■SRI LANKA
Protesters trap UN workers
Protesters at the UN building in the capital forced UN workers to stay in their office yesterday to demand the world body end its investigation of rights abuses alleged during the country’s civil war. Hundreds of national flag-waving men marched to the UN compound in Colombo, led by Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa and Buddhist monks. They initially tried to break into the building by breaching the barriers and security walls but settled for a sit-in opposite the gate. “We warn the UN to withdraw the [investigating] panel if they want to get the employees out,” Weerawansa told the protesters. The number of employees within the UN offices was not known.
■VIETNAM
World Cup kills two
A World Cup gambling debt and a disgruntled wife upset that her husband came home late from watching soccer have been blamed for two murders, reports said yesterday. The Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that two youths, aged 19 and 20, have been arrested for the alleged murder of a neighbor in a robbery bid to cover a World Cup gambling debt. They allegedly killed Nguyen Thi To Nga, a high school literature teacher, as they tried to rob her in order to cover the debt. Separately, the Doi Song and Phap Luat newspapers reported that police in Quang Ngai Province arrested a man on Monday for allegedly choking his wife to death. The 35-year-old man told police he killed his wife because she complained he came home late following a World Cup match on Friday, the reports said.
■PAKISTAN
Troops kill 23 militants
Pakistani forces killed 23 militants early yesterday in fighting that erupted after insurgents fired on troops during a search operation in the country’s northwest, police and intelligence officials said. The search was launched after a suicide bomb attack on a paramilitary fort in Lower Dir district, where troops killed hundreds of militants in an offensive last year. “The fighting began when miscreants opened fire on troops searching the area after reports of militant movement there,” Dir’s top police chief, Mumtaz Zireen, said.
■INDIA
Security forces kill protester
A young man was killed yesterday when security forces opened fire at stone-throwing protesters in Indian Kashmir, police said, the latest in a series of deaths that have stoked public anger. Police and paramilitary forces struggling to control protests in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley have now killed 12 civilians in less than a month. The incident took place in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, which has been at the center of furious demonstrations since June 11 when a 17-year-old student died from a police teargas shell. Yesterday’s death occurred when security forces opened fire to disperse a demonstration triggered by the disappearance of another protester, a witness said.
■MALAYSIA
Church-burning trial begins
Three Malaysian Muslims went on trial yesterday for allegedly torching a church during the height of a dispute over whether non-Muslims can use the word “Allah” to refer to God. The firebombing of the church marked the start of an unprecedented string of assaults on places of worship in January following a court verdict that allowed Christians to use “Allah” in their Malay-language publications. Two brothers and their friend were charged earlier this year for starting a fire on Jan. 8 that partially gutted a Protestant church.
■IRAN
Ministry denies fueling ban
Iranian planes are getting fuel at airports around the world, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said yesterday, denying reports that some countries were refusing supplies because of US sanctions. On Monday, ISNA news agency quoted an Iranian Airlines Union official as saying that planes had been refused fuel at airports in the UK, German and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The German transport ministry said there was no ban and a British government source said London was not aware of any cut to supplies and that any such a decision would be up to private companies. A source in the UAE said a private firm had refused to refuel an Iranian plane, but the UAE had not imposed a ban.
■UNITED STATES
Hot dog champ released
Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at a Fourth of July hot dog-eating contest, was freed after a night in jail, looking a little weary and saying he was hungry. Kobayashi was freed on Monday after he pleaded not guilty. A contract dispute had kept Kobayashi out of Sunday’s annual Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, but he showed up anyway. “I was there as a spectator, just to cheer on my buddies,” he said through an interpreter outside court on Monday. Fans chanted for him, and “in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage, hoping they would let me eat.” He was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
■CUBA
Dissident numbers drop
The number of political prisoners fell sharply in the past half-year and now stands at 167, the smallest in years, opposition activist Elizardo Sanchez said on Monday. At the beginning of the year, the number of jailed dissidents stood at 201, but the rights commission Sanchez heads now puts the number at 167. However, “this doesn’t mean that the human rights situation has improved,” he said, “because at the same time there has been an increase in the number of arbitrary, short-term detentions.”
■FRANCE
Paris limits rescue charges
Journalists and aid workers would be exempted from a proposed bill that could see the state charge kidnapped citizens for rescues if they ignore travel advice to go to danger zones, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday. Earlier this year government officials raised the possibility of charging for hostage searches, after 10 million euros (US$12.5 million) was spent to rescue of two journalists in Afghanistan. The proposed law would enable the state to reclaim “all or part of the expenses incurred in overseas rescue operations for those who deliberately exposed themselves” to danger.
■TURKEY
Thirteen dead in clashes
Kurdish rebels have attacked a military post near the border with Iraq, setting off clashes that killed three soldiers and 10 rebels, the Anatolia news agency reported. The clashes erupted late on Monday when the rebels fired at the military post with long-range weapons, it said.
■SWEDEN
Feminists burn money
The Feminist Initiative party burned 100,000 Swedish kronor (US$13,000) at a barbecue yesterday on Gotland island in a protest against unequal pay. The money represented what the country’s women miss out on every minute in comparison to men, the party said. The money was donated by an ad agency.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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