Venezuelan opposition leader Gonzalez hospitalized but stable
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez speaks during a meeting with supporters, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin/File Photo
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The Sun
38 minutes ago
- The Sun
‘I am a political prisoner' says detained Salvadoran activist
SAN SALVADOR: A prominent lawyer and human rights activist said Wednesday she was a 'political prisoner' of El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele's government as she appeared in court accused of corruption. Ruth Lopez is a critic of gang-busting Bukele, and assists families of Venezuelan migrants deported by the United States and imprisoned in the Central American nation. 'I am innocent. I am a political prisoner,' the 47-year-old shouted as she was escorted by more than a dozen police after a closed-door court hearing in the capital San Salvador. 'They want to accuse me because of my accusations against the corruption of this government. There is no public institution that guarantees rights,' she added. Her lawyer Pedro Cruz told AFP the court had ordered her continued detention without saying for how much longer. Lopez, head of an anti-corruption unit of human rights NGO Cristosal, was arrested on May 18 and accused of embezzling state funds when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago. Her case was declared confidential by judicial authorities. Cruz called the accusation 'unfounded.' 'They are afraid of what the accused has been working on and saying in her professional work,' he told reporters before Wednesday's hearing to determine whether Lopez would remain in detention. 'Under these conditions, anyone's health would suffer, but she has strength, is certain of her innocence and hopes that justice will be served,' Cruz added. When she arrived for her hearing in the morning, Lopez called for a 'public trial' to prove she is 'innocent.' 'They won't silence me,' she told a gaggle of gathered reporters. 'The people deserve to know,' she added, carrying a bible. 'God and the truth are with me.' A few dozen supporters gathered outside the court. 'Dictator' Bukele A coalition of rights groups including Amnesty International said Lopez's arrest reflected a trend of growing authoritarianism under Bukele, an ally of US President Donald Trump. Lopez has criticized Bukele's anti-crime policy, which has seen thousands of alleged gangsters arrested and jailed in harsh conditions. Bukele, who is popular among Salvadorans due to his crackdown on street gangs, has brushed off criticism about his human rights record. 'I don't care if they call me a dictator. I'd rather be called a dictator than see Salvadorans killed in the streets,' he said in a speech Sunday. Lopez was included in a list of 100 inspiring and influential women around the world last year by the BBC, which praised her for being 'passionate about law and justice.' Her NGO Cristosal helps families of Salvadorans caught up in Bukele's crackdown on gangs, as well as more than 250 Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration, which paid El Salvador to imprison them. Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to fly the Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March without any court hearings, alleging they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, a charge that their families and lawyers deny.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Russia says it will repair warplanes damaged by Ukraine's drones
MOSCOW: Russian warplanes were damaged but not destroyed in a June 1 attack by Ukraine, and they will be restored, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. Ukrainian strikes targeted airfields in Siberia and the far north where Russia houses heavy bombers that form part of its strategic nuclear forces. The United States assesses that up to 20 warplanes were hit and around 10 were destroyed, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But Ryabkov, who oversees arms control diplomacy, told state news agency TASS: 'The equipment in question, as was also stated by representatives of the Ministry of Defence, was not destroyed but damaged. It will be restored.' It was not immediately clear how swiftly Russia could repair or replace the damaged aircraft - if at all - given the complexity of the technology, the age of some of the Soviet-era planes, and Western sanctions that restrict Russian imports of sensitive components. Commercial satellite imagery taken after the Ukrainian drone attack shows what experts told Reuters appear to be damaged Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and Tu-22 Backfire long-range bombers that Russia has used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to the attacks, Trump said. Russia has an estimated fleet of 67 strategic bombers, including 52 Tu-95s, known as Bear-H by NATO, and 15 Tu-160s, known as Blackjacks, of which about 58 are thought to be deployed, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In addition, it has 289 non-strategic fighters and bombers, including Tu-22s, Su-24s, Su-34s and MiG-31s, according to the Bulletin. Russia has given no detail about which aircraft were damaged but said that Ukraine targeted five airbases.
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
China offers bounty on hackers linked to Taiwan
BEIJING: Authorities in southern China have offered an undisclosed bounty for more than 20 people they say are linked to Taiwan and suspected of cyber attacks in China, the official news agency Xinhua said on Thursday, accusations Taipei strongly rejected. The public security bureau in the Chinese city of Guangzhou said the hackers were connected to the Taiwan government and published their pictures, names and Taiwan identity card numbers. Chinese authorities accused Taiwan of organising, planning and premeditating attacks on key sectors such as military, aerospace, government departments, energy and transportation, maritime affairs, science and technology research firms in China as well as in special administration regions Hong Kong and Macau, Xinhua said. Xinhua, citing a cybersecurity report, said the Taiwan "information, communication and digital army" had cooperated with US anti-Chinese forces to conduct public opinion and cognitive warfare against China, secretly instigate revolution and attempt to disrupt public order in China. Taiwan's defence ministry said in a statement it was not carrying out any "corporate cyber attacks", and that China's offers of a bounty highlighted "the rude and unreasonable attitude of the Chinese communists in intimidating and coercing the Taiwanese people." "Recent statements by the European Union, the United States and the Czech Republic condemning the Chinese communists' hacking organisations for carrying out cyber-attacks prove that the Chinese communists are not only a regional troublemaker, but a common threat to the global internet," it added. A senior Taiwan security official told Reuters that the Chinese allegations were invented, saying Beijing was trying to shift the focus from Czech and European scrutiny over alleged Chinese hacking activities there. "They fabricated a false narrative to shift the focus. It's a very typical behaviour by the Chinese Communist Party," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter. China also said Taiwan had longstanding cooperation with the US National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies as part of the United States' "Asia-Pacific Strategy", calling it Taiwan's attempt to gain independence through relying on the United States. "The US intelligence department has long provided personnel training and technical equipment support for Taiwan's 'information, communication and digital army', and many police stations have sent 'hunting' teams to Taiwan, to launch a cyber attacks on China," according to a social media post by an account linked to Chinese state television. Last week authorities in Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province, attributed a cyber attack on an unnamed technology company to the Taiwan government, saying Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party supported the "overseas hacker organisation" responsible. In response, Taiwan said Beijing was peddling false information, and that it was China that was carrying out hacking against the island. China views Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan's democratically elected government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. Chinese courts and legal bodies have no jurisdiction in Taiwan, whose government has repeatedly complained about Beijing's "long armed jurisdiction" efforts.
