Foreign News
Chinese chess: Xiangqi champion suspended for bad behaviour
The winner of a Xiangqi, or Chinese chess, tournament has been stripped of his title after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
Yan Chenglong has also been accused of cheating by using a communication device analogous to anal beads.
The 48-year-old has been stripped of his title and banned from playing for a year.
However, the Chinese Xiangqi Association (CXA) says it’s impossible to prove accusations of cheating.
Xiangqi has been hugely popular across Asia for hundreds of years. According to the CXA, Yan started drinking with friends in his hotel room shortly after winning the title of “Xiangqi King” at a national tournament held on the Chinese island of Hainan last week.
He then defecated in the bathtub of his room in an act “that damaged hotel property and violated public order and good morals”, said the CXA statement. The CXA was forced to address rumours circulating online that Yan had cheated using anal beads equipped with wireless transmitters to send and receive signals.
“Based on our understanding of the situation, it is currently impossible to prove that Yan engaged in cheating via ‘anal beads’ as speculated on social media,” the CXA said.
As punishment for bad behaviour, Yan was stripped of his title and banned from playing for a year.
The association did not disclose the amount of prize money Yan was forfeiting, but Xiangqi tournaments often promise winners tens of thousands of yuan (thousands of dollars), according to AFP.
(BBC)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to head the country’s domestic security services, despite the courts having blocked his bid to fire the previous head of Shin Bet.
Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon. However, a halt to the sacking of Ronen Bar as head of Shin Bet, ordered by the Supreme Court, remains in place.
[Aljazeera]
The Trump administration has deported 17 more alleged gang members to El Salvador, the US state department has said, despite legal battles over removing people to the Central American country’s supermax prison.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the group included members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.
Salvadoran government officials told the BBC they included a mix of Venezuelans and Salvadorans.
Earlier this month a court ordered a halt to deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law previously used only in wartime. However, US media, citing administration sources, reported that the recent deportations were made under general immigration laws.
In a statement, Rubio said the group included “murderers and rapists”, but did not provide names or details of the alleged crimes or of any convictions.
In a post on X, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a dramatically edited video showing shackled men being loaded off a plane and their heads being shaved before they were put into prison cells.
“All individuals are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists,” he wrote. “This operation is another step in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.”
President Trump reposted the message, blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing the deportees into the US and thanked Bukele for “giving them such a wonderful place to live”.
El Salvador has agreed to take in deportees in exchange for $6m (£4.6m).
Family members of some of those who were previously sent to the maximum security prison have denied they have any gang ties.
After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 100 Venezuelans from the US earlier this month, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge alleging the administration had illegally denied the immigrants due process.
In a hearing on 15 March, James Boasberg, the top federal judge in Washington DC, imposed a temporary restraining order on the use of the law and ordered deportation flights that were in the air to be turned around.
But the deportations proceeded. The next hearing in the case will be held on Thursday.
[BBC]
Foreign News
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen barred from running for public office for five years
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for public office for five years, meaning she would not be able to run in the 2027 French presidential election
She was found guilty of embezeeling European funds to finance her French far-right National Rally (RN) party.
[BBC]
Cabinet appoints ministerial committee to submit report on sanctions imposed on 04 Sri Lankans by the United Kingdom
Revised Aswasuma Welfare Benefit Payment Scheme to be submitted for the concurrence of the Parliament.
Mrs. K. S. Dilhani appointed to the post of Director at the Department of Cultural Affairs
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