VIETNAM
Blogger still behind bars
A blogger critical of government policy remained in prison yesterday even though his sentence on “trumped-up” charges expired last week, Human Rights Watch said. Nguyen Hoang Hai, who blogged under the name “Dieu Cay,” should have been released on Wednesday after serving a 30-month sentence for tax fraud, the US-based watchdog said. “He’s still being held,” Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said from Bangkok.
PHILIPPINES
Militiaman kills colleagues
Army officials say a government militiaman went into a violent rage in Zamboanga Sibugay, killing six of his colleagues before he was fatally shot by pursuing troops. Major General Romeo Lustestica said Olegario Vocal Jr opened fire with his M-14 rifle on Sunday night for still-unknown reasons, killing five militiamen in their detachment in Ipil township. Pursuing troops caught up with Vocal early yesterday near the detachment. He shot it out with them, wounding another militiaman who later died in hospital. Vocal was killed in the shootout.
JAPAN
Opposition wins by-election
The center-left government yesterday played down the impact of a weekend by-election defeat, the first major test for Prime Minister Naoto Kan since last month’s Cabinet reshuffle. Former chief Cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura, fielded by the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, won 52 percent of votes on Sunday to grab a seat left vacant after a -ruling-party lawmaker resigned. Media said the defeat would damage Kan and his revamped government. “The election result is regrettable,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told a news conference.
AUSTRALIA
Cleric loses appeal
A Muslim cleric who led a terror cell that plotted to kill thousands yesterday lost an appeal against his jail term, but a court found that some sentences given to his group were excessive. Algerian-born Abdul Nacer Benbrika was sentenced in February last year to 15 years in jail for leading an organization committed to violent jihad that had discussed bomb and firearm attacks. Victoria’s Court of Appeal ruled that his main sentence was appropriate, but that a seven-year term Benbrika was serving concurrently for being a member of the group was “manifestly excessive” given its relatively low seriousness. The court said that Benbrika should have been given a five-year sentence for his membership.
INDONESIA
Merapi evacuation urged
The government yesterday warned Mount Merapi could erupt at any time, prompting calls for the evacuation of thousands of villagers living on the volcano’s slopes. Merapi has seen increased volcanic activity over the past week and officials have raised the alert level for the 2,968m mountain to the most urgent level, government volcanologist Surono said. “Officials have predicted that if it erupts, magma would flow to the southern side,” said Sri Purnomo, the head of Sleman district on Java. He said officials were warning about 11,400 villagers living on the mountain’s southern slope to prepare for “urgent evacuation.”
MYANMAR
Oil well fire kills 14
At least 14 people have been killed and 58 injured in a fire at an oil well in the center of the country, an official said yesterday, adding that the casualty toll could rise. Authorities were battling to put out the blaze, which broke out on Sunday near Pakokku town in the Magway region. The cause of fire is not known.
NEPAL
Everest veteran feared dead
Chhewang Nima Sherpa, who has climbed Mount Everest 19 times, is missing and feared dead in the Himalayas two days after being swept away by an avalanche, expedition organizers said yesterday. Chhewang, 43, was fixing ropes for a climbing group high on the 7,129m Mount Baruntse on Saturday when the avalanche hit as one of his colleagues looked on. “It’s been so long since he went missing. We fear that he is dead. If he is buried under the snow, there is no way he can survive,” said Jeeban Ghimire, director of Sherpa Shangri-La Treks, which organized the expedition. Ghimire said bad weather had hampered the helicopter rescue operation.
CHINA
Parents sue over son’s suicide
The parents of a university student who killed himself in a suicide pact arranged online via instant messaging have sued the firm which runs the popular service, a court official said yesterday. The 20-year-old man, identified by his surname, Fan, responded to an invitation to commit suicide circulated by a man surnamed Zhang in June through QQ, run by Chinese Internet firm Tencent, media reports said. Fan went to Lishui, Zhejiang Province, to meet Zhang, 22. The two burned charcoal in a sealed-up hotel room in an attempt to kill themselves by inhaling carbon monoxide, the reports said. Zhang left the hotel room after getting a headache, but Fan stayed and died a few hours later, they said. Fan’s parents have demanded that Zhang and Tencent pay more than 270,000 yuan (US$41,000) in compensation, said an official at a court in Lishui, which is hearing the case.
UNITED KINGDOM
Blair in-law converts to Islam
Former prime minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law has converted to Islam after having what she describes as a “holy experience” during a visit to Iran. Journalist and broadcaster Lauren Booth, 43 — Cherie Blair’s sister — now wears a hijab whenever she leaves her home, prays five times a day and visits her local mosque whenever she can. She decided to become a Muslim six weeks ago after visiting the shrine of Fatima al--Masumeh in the city of Qom. “It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy,” she said in an interview on Sunday. When she returned to Britain, she decided to convert immediately. Booth — who works for Press TV, the English--language Iranian news channel — has stopped eating pork and reads the Koran every day. She is currently on page 60. Booth has stopped drinking alcohol and says she has not wanted to drink since converting.
FRANCE
Big ‘nose’ puts foot in mouth
Anti-racism groups plan to sue the perfume house Guerlain after one of its best-known perfumiers said he “worked like a nigger” to create a new scent. Around 100 protesters gathered outside the Guerlain store on the Champs Elysees this weekend, calling for a worldwide boycott of the perfume house and its owner, Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy, because of the racist slur. Jean-Paul Guerlain, 73, was interviewed on French state TV last week, and asked about the creation of a new perfume, Samsara, in the 1980s. He replied: “I worked like a nigger. I don’t know if niggers have always worked like that, but anyway.” Guerlain, a famous “nose,” or perfume developer, retired from the company in 2002 but acts as a consultant to their top perfumier. He issued a statement apologising for his “shocking words” and said he took full responsibility.
Guerlain head office said his words were unacceptable. LVMH released a statement condemning “all forms of racism.”
RUSSIA
Black Sea Fleet to get boost
The country plans to add 18 new vessels to its Black Sea Fleet within the next decade after a landmark deal with Ukraine to extend the lease on the fleet’s base, a navy source was quoted by Interfax as saying yesterday. The fleet has fallen into disrepair in recent years, but Moscow plans to add 18 new vessels, including at least six frigates and six diesel-powered submarines, Interfax news agency cited a source in naval command as saying.
KENYA
Pirates seize German ship
Pirates seized a German freight ship on Sunday, the second commercial vessel to be captured in the region in as many days, officials said. The pirates took control of the freighter Beluga Fortune about 1,900km east of Mombasa, a spokesman for the German army said. German shipping company Beluga-Reederei, which owns the vessel, said on Sunday that Somali pirates were behind the attack and that the ship was on its way from the United Arab Emirates to South Africa.
UAE
Gallup to probe Abu Dhabi
Global opinion research organization Gallup is to open a research centre into Muslim opinion in the United Arab Emirates, the official WAM news agency reported. ADGC is to open later this year in partnership with the court of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahayan.
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