China declines meeting with US defense chief—Pentagon

WASHINGTON—Beijing has declined a US invitation for a meeting in Singapore between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu, the Pentagon said Monday.

“Overnight, the PRC informed the US that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu in Singapore this week,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“The PRC’s concerning unwillingness to engage in meaningful militaryto-military discussions will not diminish (the Defense Department’s) commitment to seeking open lines of communication with the People’s Liberation Army,” Ry- der said.

A senior US defense official described the declined invitation as “just the latest in a litany of excuses,” saying that since 2021, China has “declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests from the Department of Defense for key leader engagements, multiple requests for standing dialogues, and nearly ten workinglevel engagements.”

Li was sanctioned by the US government in 2018 for buying Russian weapons, but the Pentagon says that does not prevent Austin from conducting official business with him.

Austin is due to travel to Singapore later this week to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, a defense summit where he met Li’s predecessor Wei Fenghe last June. AFP

Malaysia searches Chinese ship suspected of looting WWII wrecks

KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia’s coastguard said Tuesday that authorities were questioning the crew of a Chinese vessel detained on suspicion of looting two British World War II shipwrecks.

Officers discovered unexploded cannon shells upon boarding the Chinese-registered vessel, which was detained for illegal anchorage over the weekend, said Nurul Hizam Zakaria, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement

Agency chief in Johor state.

“Our investigation is now directed to where these cannon shells originated from. Right now, we have officers from multi-agencies searching the big ship,” he told AFP.

Nurul Hizam said the vessel from the city of Fuzhou had a crew of 32 comprising 21 Chinese nationals, 10 Bangladeshis and one Malaysian—some of which were in police custody for questioning.

“This case also involves the discovery of explosives,” he added. A senior maritime official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the pieces of metal and cannon shells could have originated from two sunken British warships. Photos and a video shared by the coastguard showed large pieces of corroded metal and shells as well as a large crane and gas torches used to cut metal on board the ship.AFP

Colombia searches for 4 lost kids in Amazon

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Four Indigenous chil- dren lost in the Colombian Amazon since a plane crash almost a month ago are believed to still be alive, the military said as the search continued Monday in treacherous terrain.

The children—who were aged 13, 9, 4 and 11 months when they went missing— have wandered in the jungle since a light aircraft crash in Colombia’s southeast on May 1 claimed the lives of the three adults on board: their mother Magdalena Mucutui Valencia, the pilot, and an Indigenous leader.

Of the kids, there was no sign.

Satellite images have since revealed a path the kids took from the plane wreck, and rescuers have come across some of their belongings, a makeshift shelter and a half-eaten fruit.

Last week, they found a pair of shoes and a diaper.

“Based on the evidence, we concluded that the children are alive,” rescue team leader General Pedro Sanchez told W Radio on Monday.

“If they were dead, it would be easy to find them because they would be still” and the sniffer dogs would find them, he added.

1,

On