US policies.

She noted that American officials claimed to advocate freedom of expression but they punished everyone who opposed US repression in their country or other countries across the world.

The AFEP's president said she was embarrassed that Chilean officials followed the US and did whatever Washington dictated to them.

ue to double standard polices, Chilean journalists are not allowed to cover such tragic and important news items just like the incidents inside their own country that the Chilean people are not aware of, she added.

Matus expressed sympathy with the jailed Press TV anchor and said despite different cultures, she felt duty-bound to defend freedom of expression, respect basic rights of individuals and oppose the US aggressive policies.

Hashemi, a 59-year-old US citizen who has been living in Iran for years, was detained last week while she was in the US to visit her ill brother and other family members.

After days of silence, the US government confirmed Friday that it had been holding Hashemi in jail since Sunday as a “material witness” and that she would be released after she testified before a grand jury.

Her elder son Hossein, however, said she was unlikely to be freed soon. So far, the Press TV news presenter has appeared twice before a US district judge in Washington.

In a message released on Saturday, Hashemi's family and friends called for her immediate release.

They said that she must be freed forthwith and be treated as an ordinary witness given her cooperation with US judicial authorities and the absence of any charges against her.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/01/19/586244/Marzieh-Hashemi-Chile-Alicia-Lira-Matus-AFEP-Hispan-TV

Kenya police arrest wife, father of hotel suicide bomber

2019-01-19 19:00

Kenyan police have arrested the wife and father of a man identified as the suicide bomber in an attack on Nairobi's Dusit hotel complex that left 21 dead, a police source said Saturday.

The attacker, one of five al-Shabaab militants who stormed the complex on Tuesday, was identified as 25-year-old Mahir Khalid Riziki, who grew up in Mombasa.

"The wife of the suicide bomber is now in our custody. She will help us understand her husband's last moments and his movement, his story in latest years and his very last movements," a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.

"She was arrested in Mombasa and has been brought to Nairobi for further questioning," he added.

His father was also arrested.

"In the course of investigation of this nature, close family members of such people are crucial because they hold crucial information," the source said.

The official said Riziki was identified through mobile phone communication, and that he had communicated with one of the other attackers right before blowing himself up.

"He grew up in Mombasa and that is where he was recruited into al-Shabaab," he said, adding that he had previously been involved in attacks targeting security forces and has previously travelled to Somalia.

That attack by the Somali al-Qaeda affiliate led to a 20-hour siege at the DusitD2 hotel and office complex, which also left 28 injured while some 700 people were rescued.

The Dusit revealed it had lost six staff members while telecoms company Cellulant also lost six staff. An American and British-South African dual national were also among those killed

https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/kenya-police-arrest-wife-father-of-hotel-suicide-bomber-20190119

Trump Says Trade Deal Could "Very Well Happen" With China

Trump administration has imposed tariffs to pressurise China to meet a list of demands that would rewrite the terms of trade between them.

World | Reuters | Updated: January 19, 2019 22:27 IST

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping had agreed to a 90-day ceasefire amid rising trade tensions.

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday there has been progress toward a trade deal with China, but denied that he was considering lifting tariffs on Chinese imports.

"Things are going very well with China and with trade," he told reporters at the White House, adding that he had seen some "false reports" indicating that U.S. tariffs on Chinese products would be lifted.

"If we make a deal certainly we would not have sanctions and if we don't make a deal we will," Trump said. "We've really had a very extraordinary number of meetings and a deal could very well happen with China. It's going well. I would say about as well as it could possibly go."

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the next round of trade negotiations with Washington.

That follows lower-level negotiations held in Beijing last week to resolve the bitter dispute between the world's two largest economies by March 2, when the Trump administration is scheduled to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

According to sources briefed on the ongoing negotiations, cited exclusively by Reuters on Friday, the United States is pushing for regular reviews of China's progress on pledged trade reforms as a condition for a trade deal - and could again resort to tariffs if it deems Beijing has violated the agreement.

"The threat of tariffs is not going away, even if there is a deal," said one of three sources briefed on the talks who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

hinese negotiators were not keen on the idea of regular compliance checks, the source said, but the U.S. proposal "didn't derail negotiations."

A Chinese source said the United States wants "periodic assessments" but it was not yet clear how often.

"It looks like humiliation," the source said. "But perhaps the two sides could find a way to save face for the Chinese government."

The Trump administration has imposed import tariffs on Chinese goods to put pressure on Beijing to meet a long list of demands that would rewrite the terms of trade between the two countries.

COMMENT

The demands include changes to China's policies on intellectual property protection, technology transfers, industrial subsidies and other trade barriers.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-says-trade-deal-could-very-well-happen-with-china-1980265

Location Of Next Summit With Kim Jong Un Chosen, Says Donald Trump

A Vietnamese government source earlier told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the encounter, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: January 19, 2019 22:26 IST

Donald Trump said a "lot of progress" has been made on the issue

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump said Saturday that the location has been decided for his next summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, around the end of February.

"We picked a country," Trump told reporters, without giving more details.

A Vietnamese government source earlier told AFP that "logistical preparations" were under way to host the encounter, most likely in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

The White House on Friday confirmed that the second Trump-Kim meeting would occur next month, following a rare visit to Washington by a senior North Korean general.

Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, a right-hand man to the North Korean strongman, met Trump at the White House on Friday for an unusually long 90 minutes as the countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility.

On Saturday, Trump said a "lot of progress" has been made on the issue.

Kim Jong Un and Trump first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington – which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea – disagree over what that means.

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and nationwide famines.

Kim, whose family has brutally ruled North Korea for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime's survival as well as relief from biting UN sanctions.

COMMENT

Analysts say that a second summit has to make tangible progress on the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons if it is to avoid being dismissed as "reality TV."

Russian investors eye Damascus new airport construction

http://tass.com/economy/1040802

he Duke of Edinburgh has been seen driving a new Land Rover two days after being involved in a crash on a road near Sandringham, Norfolk.

Pictures in the Daily Mail and The Sun are said to show Prince Philip, 97, driving alone on the Sandringham estate.

A new Freelander, the model the Prince was seen driving, was delivered to Sandringham on Friday.

Prince Philip was unhurt in Thursday's crash but two women were injured.

The duke was in collision with a Kia. The driver, a 28-year-old woman, suffered cuts, while a 45-year-old woman passenger broke her wrist.

A nine-month-old boy in the Kia was uninjured.

Duke crash 'puts spotlight on road safety'

Is age a factor behind the wheel?

Norfolk police have said Thursday's incident will be investigated "and any appropriate action will be taken".

The duke was travelling alone in his car when the crash happened on the A149.

Prince Philip seen behind the wheel two days after crash

10 minutes ago

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46933739