News in brief-(2023-02-11)

Macron mulls stripping Putin of France’s top honor

BRUSSELS, Feb 10: French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he might strip his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of France’s top honor, but is waiting for the “right moment” to do so. Putin received the Grand-Croix de la Legion d’Honneur, the top rank in France’s honors system, bestowed by then-President Jacques Chirac in 2006 at a time when Moscow enjoyed better relations with Paris and the West. But since Putin ordered last year’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, ties have all but broken down and the European Union has imposed a range of tough economic sanctions. On Wednesday, Macron awarded Putin’s enemy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the top honor, but he has yet to formally remove it from Putin. — Arab News

Suspect arrested after attack on Minnesota congresswoman

WASHINGTON, Feb 10: A homeless man was arrested on Thursday after an attack on US Representative Angie Craig, who was left bruised after fighting off her assailant in an elevator of her apartment building, police said. The suspect, identified by District of Columbia Metropolitan Police as 26-year-old Kendrick Hamlin, was charged with simple assault. Craig's chief of staff, Nick Coe, said that Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota was bruised but "physically OK" following the attack, which did not appear to be politically motivated. "At approximately 7:10 a.m. the suspect approached the victim, inside of an elevator, at the listed location," police said in a written statement, referring to Craig's apartment complex. — Reuters

Mystery Yemen drone strike renews questions over US campaign

SANAA (Yemen), Feb 10: Onlookers gathered around a small, four-door car coated in dried mud, peering through its shattered windows and torn-away roof at three dead men inside. Tribal leaders identified the three — killed in late January near Yemen's central city of Marib — as suspected members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, long considered one of the extremist group’s most dangerous branches. They appear to have been killed in a rare drone strike by the U.S., using a weapon that's been deployed sparingly in the past, typically against high-value targets. The strike renews questions over the US drone campaign in Yemen, now two decades old and just as secretive as ever despite promises from the Biden administration to put more rules in place to govern them. That secrecy, coupled with a years-long war ripping at Yemen, makes it even more difficult to determine and assess the reasons behind suspected American strikes. The suspected al-Qaida members appear to have been killed by a Hellfire R9X, otherwise known as the “flying Ginsu” or “knife bomb," based on images of the wreckage analyzed by The Associated Press and weapons experts. — AP