The South Korean customs agency said on Wednesday it will intensify its crackdown on drug smuggling attempts from Mexico by setting up a special task force and strengthening security checks on incoming travelers.

The move came as direct flights linking the two nations resumed this week after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 and other issues, which is feared will increase cross-border attempts to smuggle drugs, according to the Korea Customs Service (KCS), Yonhap news agency reported.

The special task force will be in charge of measures to prevent drug trafficking, such as information analysis and enhanced monitoring of suspected travelers.

The KCS will employ millimeter wave machines and other advanced devices to conduct security checks on all incoming travelers from Mexico.

South Korea has tightened its border control in line with growing smuggling attempts after the pandemic and rising demand for narcotics here.

During the first half of this year, the number of drug trafficking attempts into South Korea rose 11 percent on-year to come to 362 cases, data showed. AGENCIES

Three people were confirmed dead and three others were injured in a serial traffic accident in Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, local media reported Wednesday.

The accident was reported 8:40 at night on Tuesday on the western bypass section of the Ho Chi Minh expressway passing through Cu Mgar district, Xinhua news agency reported.

Two trucks collided with each other and then consecutively crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer parking on the side road.

Six people were in the cabins of the two trucks at the time of the accident.

Three injured victims are being treated at a local hospital.

Two of them underwent surgeries and are in a stable health condition.

The case is being further investigated.

In the first seven months of this year, 14,242 traffic accidents occurred in Vietnam, killing 6,203 people and injuring 10,976 others, according to the General Statistics Office. AGENCIES

US Vice-President (V-P) Kamala Harris on Wednesday posted a video of the moment that she called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to inform him that he was her choice as her running mate.

“Listen, I want you to do this with me. Let’s do this together,” Harris said.

“Would you be my running mate and let’s get this thing on the road?”

“I would be honoured, Madam Vice-President. The joy that you are bringing back to the country, the enthusiasm that’s out there, it will be a privilege to take this across the country,” Walz said.

The video mirrors one that current US President Joe Biden posted in 2020 when he asked Harris to be his V-P pick.

“When I called @Tim_Walz this morning to ask him to join our campaign, I shared my deep level of respect for him and the work we’ve done together. We’re going to unify this country and we’re going to win. Let’s go get this done…,” Kamala Harris wrote on social media platform X.

The Harris campaign announced that it had raised $10 million since the announcement of Walz as the running mate.

Walz, meanwhile, posted an introductory video.

“Growing up, I learned to be generous toward my neighbours, compromise without compromising my values, and to work for the common good. @KamalaHarris and I both believe in that common good – in that fundamental promise of America. We’re ready to fight for it. And like she says: when we fight, we win,” Walz wrote on X.

Harris and Walz will appear together on Wednesday evening at a rally in Philadelphia, the kickoff of a tour through swing states. AGENCIES

Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz had co-sponsored when he was in Congress, a resolution praising the US government’s decision to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visa when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

But after PM Modi’s election as Prime Minister of India, Walz had a change of heart.

After attending PM Modi’s 2016 address to the joint session of Congress, Walz tweeted, “Joint session with Indian PM @narendramodi. World’s largest & oldest democracies together. Opportunity to strengthen work on common goals.”

Prime Minister Modi tweeted back, “Absolutely Representative Walz. Strong India-USA ties benefit the world immensely.”

The resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives in November 2013, but before the end of its term in 2014, PM Modi was elected Prime Minister and the administration of US President Barack Obama was scrambling to make peace with him.

It was not taken up by the House and quietly died in the Judicial and Foreign Affairs Committees and the Immigration Subcommittee it had been referred to.

Prime Minister Modi became a feted guest of Obama who had invited him for a visit to Washington in September 2014, making the visa issue moot.

Before being elected the Governor of Minnesota in 2019, Walz served six terms in the House, starting in 2007.

Pennsylvania Republican Joseph Pitts introduced the resolution and Walz was among the 51 co-sponsors.

The resolution, HR 417 of the 113th session of Congress, went under the long innocuous-sounding title of “Praising India’s rich religious diversity and commitment to tolerance and equality, and reaffirming the need to protect the rights and freedoms of religious minorities”.

The resolution said it “commends the US government for exercising its authority in 2005 under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to deny a US visa to PM Narendra Modi on the grounds of religious freedom violations”.

Quoting reporting by the magazine Tehelka, the resolution said that in the 2002 Gujarat riots, “many of the people who participated in the violence said it was possible only because of the connivance of the state police and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi”.

It said that in Godhra, “58 Hindus were burnt alive in a train coach fire, and communal violence erupted in several Gujarati cities”.

It did not say who was responsible for the fire.

The resolution said that “contrary to the tolerant and pluralistic traditions of the Hindu faith, strands of the Hindu nationalist movement have advanced a divisive and violent agenda that has harmed the social fabric of India”.

Walz’s co-sponsored resolution said it sought to recognise “the suffering of all Indian citizens who have been victims of religious violence, including the victims of all faiths from the 1992 Babri Mosque riots, the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 2008 Odisha riots, and violence that is ongoing today”.

It was meant to be a symbolic reprimand of what it called “the Hindu nationalist movement” and did not include any sanctions or call for any action by the US government.

Narendra Modi was denied a diplomatic visa when Republican George W Bush was the President and Condoleeza Rice the Secretary of State.

His tourist/business was revoked and the US State Department refused an External Affairs Ministry request to review the decision, according to David Mulford, who was the US Ambassador in New Delhi.

In a statement at that time, Mulford denied that the action was directed at the BJP or Gujarati community.

“The United States is deeply appreciative of the role that the BJP, and the (Prime Minister Atal Behari) Vajpayee government in particular, played in opening the way for the positive transformation in US-India relations,” he said and added that the US had “great respect” for the many successful Gujaratis in the US. AGENCIES

Death toll has risen to 101 in the unprecedented violence that erupted in different parts of Bangladesh during the anti-discrimination student movement.

What had started as the demand for quota reform eventually turned into a movement to change the government.

The severe clashes broke out when protesters attending a non-cooperation programme to demand the government’s resignation faced opposition from government supporters. Protesters have dismissed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s invitation for dialogue to quell the violence.

The agitators announced to organise a ‘March to Dhaka’ programme on Sunday. However, there is concern and apprehension among the public about ‘March to Dhaka’ programme amid the curfew.

The government has imposed an indefinite curfew across Bangladesh amid the raging clashes. Mobile internet has also been tightly restricted nationwide.

In light of the situation, to ensure public safety amid the violent protests, a three-day general holiday has been declared on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Recently, over 200 people were killed in violent clashes between the police and predominantly student protesters demanding scrapping of the controversial quota system that reserves 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971.

India’s advisory for its nationals in Bangladesh to exercise “extreme caution” and restrict their movements.

“All Indian nationals including students living in the jurisdiction of the Assistant High Commission of India, Sylhet are requested to be in touch with this office and are advised to remain alert. In case of emergencies, please contact +88-01313076402,” the Assistant High Commission said in a post on X. AGENCIES

At least 25 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on the schools of al-Nasr and Hassan Salama in Gaza City, Palestinian security and medical sources said.

Israeli warplanes bombed with several missiles at the two schools, security sources said on Sunday as reported by Xinhua news agency.

Medical sources told Xinhua news agency that at least 25 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded as a result of Israeli air raids.

Most of the victims are women and children, the Civil Defence Authority in Gaza said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Israeli Army Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement that Israeli warplanes attacked militants operating inside Hamas command and control complexes that were hidden inside the Hassan Salama and al-Nasr schools in Gaza City.

Since October 7, 2023, Hamas and the Israeli army have been involved in a large-scale war, right after Hamas carried out its unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the besieged coastal enclave.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 39,583, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday. AGENCIES

Around five launches were detected crossing from the southern Gaza Strip toward Israel, the Israeli army said. 

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has claimed responsibility for the attack, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

A projectile landed in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council area in southern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, noting that no injuries were reported.

Kan reported that the rockets were launched from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, which has recently been the focus of a prolonged military operation by the Israeli army in response to rocket fire.

Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack in a brief statement.

“We fired a barrage of rockets towards Gan Yavne and Ashdod in response to the massacres committed against the Palestinian people and resistance leaders,” the Brigades said.

Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday that during the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 33 Palestinians and wounded 118 others, bringing the total death toll to 39,583 and injuries to 91,398 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict escalated in October 2023. AGENCIES

Three members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a motorcycle in the village of Bayt Lif in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military and medical sources said.

According to a statement issued on Sunday by the Lebanese Health Ministry, the airstrike seriously injured two people and left a third with minor injuries, Xinhua news agency reported.

All three were transferred by a civil defence vehicle to Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital in the border area.

On Sunday afternoon, Israeli drones and warplanes conducted 15 airstrikes across 10 villages and towns in the border area of southern Lebanon, and three towns and villages in the Jezzine area.

Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelled 13 towns and villages in the border area with about 50 shells, causing damage to buildings and igniting several fires, according to Lebanese military sources.

Hezbollah’s military wing, the Islamic Resistance, claimed on Sunday to have attacked Israeli sites, including Al-Manara, Birkat Risha, and Ramyah.

Tensions are high in Lebanon following Israel’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which resulted in the death of a senior Hezbollah military commander, Fouad Shokor, and seven civilians.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has threatened a definite and painful response to the Israeli raid at the appropriate time and place.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7. In response, Israel fired heavy artillery into southeastern Lebanon. AGENCIES

Two persons died and another went missing in a migrant boat accident which took place two days ago, off the eastern coast of southern Italy’s Sicily, according to the country’s Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard said on Sunday that it received a distress call from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying migrants, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Coast Guard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached, it said in a statement.

Although 34 people were recovered from the water, one died upon arrival and another after reaching the hospital.

The search at sea for the missing person who was on board the vessel, which later sank, is currently underway, according to local media reports. AGENCIES