A partially paralyzed Catholic priest whose release has been sought by US lawmakers is back in a Vietnamese prison after almost a month of hospital treatment, his sister said yesterday.
Nguyen Van Ly had been in Hanoi’s Ministry of Public Security Hospital since Nov. 14 because of high blood pressure that led to a stroke, his sister Nguyen Thi Hieu said.
“He was transferred back to prison yesterday,” she said. “His situation is a bit better now, but his life is not normal yet. We don’t know why they decided to transfer him back to prison, as he still needs help.”
Ly’s transfer came on the same day that Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet held a rare meeting at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI, which both sides hailed as a prelude to improved relations.
Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International, in a statement received yesterday, urged the Vatican to raise Ly’s case and call for his release.
“The Vietnamese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Father Ly into the care of his family so that they can ensure he receives the proper medical care, including hospitalization, that he needs,” the statement said.
Ly’s sister said he is half-paralyzed on the right side, leaving him unable to hold cutlery to eat. He can only walk a few steps with a walking stick, she said.
On Dec. 4 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying Ly had been treated for high blood pressure and was recovering well. It said his family and religious authorities were allowed to visit him in hospital.
Ly, who is in his early 60s, was jailed for eight years in 2007 after a half-day trial in the city of Hue. He was convicted of spreading propaganda against the communist state, in a case that drew condemnation from diplomats, Vietnam watchers and human rights groups.
Prosecutors said Ly was a founding member of the banned “Bloc 8406” pro-democracy coalition, and that he was also a driving force behind the outlawed Vietnam Progression Party.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS