■ Philippines
Guerillas kill vice mayor
Communist rebels killed a town's vice mayor and wounded a mayor in separate attacks yesterday, just weeks before fresh peace talks aimed at ending the 35-year-old Marxist insurgency, police said. New People's Army guerillas shot dead Eduardo Durante, the vice mayor of Burdeos in Quezon province, as he waited for a ferry at dawn on nearby Polilio island. Hours later, about 50 guerrillas attacked Mayor Armando Guerrero of Gigmoto in Catanduanes Province at his home, wounding him, a police officer and a driver, police said. Fifty guerrillas were seen nearby, apparently to ambush reinforcements, but they withdrew after a 30-minute gun battle, police said.
■ Philippines
Arroyo loves death penalty
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said yesterday her decision not to stay the executions of two convicted kidnappers scheduled for later in the month was "an act of love." Arroyo, a devout Catholic who earlier professed opposition to the death penalty, lifted last month a four-year moratorium on judicial executions following an upsurge in heinous crimes, particularly kidnapping and drug trafficking. She stressed that the upsurge in crimes, especially kidnappings, has scared off potential investors denying employment to millions of jobless Filipinos. "This [execution] is an act of love to those who are still looking for jobs," she said.
■ China
Kidnapped kids freed
Police in southwest China have cracked a gang suspected of being behind a wave of child kidnappings, reuniting 63 boys with their parents after weeks or months of separation, state media said yesterday. Four gang leaders have been apprehended in the city of Kunming as well as 47 others suspected of trafficking the children, the Beijing Youth Daily reported. The children -- all boys who are much in demand among childless Chinese couples -- were sold as far away as Fujian Province, the paper said. The children, who ranged in age from five months to 13 years, changed hands several times.
■ India
Drunken elephants killed
Four wild elephants who ran amok after getting drunk on rice beer were electrocuted in India's northeastern state of Meghalaya when they brought down power lines, an official said yesterday. The herd went on the rampage on Sunday night after storming into villages and drinking from open casks of beer in a remote area in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district. "The elephants after getting high on rice beer, went berserk and started dashing against an electric pole," the forest official said. "A live high-tension wire fell on the herd, leading to the deaths of four elephants instantly," he said.
■ Australia
PM hits out at PC schools
Prime Minister John Howard faced a furious backlash yesterday after claiming parents were pulling their children out of state-funded schools because the schools were "politically correct" and not teaching true Australian values. Howard told The Age daily that many parents were switching to private schools because "they feel that government schools have become too politically correct and too values-neutral." He said public schools had become "antiseptic," claiming that some had banned Christian plays like the nativity scene depicting Jesus' birth for fear of offending religious groups.
■ Israel
Troops arrest 34
Israeli troops operating in the West Bank arrested 34 wanted Palestinians overnight, a military spokesman said. He said 24 Palestinians, all of them either members of the radical Hamas movement or Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah, were arrested in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Another seven, all of whom belonged to the radical Islamic Jihad group, were picked up near the southern town of Bethlehem. Two more Fatah militants were arrested in the northern city of Nablus and another in the Jenin area, also in the north.
■ Switzerland
Rescuers take cable car
Swiss rescue crews had to take cable cars to reach a blazing mountaintop hotel after strong winds grounded helicopters, police said yesterday. Six people were hurt and one person was missing in the fire at the Melchsee-Frutt hotel in the central Swiss canton of Obwalden. The hotel, a popular health spa, was still burning yesterday morning after the blaze broke out overnight. Firefighters were able to evacuate 68 people uninjured. They and the injured were ferried down the mountain by cable car. The cause of the fire was still under investigation.
■ Spain
Election date announced
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar set national elections for March 14 and asked King Juan Carlos to dissolve Parliament. The date was announced more than a week ago, but it remained for Aznar to announce it officially at a final Cabinet meeting, after which he went to the Zarzuela Palace to ask the king to sign a decree dissolving the national legislature. Aznar, 50, has been prime minister for two four-year terms, and his conservative Popular Party is favored to win again. The party recently endorsed Aznar's hand-picked candidate, Mariano Rajoy, to lead its ticket.
■ United Kingdom
`Potter' book coins it
A draft copy of the first Harry Potter adventure which incorrectly named the author as J.A. Rowling sold for ?1,468 (US$2,642), auctioneers Bonhams said. An anonymous bidder purchased the proof copy of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, first published in 1997, the auction house said. The Monday sale generated interest from collectors across the globe because of the printing error on the title page. In December, a signed paperback first edition of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone sold for US$9,900 at Sotheby's in New York.
■ Algeria
Gas blast kills 20
Rescue workers searched for missing workers at Algeria's largest refinery yesterday after a huge explosion at its gas installations killed at least 20 people, state radio said. The blast at the petrochemical complex in Skikda, 500km east of the capital Algiers on Monday, caused at least 74 injuries and shut down all activity at the oil and gas refinery complex, state radio said. "We're working to remove debris and look for survivors and bodies," Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil told state radio. It was still not clear what caused the blast, which destroyed three of the refinery's liquefied natural gas units. But officials said they believed it was an accident.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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