WORLD BRIEFS

Manhunt in Germany for man who disarmed 4 police officers

In scenes reminiscent of the film "Rambo", police in Germany's Black Forest on Monday hunted for a homeless man wearing combat gear and armed with a bow and arrow among other weapons.

The man made the officers hand over their weapons before running away, "presumably" taking their firearms with him.

About 100 officers combed the forest with the help of special forces, helicopters and sniffer dogs as the search entered its second day on Monday.

Police in Oppenau, in south-western Germany, warned local residents to stay at home and not pick up any hitchhikers.

They released a photo of the 31-year-old suspect, who has a bow and arrow, a knife and at least one gun and is known to the police for previous offences, including illegal possession of firearms.

Four officers sent to the scene said the suspect cooperated at first when approached.

But then he "suddenly and completely unexpectedly" threatened them with a firearm, leaving them "no time to react to the dangerous situation," police said.

Police described the man as about 170 centimetres (5.6 feet) tall, slim, with glasses, a goatee beard and a bald head.

China bans Cruz, Rubio, Smith, Brownback over criticism

China on Monday said it will ban entry to U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Representative Chris Smith and Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback over their criticism of the ruling Communist Party’s policies toward minority groups and people of faith.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said actions by the U.S. had “seriously damaged China-U.S. relations” and that China was determined to uphold its national sovereignty against what it sees as interference in its internal affairs.

“China will respond further according to the development of the situation,” Hua said.

There was no indication that any of the four had plans to travel to China.

The travel bans appear to be direct retaliation for the U.S. imposition of sanctions on four Chinese officials, including Chen Quanguo, who heads the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where more than 1 million members of Muslim minority groups have been incarcerated in what China terms de-radicalization and retraining centers.

Critics have likened the camps to prisons to which inmates are sentenced with little due process and where they are compelled to denounce their religion, language and culture and pledge allegiance to the Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping. An Associated Press investigation has also discovered allegations that women in Xinjiang’s predominantly native Uighur ethnic group were forced to use birth control or undergo involuntary sterilizations.

Several soldiers killed in Armenia-Azerbaijan border clashes -ministries

Several Azeri and Armenian soldiers have been killed and wounded in border clashes, defence ministries of both countries said on Monday, with each accusing the other of encroaching on their territory.

The two former Soviet republics have long been in conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh, although the latest clashes occurred some 300 km (190 miles) from the mountainous enclave.

The Azeri defence ministry said four of its soldiers were killed and five wounded while Armenia's ministry said that two of its soldiers were wounded. The two sides traded accusations of ceasefire violations and firing artillery.

Exchanges of fire began on Sunday and continued into Monday in the rugged South Caucasus region.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a highland enclave within Azerbaijan, is run by ethnic Armenians who declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991.

Though a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia continue to accuse each other of shooting attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the separate Azeri-Armenian frontier.

The frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has concerned the international community in part because of its threat to stability in a region that serves as a corridor for pipelines taking oil and gas to world markets.

Zindzi Mandela, daughter of Nelson and Winnie, dies at 59

Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died aged 59.

State television South African Broadcasting Corporation has reported that Mandela died at a Johannesburg hospital early Monday morning. The cause of her death has not been announced.

She had been South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark since 2015.

The Mandelas’ daughter came to international prominence in 1985, when the white minority government offered to release Nelson Mandela from prison if he denounced violence perpetrated by his movement, the Africa National Congress, against apartheid, the brutal system of racial discrimination enforced in South Africa at that time.

Zindzi Mandela read his letter rejecting the offer at a packed public meeting that was broadcast around the world.

Last year Mandela stirred controversy by calling for the return of the white-owned land to South Africa’s dispossessed Black majority.

“Dear Apartheid Apologists, your time is over. You will not rule again. We do not fear you. Finally #TheLandIsOurs,” she tweeted in June last year.

South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor has expressed shock at Mandela’s death, describing her as a heroine.

“Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle heroes, Tata Nelson and Mama Winnie Mandela, but as a struggle heroine in her own right. She served South Africa well,” said Pandor.

She is survived by her husband and four children.

BONUS IF NEEDED

International appeal for calm in Mali after protest deaths

The UN, European Union, African Union and West African bloc ECOWAS have appealed for restraint in Mali after a deepening political crisis spiralled into bloodshed.

In a statement issued overnight Sunday, representatives of the four groups in the Malian capital Bamako said they were very concerned, and hit out at "any form of violence as a means of crisis resolution."

They attacked the use of lethal force by the security forces and urged dialogue, but warned that the arrest of protest leaders was an obstacle to this.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 75, is facing a mounting wave of protests sparked by the outcome of a long-delayed parliamentary poll, but whose underlying causes include discontent over his handling of Mali's jihadist insurgency.

Eleven people have died and 124 have been injured since Friday, according to a senior official at an emergency department of a major hospital in Bamako.

The demonstrations are being driven by a disparate group of religious leaders, political and civil society members.

They have called for "civil disobedience", including non-payment of fines and blocking entry to state buildings.

Mali's European allies and neighbours are deeply concerned at the escalating crisis, given the country's poverty, ethnic mix and strategic location at the heart of the Sahel.

The four-party statement voiced support for proposals put forward by ECOWAS, the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States of which Mali is a member.

The proposals call for a "consensus government of national union" and for fresh elections in constituencies whose provisional results, in the March-April elections, had been annulled by the Constitutional Court, enabling several members of Keita's party to be elected.