12 ***^ Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
N Korea threatens
more missile tests
Malaysian jungle
girl hunt steps up
North Korea yesterday
threatened to carry out
more weapons tests after it
fired its fourth pair of
projectiles in less than two
weeks following the start of
joint exercises between the
US and the South.
The rising temperature
on the peninsula threatens
to derail negotiations
between Pyongyang and
Washington, with the North
saying the combined drills
were a “flagrant violation”
of the process.
Pyongyang has always
been infuriated by military
exercises between the South
and US, but has tended to
avoid missile tests while the
war games took place.Police in Malaysia have
intensified their search for
an Irish teenager who went
missing on Sunday in a
dense jungle near her
holiday resort.
Nora Anne Quoirin, 15,
who lives in London, was re-
ported missing at the Dusun
Pantai Hill resort in a nature
reserve on the edge of a
rainforest 40 miles south
of Kuala Lumpur. Around
180 people, a helicopter and
canine units are now search-
ing for the girl, said to have
a learning disability.
Nora’s extended family
is travelling to the nation
to assist, having raised
£24,000 online to support
the rescue effort.WORLD BULLETIN
US freezes all
Venezuelan assets
Mystery deaths on
Japan’s ‘cat island’
The Trump administration
has frozen all Venezuelan
government assets in a
dramatic escalation of
tensions with Nicolás
Maduro. The move places
the socialist administration
alongside a list of
adversaries from Cuba,
North Korea, Syria and
Iran that have been targeted
by such aggressive US
actions.
The ban, blocking US
companies and individuals
from doing business with
Maduro’s government or
any of its top supporters,
took effect on Monday and
is the first of its kind to be
used in the West in more
than three decades.Fears are rising that stray
cats are being deliberately
poisoned on Japan’s
famed “cat island” after
an unusually sharp decline
in the feline population.
The number of cats on
the remote Umashima
island, six miles from
the southern city of
Kitakyushu, has
mysteriously fallen from
90 in 2014 to around 30
this year.
The cause of their
disappearance is unknown
but reports pointed to
suspect food left out for the
cats, including fish coated
in a blue substance, said the
Mainichi Shimbun national
daily.China vows
to punish
Hong Kong
protesters
By Sophia Yan
CHINA CORRESPONDENT in Hong Kong
CHINA warned protesters in Hong
Kong that “if they play with fire it will
backfire” – and did not rule out military
force as near-daily demonstrations
plunged the city into chaos.
Demonstrators are causing “Hong
Kong to slide into a dangerous abyss,”
said Yang Guang, a spokesman for the
Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office,
which reports directly to China’s cabi-
net. “As for their punishment, it’s only
a matter of time.”
The Chinese government will never
allow acts that challenge national unity,
sovereignty or security, he said, re-
minding residents that the People’s Lib-
eration Army was a “strong and reliable
force that defends every inch of its ter-
ritory”. In a jab at protesters, Mr Yang
referred to their main slogan, “Reclaim
Hong Kong, revolution of our times”, by
reminding them that Hong Kong was a
part of China, saying: “I want to ask
those people shouting this, where ex-
actly do you want to reclaim Hong
Kong to?”
Reiterating its support for Carrie
Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive,
China condemned activists for dese-
crating the Chinese flag by throwing it
into the ocean twice in as many days.
Authorities again accused foreign
nations, including the US, for “med-
dling” in Hong Kong as a way to disrupt
China’s stability, and even blamed poor
family-values and education for push-
ing youths to the streets.
The ominous words came as official
state media circulated a video of main-
land Chinese police engaging in anti-
riot drills in Shenzhen, a city just across
the border from Hong Kong, shooting
tear gas and charging at protesters
dressed in black, in scenes that resem-
ble the current clashes in Hong Kong.
On Monday, the former British col-
ony was paralysed, with more than 200
flights cancelled, widespread disrup-
tion to the subway and tumult on the
roads as protesters cut electricity to
traffic lights and flooded main avenues.
Police fired tear gas as early as mid-
afternoon to disperse crowds, shooting
800 more rounds of tear gas, 140 rub-
ber bullet and 20 sponge rounds, en-
veloping neighbourhoods with clouds
of smoke late into the night. They also
arrested 148 people, aged 13 to 63.
Monday represented a significant es-
calation of violence. Until then, police
had fired 1,000 rounds of tear gas, 150
of sponge grenades and 160 rounds of
rubber bullets over two months. De-spite fast-growing tensions, Hong Kong
authorities have refused to make con-
cessions to protesters’ demands, which
have increased from formal withdrawal
of a controversial extradition bill to in-
clude the resignation of Carrie Lam, an
independent inquiry into police brutal-
ity and direct elections.
With Beijing unwilling to back
down, protesters are likely to stage
more demonstrations and strikes
through August.
“I can’t even count how many times I
have attended rallies and protests,” said
Fergana Chung, 29, who works in mar-
keting. “Carrie Lam is still giving us the
same response. It’s to the point where
even people who don’t care about poli-
tics are noticing what’s happening in
Hong Kong. As more citizens join us, I
hope the government won’t escape
any more.”
Additional reporting by Yiyin ZhongIran tells US:
hostilities will
mean ‘mother
of all wars’
By Josie Ensor
MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENTHASSAN ROUHANI, Iran’s president,
yesterday told the US that a war with
his country would be “the mother of all
wars”, as Tehran announced joint naval
patrols with Russia.
An Iranian navy commander said
that the drills would take place later
this year after the neighbouring coun-
tries signed an agreement, according
to the Iranian Fars news agency.
Although Rear Admiral Hossein
Khanzadi gave no details about the area
where the drills would be held, he said
in late July that manoeuvres could take
place in the Strait of Hormuz.
He said on Monday that “the situa-
tion in the Persian Gulf is absolutely
calm”, despite the fact that “the United
States and the United Kingdom by their
lies and bluff are trying to make this re-
gion look as unsafe and make it so”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized
British tanker Stena Impero near the
Gulf for alleged marine violations, two
weeks after British forces captured an
Iranian tanker near Gibraltar accused
of violating sanctions on Syria.
Tensions have risen between Iran
and the West since Washington pulled
out of an international agreement,
which curbed the Islamic Republic’s
nuclear programme in return for an
easing of economic sanctions.
“Peace with Iran is the mother of all
peace, war with Iran is the mother of all
wars,” Mr Rouhani said at the foreign
ministry yesterday.
Mr Rouhani said he preferred the
option of peace, saying talks were pos-
sible but only once all sanctions were
lifted. But he also took on an uncharac-
teristic hardline rhetoric, challenging
both the US and UK.
“We downed your drone [US drone]
with our own home-grown missile,” he
said.
“Your friend [Britain] seized our
ship but we did not let it go and cap-
tured their ship”.
Fuelling fears of a further escalation
in tensions, he added: “A strait for a
strait. It can’t be that the Strait of Hor-
muz is free for you and the Strait of Gi-
braltar is not free for us.”
“Peace for peace and oil for oil,” he
said. “You cannot say that you won’t al-
low our oil to be exported.”
Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran’s for-
eign minister, yesterday confirmed re-
ports that he declined an offer from a
US senator to meet Trump at the White
House last month despite the threat of
sanctions.US tries to prevent ‘unacceptable’
Turkish attack on its Kurdish allies
Dealer found dead after trying to
escape jail dressed as his daughter
By Josie Ensor
MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT
TURKEY and the US were on a colli-
sion course yesterday after Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president,
said he would “eliminate” Washing-
ton’s Kurdish allies in Syria “very soon”.
Mr Erdoğan has been threatening an
assault on the Kurdish People’s Protec-
tion Unity (YPG) militia for more than a
year, but now appears determined to
make good on the promise.
US allegiances are torn between its
Nato partner and the Kurdish allies
who helped defeat the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in Syria. Tur-
key sees the YPG as an extension of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has
waged a decades-long insurgency in
southern Turkey. “Turkey has the right
to eliminate all threats against its na-
tional security,” Mr Erdoğan said in a
televised speech. “God willing, we will
carry the process started with Afrin
and Jarablus [previous offensives into
Syria] to the next stage very soon.”
US officials have been in talks with
their Turkish counterparts since Mon-
day, trying to hash out a buffer zone
deal that would persuade Turkey to
hold off on a military attack.
“Clearly we believe any unilateral
action by them would be unaccepta-
ble,” Mark Esper, the US defence secre-
tary, told reporters.
Turkey, which is threatened by the
autonomous statelet the Kurds have
carved out across the border, has so far
refused to accept the US’s “safe zone”proposals, which it says do not keep the
YPG far enough from the frontier.
Any assault would largely be fought
by allied Syrian rebels. A spokesman
for the National Army, a Turkey-backed
rebel grouping, said a 14,000-strong
force was ready and waiting.
“The US does not want to abandon
an ally in a time of need, but it is also
not about to kill Nato-member troops,”
one Western diplomat told The Daily
Telegraph. “There has to be a pragma-
tism. The US was never going to be able
to support a Kurdish state with no in-
ternational recognition.”
Kurdish officials warned that an as-
sault on the YPG, which is holding
more than 15,000 foreigners with links
to Isil, would allow the jihadists the
room to regroup and strengthen.By Harriet Alexander in New YorkA BRAZILIAN drug dealer who tried to
escape prison dressed as his daughter
has been found dead in his cell.
Clauvino da Silva, a 42-year-old
leader of one of the most powerful
criminal groups in Brazil, Comando
Vermelho, was stopped by guards at
the prison in Rio de Janeiro on Satur-
day. He was dressed in a silicon mask, a
dark long-haired wig, tight jeans and a
pink T-shirt – trying to pass off as his
19-year-old daughter, who had come to
visit him.
Video footage of da Silva removing
his disguise went viral.
Yesterday prison authorities
announced that the trafficker, who
had been sentenced to 73 years be-hind bars, had been found dead in his
cell.
“The inmate appears to have hanged
himself with a bed sheet,” Rio’s prison
authority said in a statement, adding
that an investigation had been opened.
Experts estimate hundreds of pris-
oners are killed in Brazilian prisons
every year, mostly in confrontations
between rival gangs battling for con-
trol of one of the world’s most impor-
tant cocaine markets and trafficking
routes.
Brazil has the world’s third-largest
prison population after the United
States and China, with more than
800,000 inmates.
Last week, at least 57 people died af-
ter a prison riot broke out in the north-
ern state of Para. More than 50 inmatesdied in similar circumstances in May
during prison riots in the northern
state of Amazonas.
On Monday, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s
president, sparked anger after saying
that criminals were “going to die in the
streets like cockroaches” if he suc-
ceeded in passing a measure aimed at
blocking the prosecution of police of-
ficers and civilians who kill suspects.
He argued Brazilian police were
fighting an “unequal” battle against
crime and should be decorated for us-
ing their guns, not taken to court.
Last year Brazilian police killed al-
most 6,200 people, an increase of
nearly 1,000 over the previous year. In
Rio, the rate so far this year is the
equivalent to one person killed by po-
lice every five hours.Demonstrators are taking
city to the edge, says
Beijing official, blaming
US interference for unrest
Pakistan warns India of suicide bombing backlash over Kashmir
By Ben Farmer and Saleem Meshud
in Islamabad
PAKISTAN’S military will “go to any ex-
tent” to support Kashmiris, the army
chief has said, while President Imran
Khan predicted that there would be
new suicide bombings in Indian-ad-
ministered Kashmir after Delhi re-
voked the region’s self-rule.
Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said the mil-
itary, which largely controls Pakistan’s
regional security policy, “stands by the
Kashmiris in their just struggle to the
very end”.
Residents of Indian-administered
Kashmir were yesterday still under
tightened security restrictions, with
phones and internet cut after the sud-
den decision to abolish political auton-
omy in the disputed territory with a
Muslim majority.
As Pakistan’s parliament met to dis-
cuss the move, Mr Khan predicted that
there would be more terrorist attacks
in Kashmir like the blast that killed40 paramilitary police in Pulwama in
February.
“With an approach of this nature, in-
cidents like Pulwama are bound to hap-
pen again,” Mr Khan said.
There are fears that Delhi’s move to
revoke Article 370 of the constitution
may send the region into a new spiral
of deepening militant violence.
“Jihad is now obligatory for Muslims
in Pakistan because our Kashmiri sis-
ters are waiting for our help,” said
Maulana Abdul Aziz, a former prayerleader at the notorious Red Mosque in
Islamabad.
The preacher, who led an Islamist
uprising in 2007 that was put down in a
bloody siege, released an audio mes-
sage yesterday saying that if Pakistan’s
government could not help people in
Kashmir, then it should open the bor-
der for militants to fight.
Mullah Massod Azhar, chief of the
Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group,
which India blames for the Pulwama
bombing and a string of other attacks,said Delhi’s decision marked a new
chapter for the Kashmir conflict.
Pakistan’s military has for decades
been accused of supporting jihadists
such as Jaish-e-Mohammad to push
their agenda in Kashmir. It promised
tougher action earlier in the year, but
during Mr Khan and Gen Bajwa’s suc-
cessful visit to Washington last month
American officials told them that they
still wanted to see “irreversible action”
against terrorist and militant groups.
The Kashmir crisis now means Paki-stan’s military has to decide whether to
defy America just as relations appeared
to be warming, said Farzana Shaikh, a
Pakistan expert at the Chatham House
think tank.
She said: “Pakistan has fine-tuned
the business of plausible deniability, so
there is still the possibility that these
groups, some of them will be un-
leashed. But it’s not clear what [the ar-
my’s] going to do now, given that it was
until recently basking in the glow of a
new era in US-Pakistan relations.”148
Arrests of Hong Kong demonstrators since
the weekend in protests that have marked
an escalation in violenceWorld news
XINHUA / BARCROFT MEDIALight of lives In Hiroshima, Japan, paper lanterns with messages of peace written on
them are released into the Motoyasu river to commemorate the victims of the atom bomb
dropped on the city by the US on August 6 1945.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS