■SOUTH KOREA
Seoul hiding N Koreans
About 50 North Korean refugees are taking refuge in South Korean diplomatic missions in China, living like prisoners because of security concerns, a Seoul rights group said yesterday. Up to 30 of the total have stayed more than one year in the Beijing embassy or consulates elsewhere, the Citizen’s Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean refugees said. “The embassy restricts their movement and communication with relatives outside because of tight security and surveillance by Chinese police,” coalition head Do Hee-yeun said. He said China had intentionally delayed negotiations with South Korea about their departure to Seoul to show that the embassy is not a safe refuge.
■CHINA
Snow leopard killers jailed
Two herdsmen have been jailed for killing a rare snow leopard after setting a trap for wild animals that preyed on their sheep, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. The herdsmen were sentenced to eight and 10 years in prison for killing the snow leopard in Xinjiang by the Manas County People’s Court on Feb. 28. They were convicted of illegally catching and killing rare and endangered wild animals, local official Yang Jianwei said.
■INDONESIA
Terror suspects arrested
Police said two men had been arrested in Java on suspicion of supplying guns to a terrorist cell in the western province of Aceh. Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said yesterday that one man was arrested in Jakarta and the other outside the capital in West Java province. He did not say when. Police have arrested 18 men in recent days in a crackdown on what they call a new terror group in Aceh believed to have links to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian offshoot of al-Qaeda.
■MALAYSIA
Anwar loses final appeal
Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim has lost his final court battle to declare as unlawful his sacking in 1998, his lawyer said yesterday. Anwar was sacked from his posts as deputy prime minister and finance minister by then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in September 1998. Anwar launched a legal suit the same year, arguing the move was unconstitutional. The case has been rejected twice by the lower courts in 1998 and 2007, and the Federal Court — the country’s highest court — upheld the decision yesterday, saying the dismissal was executed lawfully. “We are most disappointed but not surprised with the decision,” Anwar’s lawyer Sankara Nair said.
■HONG KONG
Third acid attack hits city
An acid-filled beer bottle was dropped onto a street in the same area of the densely populated territory for the third time in six months, police said yesterday, fueling media speculation about a serial attacker. In the latest attack on Sunday, a beer bottle containing an acidic substance broke after being dropped onto an awning at street level in Shamshuipo District, with the liquid splashing onto the face of male passer-by, police said in a statement. “There was a bang, and people looked up and saw lots of smoke. And someone called the police. The bang was loud. The pedestrians ran away immediately,” a female shopkeeper who works nearby was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post yesterday. No one has been arrested, police said. The injured man rinsed his face with water and left before officers arrived on the scene.
■ISRAEL
Disputed homes allowed
Tel Aviv has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction, a minister said yesterday. The houses will be built in the Beitar Ilit settlement near Bethlehem, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan told public radio. The country’s continued expansion of settlements is one of the biggest obstacles to the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, now suspended for more than a year. The new project came to light the day after the Palestinians agreed to indirect peace talks with Israel, but warned that the US-mediated negotiations could collapse if Tel Aviv continued expanding settlements.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Three fall from high-rise
Two men and a woman died after falling from a high-rise apartment building in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Sunday, police said. Strathclyde Police said officers were called at about 8:40am by a concierge at the building on the city’s north side. Officers set up a cordon and erected a white tent in front of the building while forensic officers examined the scene. Police said there did not appear to be any suspicious circumstances. The Glasgow Housing Association, which owns the building, said it was rented to the YMCA and used to house refugees and asylum-seekers. It is part of the Red Road development, a 1960s public housing project made up of blocks up to 31 stories high.
■IRAN
Two traffickers hanged
Two convicted drug traffickers were hanged in the western city of Khorramabad, the official IRNA news agency reported yesterday. The report identified them only as Gh. B. and H. R and added the two were hanged early this week — the Persian week begins on Saturday. No other details were given. The latest hangings bring to at least 27 the number of people executed so far this year. Last year, at least 270 people were hanged in the Islamic republic.
■SERBIA
Yugoslav dissident dies
Prominent former Yugoslav dissident Mihajlo Mihajlov, who was jailed during communism for his articles and essays before he emigrated to the West, has died. He was 76. Mihajlov died on Sunday at his home in Belgrade, state TV said. The cause of death was not made public. Mihajlov left the former Yugoslavia at 1978, after spending a total of seven years in prison for work published in the West critical of the Yugoslav government. Mihajlov acquired US citizenship in 1985 and taught Russian literature at Yale, Ohio State University and the University of Virginia, as well as in Scotland and in West Germany.
■FRANCE
Military seizes 35 pirates
The frigate Nivose has seized 35 pirates in three days off Somalia, the military said on Sunday, claiming “the biggest seizure” so far in the vital shipping lane. In the latest of four operations since Friday, eleven pirates were intercepted on Sunday with the help of other ships and a Spanish maritime patrol airplane participating in the European Atalanta anti-piracy mission. Four mother ships and six smaller boats had been seized in the four operations since Friday, the military said. The EU launched its Atalanta mission in December 2008 in a bid to secure one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, joining forces with US-led and NATO missions, as well as other warships from other naval powers.
■MEXICO
Capital cuts cops’ calories
Mexico City’s police department has introduced a new lower-calorie menu in cafeterias serving its 70,000-member force after finding out that almost three-quarters of officers are overweight. Hungry cops will now get 2,495 calories per day, 500 fewer than in previous servings, along with a healthy portion of vegetables. The three-meal-a-day menu announced on Sunday comes after a study found that at least 70 percent of officers are overweight.
■JAMAICA
Museum to celebrate reggae
A new music museum is set to open next year in Kingston that officials say will feature rare pieces from the island’s music history, such as the sole album that the reggae star Bob Marley produced before he gained international fame. Artifacts will include a cassette tape in which another reggae great, Peter Tosh, jams a blues song with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, museum curator Herbie Miller said on Sunday. The tape was recorded in June 1977, said Miller, who was Tosh’s former manager. The museum is requesting donations to help preserve the country’s vibrant music history.
■UNITED STATES
Net services to be exported
Washington will allow technology companies to export Internet services to Iran, Cuba and Sudan in a bid to exploit their libertarian potential, the New York Times reported late on Sunday. “The more people have access to a range of Internet technology and services, the harder it’s going to be for the Iranian government to clamp down on their speech and free expression,” a senior administration official told the paper. The Treasury Department was due to issue a general license yesterday for exports of free personal Internet services such as instant messaging, chat and photo sharing as well as software to all three countries, said the unnamed official. The move will allow Microsoft, Yahoo and other Internet services providers to get around strict export restrictions, the report said. Until now they had resisted offering such services for fear of violating existing sanctions.
■MEXICO
Church slams mayor
Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church has published its harshest criticism to date of leftist Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, accusing his administration of botching issues ranging from crime to public transit. The church has often disagreed with Ebrard’s Democratic Revolution Party. An editorial published on Sunday on the Archdiocese of Mexico’s Web site accused Ebrard of “following the line set down by foreign groups” in approving legalized abortion and same-sex marriages.
■CANADA
Islamist group to be banned
Ottawa will list al-Shabaab — a Somali-based Islamist militant group which recently pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda — as a “terrorist group” to prevent it from operating or seeking funds, the Canadian government said on Sunday. Canada said it took action after it received reports from the Somali community that al-Shabaab has attempted to radicalize and recruit young Canadians. “This government ... is determined that terrorist groups do not receive support from Canadian sources,” Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews said in a statement. The listing prohibits Canadians from knowingly dealing with assets al-Shabaab owns or controls. It also makes it a criminal offense to knowingly participate in, contribute to, or facilitate certain activities of the group.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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