■ Australia
Asylum policy protested
About 200 demonstrators gathered outside the home of Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to protest against Australia's policy of detaining asylum seekers. But police blocked the protesters, barricading the minister's Sydney home. Some protesters attempted to force their way through the cordon. Police arrested three demonstrators who broke past the police line. Police said they would be charged with assault or with breach of peace. Rally organizers accused the police of being in contempt of a Supreme Court order Friday that the protest be allowed to proceed. "I think it's contempt of court. It's just outrageous," Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition told the crowd.
■ Japan
Train crash injures 35
An express commuter train derailed and plowed into a rice field in southern Japan late on Friday, leaving two rail cars overturned and 35 passengers injured -- at least two seriously -- officials said. Rescuers were working in the rain to pull passengers from the six-car train. It was carrying about 120 people from Nagasaki to Hakata on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, said Toshihiko Aoyagi, an official with the train's operator, JR Kyushu. Authorities were investigating the cause of the accident, he said during a nationally televised news conference.
■ Pakistan
Citizens urged to fight terror
Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali appealed to ordinary Pakistanis to get involved in the battle against terrorism and sectarianism, news reports said yesterday. Speaking Friday to representatives of Pakistan's police force, Jamali said the public has to join the battle currently being waged in Pakistan to hunt down terrorist suspects and perpetrators of sectarian killings. "All sections of the society have a responsibility toward supplementing the government's efforts to stamp out the menace of terrorism and sectarianism," the independent English-language newspaper, The News, quoted Jamali as saying.
■ China
Beidaihe talks cancelled
Chinese President Hu Jintao has called off the Communist Party leadership's annual retreat to the seaside resort of Beidaihe in an apparent attempt to improve the image of his new government, official sources said yesterday. "This has been decided, we are waiting for the formal notice," an official with the Hebei provincial government told reporters. "The movements of high-level state leaders are not always privy to provincial officials, but we have heard that the meetings will not be held this year and are awaiting formal notice," he said on condition of anonymity.
■ China
US blasts prison treatment
The US has protested alleged Chinese mistreatment of a jailed US member of the outlawed Falungong movement who says he has been forced to attend group study sessions that denigrate the sect, the Department of State said on Friday. Charles Lee, who is serving a three-year sentence for sabotage, told a US consular official by phone on Wednesday that he was being mistreated by prison officials, prompting the protest, spokesman Richard Boucher said. "He complained of mistreatment on the part of prison authorities," Boucher said. "He also reported being forced to attend anti-Falungong group study sessions. We have protested his treatment to appropriate prison authorities."
■ United States
Blair granted concession
Legal proceedings against the two Britons facing a military trial in Guantanamo Bay were suspended Friday night to allow talks between British and US legal officials. In a minor concession to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is facing a growing row at home on the issue, US President George W. Bush personally authorized the temporary halt to proceedings. His move paved the way for the UK attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, to fly to Washington next week for talks with US officials. London refused to comment on the likely outcome. Bush, who has branded the two Britons "bad men," agreed to the concession over dinner with Blair in the White House on Thursday.
■ United Kingdom
Journalist resigns
A Sky News journalist accused of "faking" a television report from a British Royal Navy submarine during the Iraq war has resigned, Sky News said on Friday. The report purported to show the preparation and firing of a cruise missile from HMS Splendid. But a BBC documentary crew filming at the same time said it had been specially staged for the benefit of Sky's camera and no missile was fired. Sky News said James Forlong's report was unacceptable to a news operation which had built a "proud reputation for accuracy and integrity."
■ Iran
Authorities to study death
Iran said on Friday it needed to investigate further to find out whether a Canadian journalist who died in custody of head injuries last week had been beaten. Deputy Interior Minister Aliasghar Ahmadi told the student news agency ISNA it was not clear whether Zahra Kazemi, a 54-year-old Canadian of Iranian descent, had been hit or had banged her head in a fall. "Based on the report by the medical team and the coroner's office, the death of Zahra Kazemi was caused by a blow to the head resulting from a collision with a hard object," ISNA quoted Ahmadi as saying. But he said there was "ambiguity on whether the death was caused by the hard object hitting the head or the head hitting the hard object."
■ Russia
Space-marriage plan fails
Cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko abandoned plans to marry his earthling girlfriend while circling the Earth aboard the International Space Station because of pressure from the Russian space agency, Russian press reported yesterday. With a tuxedo, wedding band and permission from Texas state authorities to wed his Russian-American girlfriend, Malenchenko was fully prepared to become the first person to marry from space. But he renounced the idea following a conversation with his superiors, a Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos spokesman said.
■ Guatemala
Ex-dictator seeks presidency
A former dictator who is facing charges of genocide will be running for president of Guatemala this year. This week, a court in Guatemala City ruled that retired general Efrain Rios Montt, accused of responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths during the 1980s civil war, was entitled to stand for office. The leader of a military coup in 1982, Rios Montt ruled Guatemala with an iron fist. A born-again evangelical Christian, he held power for 16 months before being ousted. It was during this period than many of the worst atrocities in Guatemala's 36-year civil war were committed.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in