Briefly

UNITED NATIONS

Weapons smuggled to Haiti from US: UN

Increasingly sophisticated weapons are being trafficked into Haiti mainly from the United States, and especially from Florida, amid worsening lawlessness in the impoverished Caribbean country, according to a UN report released on Friday. The report by the Vienna-based Office on Drugs and Crime said a network of criminal actors including members of the Haitian diaspora "often source firearms from across the US" and smuggle them into Haiti by land from the neighboring Dominican Republic, by air including to clandestine airstrips, and most frequently by sea.

THE PHILIPPINES

Three arrested over governor's killing

Three people have been arrested over the killing of a Philippine provincial governor, with another suspect killed in a shoot-out, authorities said on Sunday. Seventeen people were wounded in the attack on Saturday in the country's sugarcane-growing heartland. At least six assailants armed with rifles and wearing military-style uniforms opened fire in the governor's home in Pamplona municipality in the central province of Negros Oriental. Governor Roel Degamo is the latest victim in a rash of assaults on Philippine politicians.

AUSTRALIA

National park cull to protect biodiversity

An iconic Australian national park is culling thousands of wild pigs and buffalo to protect biodiversity. More than 10,000 pigs have been killed in the Northern Territory's Kakadu National Park since mid-2022 due to a population boom, with many more expected to be destroyed this year. According to the federal government, wild pig numbers have doubled to about 70,000 since culls were halted in the World Heritage-listed park in 2019, buffalo numbers have grown to 7,500, and wild horse numbers to 15,000. The feral population boom poses a threat to the park, one of Australia's top tourist attractions, by causing widespread destruction of native fauna and damaging aboriginal rock art dating back millennia.

Agencies - Xinhua