China, Russia set joint naval exercises
BEIJING -- China said Thursday that it will hold joint naval drills with Russia next week, in another sign that the countries' militaries are growing closer in the face of shared opposition to U.S. military dominance.
The drills will be held off the northern port city of Qingdao, Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said. Taking place from Monday to Saturday, they will feature ships and submarines along with fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and marine units.
"The exercise does not target any third parties," Ren said.
Bonded by a common rivalry with the U.S., Moscow and Beijing have forged what they describe as a "strategic partnership," expressing their shared opposition to the "unipolar" world -- a term they use to describe perceived U.S. global dominance.
25 Venezuelans missing in boat sinking
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Rescuers searched Thursday for 25 Venezuelans after a boat sank in the Caribbean Sea on the way to the island of Trinidad, authorities said.
The small craft left Venezuela a day earlier and overturned a short distance from land, Lt. Kerron Valere of the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard said in a statement. The missing boat overturned in strong waves near the island of Patos, roughly 5 miles off the Venezuelan coast. Seven security force vessels were searching the waters, an official from the civil protection agency said.
Nine people have been saved. Officials were struggling to determine how many were missing after they discovered that several people onboard had not been listed as approved crew members or passengers.
In recent years, an estimated 3.7 million Venezuelans have fled the crisis-wracked country where a political struggle is now playing out between U.S.-backed opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido and socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
In January 2018, authorities called off a search for more than two dozen migrants who boarded a boat leaving Venezuela that crashed onto rocks on the nearby Dutch island of Curacao. Officials said two people survived that crash.
9 Afghan police slain; bomber blows up
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban ambushed a security convoy in western Afghanistan, killing nine policemen, and in Kabul, a would-be attacker died when a bomb he was trying to plant at a private university detonated prematurely, officials said Thursday.
According to a councilman in western Farah province, Abdul Samad Salehi, the ambush took place in Anardara district as the convoy was heading Wednesday afternoon to defuse a roadside bomb. Shortly after the attack, other Taliban insurgents targeted and briefly overran the district police headquarters, setting off hourslong clashes, Salehi said. Reinforcements arrived later and wrested back control of the headquarters.
On Thursday in Kabul, a bomb meant to target the private Jahan University blew up apparently prematurely inside a campus bathroom, killing the bomber and wounding three students. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion but the Taliban and Islamic State militants -- who both oppose women's rights to education -- have targeted schools and places of education in the past.
Russia's Ukraine citizenship act riles EU
BRUSSELS -- The European Union hit out Thursday against Russia's move to fast-track citizenship applications from people living in conflict areas in eastern Ukraine, slamming it as an attack on Ukraine's sovereignty that would undermine an already-fragile peace agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday to process in under three months the applications from some Ukrainians living in areas held by Russia-backed separatists. Those granted Russian citizenship would have to swear allegiance to Russia.
In a joint statement, France and Germany -- European guarantors of the 2015 Minsk peace accord -- said the decree "goes against the spirit and aims of the Minsk agreement."
More than 13,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
European Commission spokesman Maja Kocijancic said "we expect Russia to refrain from actions that are against the Minsk agreements and impede the full reintegration of the nongovernment controlled areas into Ukraine."
The EU imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 after it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and has continued to prolong the punitive measures over what it maintains is Moscow's foot-dragging in respecting the Minsk peace agreement. The new decree was signed just days after the presidential election in Ukraine, and Kocijancic said this "shows Russia's intention to further destabilize Ukraine and to exacerbate the conflict."
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a TV star with no political experience who won a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential runoff vote polls Sunday, said Russia's move confirms its role as an "aggressor state" in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Putin defended his decision Thursday, saying it would help people stranded in areas where Ukrainian government services are not available.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 04/26/2019