Man seen with missing Pittsburgh student trying to obtain new passport, lawyers say
ABC News
(PITTSBURGH) — Joshua Riibe, the 22-year-old Minnesota college student who was with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki the night she went missing on a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic, is trying to get a new passport to return back to the United States, according to his lawyers.
Riibe’s legal team confirmed to ABC News they are trying to get a new U.S. passport for Riibe from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic.
“The U.S. Embassy is in communication with Mr. Riibe, his family, and his lawyer and is providing all appropriate consular assistance,” the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic told ABC News.
A Dominican judge ruled during a habeus corpus hearing Tuesday that Riibe is free to move without police surveillance around the Dominican Republic, because he is only a witness of an accident, not a suspect. But the judge did not give Riibe his passport back, because he said it was not in his jurisdiction to hand over the passport. The judge did not specify whose jurisdiction it is to give the passport back.
If the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic issues Riibe a new passport, he will be able to use it to leave the country.
Riibe said in court on Tuesday that he is “ready to go home and go back to my life.”
Authorities have said they believe Konancki died by drowning in Punta Cana early on March 6, officials told ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(DOHA) — Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement to end over 15 months of fighting — with a brief pause in November 2023 — and release some of the hostages still in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
However, despite an agreement between negotiators on both sides, the deal still needs to go through a four-step ratification process in the Israeli government before it can go into effect.
Step 1
The agreement has to be officially voted on favorably by the security cabinet, then approved by the full cabinet. The vote is expected to be 28-6 in favor of the deal, with some hard-liners holding out.
Once that vote happens, the agreement would be ratified.
Step 2
Once ratified, the names of the 33 Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza are expected to be announced.
Step 3
From the time the cabinet ratifies the agreement, there will be a 48-hour window allowing for appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court against the agreement.
Any appeal is expected to be rejected by the court.
Step 4
Once the 48-hour legal window closes, the implementation of the agreement begins.
The first release of an Israeli hostage can be expected from that time on.
(SEOUL) — Thousands of South Korean citizens were gathering on Sunday near impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence a day before an arrest warrant for him expires.
Protesters from both sides — one calling the warrant invalid or illegal and the other shouting for arrest — have occupied the wide four-lane road in a normally quiet neighborhood, blocking all traffic, in freezing temperatures and snow.
The effort to detain Yoon came after a South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31 over his short-lived imposition of martial law, ABC News confirmed. Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.
The warrant is valid until Jan. 6, Yonhap reported, meaning investigators hoping to serve it would have to attempt to detain the president again by Monday.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
Animosity has been sky-high between the two sides, after over 100 investigators from the CIO anti-corruption agency and the police retreated from the residence after a tense standoff with the presidential security service.
Yoon’s die-hard supporters have been camping on the street vowing to protect him from “pro-North Korean forces about to steal away the presidency.” Anti-Yoon protesters who are backing of the opposition party claim that Yoon must be jailed for insurrection.
Arrest warrant questioned
Many law experts question the validity of the warrant, which specified that certain key provisions of South Korea’s Criminal Procedure Act should be excluded, which meant the police could search the military and government-classified presidential residence.
This court order is widely seen as a first-ever and as being highly irregular, along with being criticized by some as being outside the limits of the judiciary’s authority, violating the principles of separation of powers.
Typical search warrants include clear parameters of space, time and items to retrieve but excluding the application of legal provisions entirely is unprecedented, experts say.
Yoon’s declaration of martial law had sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. Without Yoon resigning, the opposition party worked to enact impeachment proceedings against the president.
Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.
Presidential security service facing charges
While politicians and lawyers argue heatedly over the validity of the warrant in higher courts, the Presidential Security Service has found itself in the limelight.
The CIO has been leading a joint investigation with police and prosecutors, but say detaining Mr. Yoon would be “virtually impossible” as long as he is protected by the security team.
CIO and the opposition party are seeking charges against the head of the president’s security team for obstruction of justice after the police were blocked from entering the residence on Friday.
The security team formed a barricade comprising about 10 buses and vehicles, at one point forming a human chain of about 200 officers to block access, according to CIO.
The opposition has criticized the president’s security team as being over-excessive and summoned the chiefs and deputy chiefs. The Presidential Security Service defied the order, citing that this is not the time to leave their positions.
“Some media and political circles are saying that the Presidential Security Service is a private soldier (to President Yoon),” Park Chong-Jun, Head of Presidential Security Service, said in a video press release. “I can’t help but feel terrible and sad as the presidential security officer”.
He added that fake news reports of him ordering to fire with live ammunition are “absurd claims,” there was no violence on Saturday, and that they should not be forced to be associated with political ideology.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff landed in Moscow on Thursday morning for discussions on a proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine — a step leaders in Kyiv and Washington, D.C., hope will facilitate a larger peace deal to end Russia’s 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor.
Witkoff’s trip is “part of our continued efforts to press Russia to agree to a ceasefire and stop its brutal war against Ukraine,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Wednesday briefing.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that American negotiators were traveling to Moscow on Thursday. “Contacts are planned,” Peskov told a press briefing, adding of the potential outcomes, “We will not prejudge, we will tell you later.” Peskov did not say whether Witkoff would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials agreed to a total 30-day ceasefire during talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this week. The ball is now “truly in their court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of Russia following the talks in Jeddah.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram of the ceasefire plan, “Ukraine accepts this proposal, we consider it positive, we are ready to take this step. The United States of America needs to convince Russia to do so.”
“We agree, and if the Russians agree, the silence will take effect at that very moment,” he added. “An important element in today’s discussions is America’s readiness to restore defense assistance to Ukraine and intelligence support.”
“Ukraine is ready for peace,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Russia must also show whether it is ready to end the war — or continue it. The time has come for the whole truth. I thank everyone who helps Ukraine.”
Speaking in Kyiv on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he is “very serious” about a ceasefire. “For me it is important to end the war,” he added.
“I want the president of the United States to see it, I want Americans to see and feel it,” Zelenskyy said. “I want Europe and all to be in alliance in order to do everything to force Russia to end this war.”
The Kremlin has so far been non-committal on the U.S.-Ukrainian proposal. Officials were “scrutinizing” the publicly released statements, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Russia, he added, “doesn’t want to get ahead of itself” on the potential ceasefire.
Putin foreign policy aide Yuriy Ushakov — who took part in last month’s meeting with U.S. negotiators in Saudi Arabia — described the proposed ceasefire as “a hasty document.”
“It should be worked on, and our position should also be considered and taken into account,” he told journalists. “For now, only the Ukrainian approach is outlined there,” Ushakov added, suggesting the 30-day pause in fighting would be an opportunity for Ukrainian forces to regroup.
“We believe that our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement, we are striving for it, a peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country, our known concerns,” Ushakov said. “Some steps that imitate peaceful actions, it seems to me, no one needs in this situation.”
Ushakov said he outline Russia’s position to national security advisor Mike Waltz. “I myself have recently been in fairly regular telephone contact with Mike Waltz,” he said. “Yesterday he called me and informed me about the main results of the talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah.”
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Joe Simonetti and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
