Pakistani Police Arrest 12 People over a Suicide Bombing that Killed 5 Chinese Workers

File photo: Pakistani security officials stand guard outside a church as members of the Christian minority community attend a Good Friday Mass at St. John's Cathedral Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, 29 March 2024. EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB
File photo: Pakistani security officials stand guard outside a church as members of the Christian minority community attend a Good Friday Mass at St. John's Cathedral Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, 29 March 2024. EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB
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Pakistani Police Arrest 12 People over a Suicide Bombing that Killed 5 Chinese Workers

File photo: Pakistani security officials stand guard outside a church as members of the Christian minority community attend a Good Friday Mass at St. John's Cathedral Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, 29 March 2024. EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB
File photo: Pakistani security officials stand guard outside a church as members of the Christian minority community attend a Good Friday Mass at St. John's Cathedral Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, 29 March 2024. EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB

Pakistani counterterrorism police in multiple raids arrested at least 12 suspects in connection with last week's suicide bombing that killed five Chinese workers and their Pakistani driver in the volatile northwest, officials said Monday.
Those arrested were not directly involved in the attack but they helped orchestrate Tuesday's bombing targeting the Chinese, three police and security officials said. They said some of them had links with Pakistani militants, adding that the suspects were still being questioned and other raids were ongoing.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record. The officials said some of the suspects had transported an explosive-laden car to Shangla, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where a suicide bomber rammed it into another vehicle, killing the Chinese workers.
The bodies of the five Chinese nationals were flown overnight from an air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi to Beijing, Pakistani officials and state media said.
Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong was present at the Noor Khan air base when the bodies were brought there Sunday night. Zaidong conveyed his deep condolences to the families of the victims. A Pakistani Cabinet minister, Salik Hussain, accompanied the bodies to China.
The slain Chinese were traveling to Pakistan's biggest hydropower project, Dasu Dam, where they worked, when their vehicle came under attack.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Dasu Dam on Monday and met with Chinese employees to assure them of security. Sharif said those responsible for the attack would get “exemplary punishment.” He said the attack was an attempt to harm ties between Pakistan and China.
Chinese and Pakistani investigators are conducting separate probes into the attack, which drew nationwide condemnation. China has also asked Pakistan to ensure the protection of its nationals working in various parts of Pakistan on projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Authorities say the Chinese bombing victims were heading to the project site amid tight security.
Other Chinese working on CPEC-related projects have faced similar attacks in recent years.
In July 2021, at least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in his vehicle near a bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani engineers and laborers, prompting Chinese companies to temporarily suspend work.



Mexico’s President Amused by Trump’s Order to Rename the Gulf of Mexico

 Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Mexico’s President Amused by Trump’s Order to Rename the Gulf of Mexico

 Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has an answer for US President Donald Trump about his idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”: he can call it whatever he wants on the American part of it.

Sheinbaum on Tuesday had been working through the raft of executive orders from Trump that relate to Mexico, emphasizing Mexico’s sovereignty and the need for dialogue, but when she got to the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“He says that he will call it the Gulf of America on its continental shelf,” Sheinbaum said. “For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico.”

Trump said in his inaugural address Monday that he will change the name, an idea he first brought up earlier this month during a news conference.

“A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” he said. Hours later he signed an Executive Order to do it.

Sheinbaum projected on a large screen at her daily press briefing Trump’s order called “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”

The order says that within 30 days, the US secretary of the interior will rename “the US Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

The first time Trump mentioned the idea of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, Sheinbaum responded sarcastically suggesting instead renaming North America as “América Mexicana” or “Mexican America.”

This time, she just briefly insisted: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”