■PHILIPPINES
Police probe assassinations
Two officials were gunned down in separate incidents on Wednesday, leaving police searching for motives with no groups claiming responsibility for the attacks. Unknown gunmen shot dead Rogelio Penera, the health department’s chief epidemiologist for the southern region, on his drive home to Davao city, police spokesman Superintendent Antonio Rivera said. The doctor’s 15-year-old daughter was also wounded in the attack, Rivera said. It was not clear if the shooting was related to his official duties. Also on Wednesday, Laguna Councilor Danny Yang was gunned down on the outskirts of San Pablo city, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Manolito Labador said. Two members of his party were also shot dead, while at least two other people were wounded, Labador told reporters, describing the attackers as possible “guns for hire.” Yang’s bodyguard returned fire and killed one of the unidentified suspects, police said. Four other suspects fled on foot, and one of them is believed by police to be wounded.
■JAPAN
Swine flu cases hit 1,000
The nation’s tally of swine flu cases hit 1,000 yesterday after two new infections were reported, but there have been no deaths from the A(H1N1) virus, the health ministry said. The virus was first reported in the country early last month and quickly spread through high schools in the western cities of Kobe and Osaka before infecting a wider population. The WHO in a global update on Wednesday reported 55,867 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu in 109 countries and 238 human deaths from the disease since late March.
■CHINA
Drug traffickers executed
Two men convicted of trafficking heroin from Myanmar were executed in northeastern China this week, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The two, Liu Fuying and Sun Yulong, were given the death penalty for masterminding a gang effort to smuggle 8kg of heroin on various trips from Myanmar to Liaoning Province since 2002, Xinhua said. Calls to the Liaoning provincial government office rang unanswered yesterday. Xinhua did not say how many members were in the gang or how it operated. China is believed to carry out most of the world’s court-ordered executions, putting to death hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people each year for crimes ranging from murder to such nonviolent offenses as tax evasion.
■AUSTRALIA
Legal battle hits sour note
One of the nation’s most famous schoolyard songs and a rock tune widely accepted as the nation’s unofficial anthem are at the center of a bitter legal battle over a flute riff. Music company Larrikin is suing iconic band Men at Work in Federal Court for allegedly ripping off a section of Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree in the flute solo of their song Down Under, local media reported yesterday. The song was a worldwide hit when it was first released in the early 1980s, becoming the unofficial anthem of the Australian team that won the Americas Cup in 1983. It also featured in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Larrikin claims Men at Work directly lifted part of its distinctive flute section from Kookaburra’s score, the rights to which Larrikin allegedly acquired in 1990. The children’s ditty was penned by teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides Jamboree in 1934. Defense lawyers argue that the copyright was never properly signed over by Sinclair and still belongs to the Girl Guides movement.
■FRANCE
Two ETA suspects held
Police yesterday detained two suspected key members of the political structure of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish police sources said. Javier Arruabarrena Carlos, 37, and Ohiana Garmendia Marin, 32, were believed to head a Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA) branch which gathered information on possible targets for attacks.
Some media reports said the two were held in Paris. Police were doing house searches for documents. The operation was carried out jointly by French and Spanish police. The arrests followed those of three ETA suspects in the Basque region on Tuesday. The government said they were ready to carry out attacks.
■FRANCE
Body of pilot identified
The body of the pilot of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic on June 1 has been identified among dozens that have been recovered from the ocean, the airline said yesterday. All 228 people on board the Airbus 330 died when it crashed for unknown reasons during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. “Among the victims who have been recovered from the ocean, two members of the crew of flight AF 447 have been identified to date: the captain and a steward,” Air France said in a statement posted on its Web site.
■OCEANS
Sharks face extinction
A third of all sharks on the high seas are threatened with extinction because they are overfished or killed incidentally in swordfish and tuna catches, a nature group said yesterday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the producer of the world’s Red List of endangered species, released its shark study ahead of a meeting in Spain of tuna fishery managers. The gathering includes those responsible for fisheries “in which sharks are taken without limit,” IUCN said. “Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas,” said Sonja Fordham, a shark specialist for the group.
■GREECE
Air traffic controllers strike
Flights to and from the country were grounded for several hours yesterday as air traffic controllers called a four-hour work stoppage to protest against pension reforms and low salaries. Air traffic at airports across the country were suspended from 8am to 12pm and air traffic controllers walked off the job, with only emergency flights landing and taking off. Dozens of airlines were forced to cancel and reschedule flights. Private airline Aegean said it cancelled 11 flights and rescheduled 46 others while national carrier Olympic said it canceled 32 flights, including international flights to Istanbul, Frankfurt, Milan, Brussels, Budapest and Sofia.
■SOMALIA
Sentence: amputation
Hooded Shebab militiamen yesterday chopped off the right hand and left foot of four thieves in front of a crowd of 200 people in northern Mogadishu. An ad-hoc court set up by the hardline Islamist group Shebab had earlier this week found the four young men guilty of stealing mobile phones and guns from residents in several of the capital’s neighborhoods. “The amputations have been carried out as scheduled,” a Shebab official said on condition of anonymity. Residents in the Sukahola neighborhood gathered to watch the amputations, which took place shortly after 9am, but no cameras nor mobile phones were allowed.
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
‘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