US: North Korea 'Murdered' Otto Warmbier

Chairman of Armed Services Committee, John McCain, says US should not tolerate 'murder of citizen by hostile power.'

US Senator John McCain says North Korea has murdered Otto Warmbier, an American student who died days after his release from detention there.

McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, condemned the treatment of the 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who he said was "murdered by the Kim Jong-un regime".

"The United States of America cannot and should not tolerate the murder of its citizens by hostile powers," McCain said in a statement on Monday.

Warmbier was medically evacuated from Pyongyang to the US last week, after having suffered extensive brain damage that left him in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness". His parents said he died on Monday. 

His death comes amid high tension over dozens of North Korean missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests, and has spurred renewed calls for action against the isolated country.

US President Donald Trump, in a statement offering condolences to Warmbier's family, said the student's fate deepened his determination to prevent other such tragedies.

"It's [North Korea] a brutal regime, and we'll be able to handle it," he told reporters later.

Warmbier was arrested at the airport as he was leaving Pyongyang in January last year and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour at a show trial for stealing a political poster from a hotel.

The South Korean government meanwhile pledged to make every effort for the return of three other US citizens, and six South Koreans, who remain in custody in North Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae In also urged the North to swiftly return the nine detainees, and said it was "deplorable that North Korea does not respect human rights", according to a presidential spokesman.

Young Pioneer Tours, the China-based travel agency that organised Warmbier’s trip to North Korea, said on Tuesday it would no longer take US citizens to the country.

The agency said his death shows that the risk Amercian tourists face in visiting North Korea "has become too high".

The North claimed Warmbier fell into a coma soon after he was sentenced last year, saying he had contracted botulism and been given a sleeping pill.

However, medical tests carried out last week in the US offered no conclusive evidence as to the cause of his neurological injuries, and no evidence of a prior botulism infection.

Warmbier's doctors said he had suffered extensive tissue loss in all regions of his brain, but showed no signs of physical trauma.

They said Warmbier's severe brain injury was most likely - given his young age - to have been caused by cardiopulmonary arrest cutting the blood supply to the brain.

US rights group Human Rights Watch said Warmbier's death highlights the North's position as "one of the worst rights abusing governments in the world."

His death "reflects a reality that the North Korean people know all too well: the Kim family leadership... will not hesitate to brutalise and kill to maintain their hold on power," it said in a statement.

Source: News Agency

Fracas in Unilorin as Bus Hit Student. "Begin ALUTA", Another Student Screamed

STATE OF UNILORIN STUDENT HIT BY A BUS

A 200 level student of the University of Ilorin, was hit by a moving bus, yesterday.

Isiaq Mohammed Bashir, who is a student of Civil Engineering and Direct Entry student of the institution, claimed he got hit by the bus in an attempt to transport himself home last night.

In his words, "I don't know how I got here, the last thing I could remember was that students were rushing for bus at Faculty of Education, while the driver drove with full speed and hit me."

An eyewitness said the victim became unconscious immediately after the hit and was rushed to the school clinic for urgent medical attention.

UCJ Unilorin can confirm that the operation lasted for minutes and was successful.

He was admitted due to the severe injuries he suffered from the accident, as he claimed he was feeling pains all over his body.

As at 11pm yesterday, UCJ Unilorin can confirm that he is conscious and close to full recovery as he told our correspondent of his condition.

The Students' Union Health Committee was also present to give the victim their support, reported
Tomori Uriel for UCJ, Unilorin.

Earlier, the Students' Union Senate, Health Care Committee led by Senator Oguntade David Segun a.k.a Sen. Socrates, confirm the incident and released a statement on the development, thus:

"This evening, at the park,while on duty at the park, monitoring the queue, attending to health issues, and collating reports on the developments that arose from the imbroglio at the park today, we immediately moved on to the school clinic where some students were hitherto rushed down from the park.

We met with, and attended to two of them; one just got stitched on his left face some minutes earlier after he was hit by a bus, while the other was being attended to by the nurses on duty.

We can confirm that these students have been properly admitted and attended to by the Doctors, and their details have been taken.

The nurses gave word that the other two students have been attended to before our arrival.

We must relate that the state of things at the clinic is currently under control...


We have to appreciate the lots of our students who volunteered themselves to bring these students down here, and all those who partook in subjecting the situations at the park to control."

However, a lady also admitted at the school's clinic, simply known as Feranmi through her Whatsapp account could not control her emotion and thereby lamented at the state of affairs and how students are being maltreated in the better by far university.

She said "The students are in agony yet the security personnel were apprehending some innocent ones. UCJ, shut the crap and fight for innocent students at the security division"

"I wonder when ALUTA will begin in Unilorin". She added.

The school authority is yet to make any statement as at press time.