MOSCOW: Ukrainian police have detained the former president of Georgia who has emerged as an anti-corruption campaigner in his new country.
Police went to detain Mikheil Saakashvili Tuesday morning. He went up on the roof of his home in Kiev to protest, attracting a crowd of supporters downstairs. Footage from the scene showed Saakashvili being taken away while several hundred protesters were blocking the road.
Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 after serving as president for nearly a decade, and later was appointed governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region. But he quit in 2016, complaining that his efforts to root out corruption suffered official obstruction.
His Ukrainian citizenship was revoked this year while he was out of the country, but he returned in September after supporters broke through a police line at the Polish border.
Ukraine detains Georgia’s former president
Ukraine detains Georgia’s former president
North Korea’s Kim: party congress to unveil plans for nuclear-war deterrent, KCNA says
- North Korea has defied a United Nations ban against it on ballistic missile development
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the upcoming congress of the ruling Workers’ Party will unveil next-stage plans for further strengthening the country’s nuclear war deterrent, KCNA state news agency reported on Wednesday.
Kim directed a successful test of a large-caliber multiple-rocket launch system on Tuesday, KCNA said. The drill demonstrated significant upgrades to the weapon’s strike power, mobility and accuracy, it quoted him as saying.
It is an important policy of the ruling Workers’ Party to build a reliable offensive capability and deterrence strategy to thwart an enemy attempt to spark an armed conflict, he said.
“This test will be a source of excruciating mental agony and serious threat to the forces that attempt to provoke a military confrontation with us,” Kim said.
South Korea and Japan on Tuesday condemned the launch of possible short-range ballistic missiles by the North toward the sea off its east coast. North Korea has defied a United Nations ban against it on ballistic missile development.
Kim did not elaborate on his comment about the upcoming congress of the ruling party, which is expected to take place some time in the next several weeks. The country has not announced the dates.
