■ AFGHANISTAN
Critical governor sacked
The government has sacked a provincial governor, accusing him of sowing discord, the Interior Ministry said yesterday, after he made a rare public criticism of President Hamid Karzai. The governor of Kapisa, Abdul Sattar Murad, was removed after repeated complaints from civilians that Sattar had been ineffective, created discord, bullied the public and persuaded coalition forces to carry out raids without justification, the ministry said. But Murad said he was sacked because he had publicly criticized Karzai in an interview published last week.
■ HONG KONG
Plastic bags to be taxed
Shoppers are to be made to pay a tax on every plastic bag they take home in an effort to cut down on environmental pollution, officials said yesterday. The government is to impose a charge of HK$0.50 (US$0.06) on plastic bags given out by supermarkets and retail chain stores after a successful trial in the city's supermarkets. The new tax, which will raise money for environmental projects in the territory, follows the success of a monthly "no plastic bag day."
■ HONG KONG
Sharks cause scare
A shark alert was stepped up at a popular swimming beach yesterday after a 1m-long predator was spotted close to the coast. Two sharks were seen in waters off Hoi Ha Wan marine park over the weekend, prompting officials to warn swimmers to stay out of the water. The sightings follow a spate of shark spottings around Hoi Ha Wan over the past fortnight and the discovery of a dead shark in nets off another popular beach at Stanley.
■ NEPAL
Rebel explosives destroyed
Experts have begun destroying explosives that were once used by communist rebels to fight government troops and bomb government targets, a senior UN official said yesterday. Ian Martin, the chief UN official in the country, said the process of destroying the explosives was a "limited test" but that it would continue. Explosives used by the Maoists are being kept in safe storage near the camps where thousands of ex-combatants have been confined as part of a peace process that ended a decade-old insurgency. Maoists joined a peace process last year ending their armed revolt. They joined the parliament and government this year. As part of the peace deal, their fighters have been confined in camps and weapons locked in containers under UN supervision.
■ CHINA
Safety doors cause death
A man who became trapped between a subway train and safety doors installed to prevent accidents fell to the tracks and was killed, Xinhua news agency reported. The man was struggling to enter the packed train at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium station on Sunday afternoon when the platform doors closed behind him, leaving him unable to either get on the train or return to the platform, Xinhua said. The man fell to the tracks, and was crushed by the train, Xinhua said. Paramedics were called, but the man died on his way to a hospital, it said. The accident was believed to be the first death blamed on the safety doors, which Shanghai is installing at all of its stations.
■ MYLASIA
Rescuers search for chopper
More than 1,000 soldiers, police and other rescue personnel scoured dense rain forest yesterday for a helicopter that went missing with six air force personnel, officials said. The Royal Malaysian Air Force's Sikorsky S-61 helicopter disappeared during bad weather over hilly, jungle-clad terrain on Friday while transporting crew from Kuala Lumpur to a military base in Pahang. Skies were relatively clear yesterday, but fog and rain had hampered the search over the weekend.
■ CHINA
State TV calls for ban
TV channels should ban sexist and sexually suggestive adverts during the summer vacation to protect children, state broadcaster CCTV said yesterday, citing experts and parents. Explicit commercials that promote breast enlargements, women's corsets and cosmetics and unproven medical treatments are common on local stations. "Advertisements that contain sexual hints or flirtatious language are easily seen on some local television channels," CCTV said on its Web site.
■ INDIA
Rocard heads home
Former French prime minister Michel Rocard, who underwent emergency surgery two weeks ago after suffering a brain hemorrhage, left for Paris with his wife on Sunday. Rocard, 76, said doctors at the Kolkata Medical and Research Institute had performed "miracles" to enable him to recover quickly from the hemorrhage, which occurred on June 30. He was discharged from hospital on July 10, and had since been convalescing at a hotel. "I am feeling very well. I am very glad for the hospitality in the city of Mother Teresa," he said as he left for the airport. "India is a great country," he said.
■ SAUDI ARABIA
Guantanamo releases 16
The government said yesterday that 16 Saudis detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been repatriated. Al-Arabiya television said there were 53 Saudis remaining at the prison. Saudi public anger over the treatment of Saudi detainees has been high in the Gulf Arab state. Two Saudis were among three prisoners who hanged themselves last month at the prison. Many have been held for years and nearly all are being held without charge.
■ BELGIUM
King requests coalition
King Albert II has asked Flemish Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme to form a government in an effort to end five weeks of political stalemate since national elections that gave his center-right party the most seats in parliament. The monarch called Leterme to the palace late on Sunday and invited him to build a new ruling coalition. However, efforts to forge a deal between the Christian Democratic and Liberal parties remain deadlocked over deep divisions between French and Dutch-speaking politicians over how to share out powers between the country's linguistic regions and the federal authorities.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Johnson enters mayor race
Boris Johnson, who has made his mark as a journalist, entertainer and Conservative member of parliament, wants to be mayor of London, his spokeswoman said yesterday. Johnson has decided to seek the Conservative Party nomination to challenge Ken Livingstone, who is seeking a third term. Candidates had to declare their intention by yesterday. "The opportunity is too great, and the prize too wonderful to miss; and that prize is the chance to represent London and to speak for Londoners," the 43-year-old Johnson said in an article published in yesterday's Evening Standard.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Al-Qaeda plotter attacked
A man serving 30 years in for planning "dirty bomb" attacks in Britain and plotting to blow up US financial institutions has been scarred for life in an attack in prison, his lawyer said yesterday. Dhiren Barot, 35, considered one of al-Qaeda's most senior operatives in Europe was assaulted last Friday at maximum security Frankland Prison. His lawyer Muddassar Arani said a prisoner had thrown boiling water on Barot's back which had led to a "physical punch up." Later, while attending to his burns, another inmate poured boiling oil over his head. She said he was burned on his hands, forehead, head, neck and back and had lost all his hair. The Ministry of Justice said the Prison Service was investigating the incident.
■ SPAIN
Child pornography seized
Police have seized 48 million images and videos and arrested 66 people in a child pornography investigation, police said on Sunday. Acting alongside Interpol, police tracked 5,000 downloads of pornographic material from archives located on servers in Germany. The large-scale investigation, which started in September, found 85 computer users were downloading the images, leading to 66 arrests. Those arrested include architects, psychologists, doctors, lawyers and child sport coaches. "One of the arrested had the largest amount of child pornography found until now by the national police on one person saved on 21 hard discs," the police said in a statement.
■ CHILE
Blast strikes embassy
An explosion struck outside the British embassy in the capital of Santiago, causing minor damage to the building, a Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday. The spokesman said there were no reports of any casualties and that a police investigation was under way. A local journalist, Jorge Garreton, told Britain's Sky Television the explosion took place at around 10:15pm on Sunday. He described the cause of the explosion as "a small cylinder with exploding powder and a timer" and said there were no injuries reported. "This is a posh area of town," Garreton added. "It not only houses the British embassy but also the Israeli embassy [is] nearby."
■ COLOMBIA
Armory explodes
An armory blew up on Sunday at a military garrison in the border city of Leticia, near Brazil, without causing any injuries, the army said in a statement. The garrison commander said a fire preceded the explosion and that an investigation was under way on the incident, the statement said. The explosion forced the garrison and several nearby homes to be evacuated, Colonel Alberto Garcia said in the statement. The fire was put out nearly two hours later.
■ IRAQ
Iranian prisoners escape
Twenty Iranian prisoners were on the run yesterday after escaping from a prison holding suspected illegal immigrants near the long and porous land border between the two countries. "Twenty-four prisoners escaped, although we have since re-arrested four of them. They escaped by breaking a window," a lieutenant in the Iraqi border guards said on condition of anonymity. Some of the prisoners, who broke out on Sunday, were being held on remand awaiting trial and others had already had been sentenced to six-month terms for crossing the border illegally, he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Elvis stone discovered
You can't think about rock without thinking of Elvis. Not this rock, anyway. Rock collector LaDell Alexander, 60, has found a stone she swears has the face of Elvis Presley on it. You don't have to think Elvis is everywhere to see it: A pattern on the rock resembles a human head with dark hair and the king of rock's trademark muttonchop sideburns. Alexander, who splits her time between Estes Park, Colorado, and Texas, said the rock was one of many she bought in various places last summer. She didn't notice the pattern until she took the rocks to Texas and cleaned them before using them to decorate her yard.
■ UNITED STATES
With this trial, I thee wed
Love blossomed in a murder trial last year between alternate juror No. 3, Traci Nagy, and juror No. 6, Jonathan Cinkay. The Daily News reported Sunday that the two exchanged glances on the first day of the trial. Fellow jurors encouraged Nagy, a 36-year-old market analyst, to date Cinkay, 33, a physical therapist. The two went out to lunch during one long break and the relationship grew from there. They picked up their marriage license last week, and Queens Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis, who presided over the case where they met, is to marry them next month. "My friends said to me, `It would take a murder trial for you to meet the right person,'" Cinkay said.
‘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