■PHILIPPINES
Bayan Muna activist killed
Gunmen killed an activist yesterday on the central island of Panay, police said, the first suspected politically motivated murder under the watch of President Benigno Aquino’s new government. Village council member Fernando Baldomero, an area coordinator for the leftist Bayan Muna (Nation First) group was shot in the head and neck as he was taking his children to school, police said. “He is the first activist killed ... five days into the new Aquino administration,” Bayan Muna said in a statement. The militant group said it held the military responsible for the murder, linking it to the killings of other leftists in recent years.
■INDIA
Protests held over fuel hikes
Transportation ground to a halt and businesses were closed yesterday in many parts of the country following a one-day strike by the main opposition parties to protest a government-imposed hike in fuel prices. “Because of the obstruction caused by protesters, train services have been stopped in West Bengal State,” said Samir Goswami, a railroad spokesman in Calcutta, the state’s capital. Flights were also halted at Calcutta’s airport, which serves domestic and international destinations.
■AUSTRALIA
Divers search for leg
Police divers yesterday hunted for a woman’s leg which was severed in a jet ski accident as her horrified friends looked on. The 43-year-old woman was thrown from the back of the high-powered jet ski into the path of a cruiser boat carrying a group of her friends along the Gold Coast on Sunday. Gold Coast Water Police chief Lucas Young said divers were trying to recover the woman’s leg, which is believed to have been severed at the knee.
■CHINA
Shuttle bus fire kills 24
Twenty-four people were killed and 19 injured in a fire aboard a steel company’s shuttle bus on Sunday, a local official said yesterday. The accident happened in the city of Wuxi, in Jiangsu Province, a city government spokesman said. “The reason for the fire is not yet known but the public security bureau is investigating,” said the official, who only gave his surname, Wang. The bus belonged to Wuxi Xuefeng Steel company, Xinhua news agency reported. Calls to the company were not immediately answered.
■CHINA
Japanese held for drugs
Police are holding four Japanese men on suspicion of smuggling drugs, an offense punishable by death, a Japanese government official said yesterday. The men were detained in Liaoning Province, in the northeast of the country, on June 19, the official said. Authorities have been questioning the four and will arrest them formally once they have gathered sufficient evidence, the official said.
■AUSTRALIA
Arson trial begins
A man pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he deliberately started one of the deadly wildfires that swept through southern Australia last year. The fires in Victoria State in February last year were Australia’s deadliest, killing 173 people and destroying more than 2,000 homes. Brendan Sokaluk is accused of starting one blaze that investigators say killed 10 people. Sokaluk, 41, pleaded not guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to 190 charges, which include 10 counts of arson causing death. The other counts cover serious injuries suffered by 21 people as well as property damage from the fire. He faces life in prison if convicted of all charges.
■BANGLADESH
Ferry capsizes, 50 missing
A ferry was struck by a sand barge and capsized in the River Shitalakkhya near Dhaka, with about 50 passengers missing, witnesses and police said yesterday. A police official told reporters the barge rammed the ferry on Sunday evening at Narayanganj. About 30 of the 100 passengers on board were rescued immediately after the incident and six of the injured were taken to hospital, the official said. Rescue teams were searching the area to determine whether there were any survivors.
■MALAYSIA
Coal plant plan criticized
Conservationists criticized a plan yesterday to build a coal-fired power plant in an environmentally fragile state on Borneo island, but energy officials said the project would provide a much-needed electricity supply boost. Energy projects have often generated protests in Malaysia’s two states in Borneo, with activists alleging authorities and companies ignore the rights of indigenous tribal communities and cause environmental harm by cutting down swaths of jungle. Green Surf, a coalition of non-governmental conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund, said a proposed coal plant near a wildlife reserve in Sabah State would displace villagers and threaten endangered orangutans and other animals like rhinoceroses and elephants. “They cannot say that the impact is very small and isolated,” Green Surf official Cynthia Ong said. “We really feel we have to stand firm on this no-coal message.” Sabah Electricity, the state’s main power supplier, has said the 300-megawatt plant is needed to meet electricity demand, which is expected to increase by up to 8 percent annually. The plant has not yet been formally approved.
■ITALY
Ricci builds largest maze
Franco Maria Ricci, the publisher behind Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus, has created a seven-hectare maze. His labyrinth of bamboo hedges, at Fontanellato near Parma, would make it more than five times larger than the Pineapple Garden Maze in Hawaii, the largest permanent hedge maze in the Guinness Book of Records. Ricci said he had based the design for his enormous labyrinth on mazes depicted in two Roman mosaics. The maze will open to the public in 2012 when a visitors’ center has been built.
■GERMANY
Beer tent smoking banned
Smokers heading to the famous annual beer festival Oktoberfest will be stuck lighting up outside after voters on Sunday supported a total smoking ban in Bavaria for restaurants, bars, cafes and beer tents. Although voter turnout for the referendum was relatively low, at 37.7 percent, a full 61 percent of those casting ballots favored a complete ban on smoking, Bavarian election officials said. The ban overturning an existing law will take effect on Aug. 1 — with an exception allowing limited smoking at this year’s Oktoberfest. Bavaria allows smoking in one-room bars of up to 75m² and in beer tents.
■RUSSIA
Minister under pressure
The embattled sports minister was under new pressure yesterday after a report into this year’s Vancouver Olympics found that he had paid for five breakfasts each day at a luxury hotel during the Games. The report by the federal audit chamber said the country spent a total of 6.2 billion rubles (US$200 million) on preparation and participation at the Winter Olympics, which reaped a mere three gold medals. The report revealed the expenses of Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitaly Mutko included staying at one of Vancouver’s most luxurious hotels, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, in a “courtyard suite” costing C$1,499 (US$1,409) per night for 20 nights. The report dryly said that the maximum amount recommended by the finance ministry for officials’ accommodation expenses in Canada was US$130 a day.
■RUSSIA
Six die at firing range
Six people were killed in an accidental explosion at a military firing range in Siberia, reports said yesterday. Two military engineers — a major and a lieutenant colonel — and four employees of a local munitions firm were killed in the explosion in the Altai region of southern Siberia, the RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies reported. The explosion happened while the victims were transporting gunpowder and rejected munitions on a truck in the firing range.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Diana’s hair used in jam
The royal hair? Jam made from what its maker claims is one of Princess Diana’s hairs is up for sale at an art exhibition in London. The preserve, called “occult jam,” is part of a surrealist art show at London’s Barbican Art Gallery that includes exhibits by Salvador Dali and Rene Margritte. The £5-a-jar (US$7.60) jam is both art and food, Sam Bompas, who founded catering company Bompas and Parr, said on Sunday. He said the preserve is made by infusing a tiny speck of the late Princess of Wales’ hair with gin, which is then combined with milk and sugar to create a product with a taste resembling condensed milk. The hair was bought on eBay for US$10 from a US dealer, who collects what he says is celebrity hair and sells it in extremely tiny parts.
■UNITED STATES
Runaway horses kill woman
Two runaway horses pulling a wagon trampled spectators at a Fourth of July parade in Bellevue, Iowa, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring at least 23 other people, four critically. The horses bolted on Sunday after one rubbed its head against the other, removing that horse’s bridle, police said. They galloped for several blocks with the wagon in tow, trampling parade-goers. The wagon flipped and ejected its two passengers, police said. Among those injured were children who had stooped in the street to pick up candy that had been tossed to them.
■SWITZERLAND
Journalism deadly: PEC
Fifty-nine journalists have been killed because of their work in the first six months of this year, up from 53 for the same period last year, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said yesterday. The highest toll was in Mexico, where nine were killed in the first six months of the year because organized crime was “hunting journalists,” the Geneva-based group said in a statement. The other most dangerous countries were Honduras, where eight journalists were killed, Pakistan (six), Nigeria (four) and the Philippines (four). Three journalists were killed in Russia, three in Colombia and two in Iraq, Nepal, Thailand and Venezuela. “Governments and the international community must act in firmness to stop those killings and bring the perpetrators of those crimes to justice,” PEC secretary-general Blaise Lempen said.
■CANADA
Queen honors native people
Britian’s Queen Elizabeth II hailed the special contribution to the nation’s culture made by the country’s native peoples, attending a performance of indigenous dance and visiting the site of a museum for human rights. On Saturday, she unveiled the cornerstone of the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which she brought with here from the fields of Runnymede near Windsor Castle, where the original Magna Carta was signed in 1215. “The symbolism of the Magna Carta is now joined to the historical importance of a site where Aboriginal peoples gathered for thousands of years to exchange views and resolve conflicts,” the queen said at a ceremony held at the future Two Fork museum site. The museum is scheduled to open in 2012.
■ITALY
Cabinet minister resigns
A former executive in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s media empire, who was unexpectedly appointed as a government minister last month, resigned in the midst of an embezzlement trial yesterday. The sudden departure of Aldo Brancher, named as “minister for federalism” last month, deals a fresh blow to Berlusconi, whose government is facing crippling internal divisions. Brancher’s appointment had been heavily criticized by the opposition. He caused further outrage when he used his new status as minister to claim immunity from his embezzlement trial before being forced to retreat and drop the claim only days later.
■RUSSIA
Cargo ship docks with ISS
An unmanned space capsule carrying tonnes of food, water and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) docked with the laboratory on Sunday, two days after the first attempt went awry. A video feed from mission control reported the docking took place without problems at 8:17pm. The ISS has three Russian and three US astronauts aboard. The docking failed the first time because a transmitter for the manual rendezvous system was activated, overriding the automated system.
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
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