JAPAN
Troops planned for Yonaguni
Tokyo plans to send non-combat troops for the first time to the nation’s westernmost island in response to Chinese naval maneuvers in the East China Sea, a move that could infuriate its giant neighbor, the Nikkei Shimbun said yesterday. The plan is to send 100 troops to Yonaguni, about 110km east of Taiwan and 160km southwest of disputed East China Sea islets called the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan and Senkaku in Japan. However, it wouldn’t take effect until 2014 at the earliest, the newspaper said without giving an explanation. The plan involves the deployment of lightly armed military personnel to monitor activities and communications of warships and aircraft, the newspaper said. The Defense Ministry was also considering sending troops to the islands of Miyako and Ishigaki west of Okinawa to beef up border security, the Nikkei said. Okinawa is home to 2,100 Japanese troops. Currently no troops are deployed on islands to the west. The ministry has earmarked ¥30 million (US$359,200) in its budget request for next year for research on deployment of troops to Yonaguni and other southwest islands.
JAPAN
Ship fires on vessel
A small, unidentified ship opened fire on a container vessel run by a Japanese logistics firm, in an apparent piracy attack in the Indian Ocean, a report said late on Saturday. None of container ship’s 24 crew members, all non-Japanese, was injured in the incident, Kyodo News reported, quoting Japan’s transport ministry. The Panama-registered, 105,644-tonne Altair, operated by Nippon Yusen K.K., was sailing for Singapore when it was approached and fired upon, Kyodo said.
CHINA
Mine mob kills nine
Police have arrested 10 people, including rival coal mine owners, after mob violence that left nine dead and 48 injured in the southwest, state media reported. The violence involving explosives and gunfire broke out after an underground shaft from one mine broke into a competitor’s in Yunnan Province, a report by the China News Service said. The owner of the Yuejin mine allegedly hired more than 80 thugs to attack the Xiaosongdi mine on Thursday. Police have been stationed at the hospital and around the mine amid fears of a retaliatory attack.
INDONESIA
Nine arrested over flag
Nine people have been arrested after an outlawed separatist flag was raised in the remote Papua Province, police said yesterday. Eight men and a woman from the West Papua Revolutionary Army, the militant wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement, unfurled the banned “Morning Star” flag on Saturday in a village in Jayawijaya district, local police chief I Gede Sumerta Jaya said. “They’re likely to be named suspects on charges of plotting against the state,” he added.
MALAYSIA
Coalition eases rules
The ruling coalition will let people and parties become members more easily following a change to its rules that officials say is aimed at boosting the government’s support ahead of general elections widely expected within 18 months. It is the latest move by Prime Minister Najib Razak to strengthen his National Front coalition as pundits expect him to call for early polls amid signs of a weakening opposition.
NAMIBIA
Bag suspect arrested
Police chief Sebastian Ndeitunga said a senior officer has been arrested, linked to a suspicious bag that turned out to be a harmless airport security testing device. The Namibian Press Association quoted Ndeitunga as telling reporters on Saturday the suspect has not been charged and will appear in court today. He did not elaborate on what the officer is believed to done. German, US and local police continue to investigate. The device did not contain explosives, but airport security did not know that when it was discovered on Wednesday at Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport near bags of a German-bound flight. It remains unclear whether a government or other group was testing security. Germany is on alert because of warnings of heightened terrorism threats.
UNITED KINGDOM
Thousands protest war
A thousands-strong protest spearheaded by military families descended on central London to demonstrate against the war in Afghanistan on Saturday. The Stop the War Coalition said that 10,000 people marched through the British capital in a protest against the war, which is stretching into its 10th year. Britain is the second-largest source of military manpower for the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, which is grappling with Taliban rebels as it tries to stabilize the country’s government. Britain, like other NATO allies, is struggling to balance its budget at a time when support for the war in Afghanistan is fading. Britain has set a 2015 deadline for the end to combat operations there, but many of the protesters said that was not soon enough.
NIGERIA
Iranian heroine seized
The drug enforcement agency said Europe was the destination for a recent catch of 130kg of high-quality heroin hidden inside a shipment of auto parts sent from Iran. Agency chairman Ahmadu Giade said the drugs were worth US$9.9 million. He said the US helped local officials find the illegal shipment, but did not give details on the collaboration. He also says arrests have been made, but did not elaborate in his statement on Saturday. The catch comes after officials seized a shipment of military-grade weapons, allegedly from Iran, in Lagos’ busiest port last month. Lagos last week reported Iran to the UN last week over the weapons shipment, which contained artillery rockets, mortars and ammunition.
FRANCE
Pope criticizes burqa law
Pope Benedict XVI criticized a law banning Muslim women from wearing the Islamic full-face veils in public, saying women should be able to wear them voluntarily, according to a book due out tomorrow. “As far as the burqa is concerned, I do not see a reason for a general ban,” Benedict said in a series of interviews in his native German to be published as a book. “Some women do not wear the burqa entirely voluntarily and it is correct to talk of a violation against that woman. Of course one cannot agree with that, but if they want to wear it voluntarily, I don’t know why one must ban them,” he said, according to a copy of the German text obtained by reporters. The ban on full-face veils, such as the burqa and the hijab, is a hotly contested issue, with the government saying it aims to protect women’s rights, but critics saying it stigmatizes Muslims. The top legal authority, the Constitutional Council, approved the law last month and it is due to enter force early next year.
UNITED STATES
Woman dies of neglect
An Ohio man has pleaded guilty in the death of his sickly wife, who was found at their home covered in bedsores and maggots. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that 65-year-old Darrel White of Cincinnati pleaded guilty to charges of reckless homicide and failure to provide care to an impaired person. White told the judge he did the best he could. Jorene White was bedridden and suffered from debilitating arthritis. Authorities say Darrel White allowed her to die by not taking care of her or not taking her to a doctor. Police say they found her dead at their home on July 23. The coroner says she had died a day earlier from a blood infection. White faces up to six-and-a-half years in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 15.
UNITED STATES
Chicago race heats up
Former Democratic senator Carol Moseley Braun announced her candidacy for mayor of Chicago, entering a race that includes Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff in US President Barack Obama’s White House. Braun, 63, promised an open and accountable government during an event on Saturday in Chicago, her campaign said in an e-mailed news release. Braun and Emanuel are vying to replace Mayor Richard Daley, a Democrat, who said in September he wouldn’t seek a seventh term leading the third-largest US city based on population. Chicago-born Braun served as US senator from Illinois from 1993 to 1999, as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa from 1999 to 2001 and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004.
COLOMBIA
FARC commander killed
President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday that security forces apparently killed a senior commander of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas who is wanted by the US. Santos said preliminary information indicated that military forces in an attack on Saturday killed Fabian Ramirez, second in command in the group’s southern block. “The information that the defense minister has given me, which has come from the area, is that they’ve found four or five bodies and apparently this bandit was killed,” Santos said during a weekly address. “I say apparently because it’s not confirmed, but they found his two pistols, his bags, wrist clasps and his computers.” Ramirez was close to the FARC’s upper command. Bogota has drastically improved its security with a US-backed offensive against armed groups that opened up parts of the country once under rebel control and spurred an influx in foreign investment.
UNITED STATES
Twain chapter nets big bucks
A handwritten chapter of Mark Twain’s A Tramp Abroad sold for US$79,300 at auction, which was well above expectations, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers said on Friday. The Twain work had a pre-sale estimate of between US$30,000 and US$50,000, the auction house said. Thursday night’s fine books and manuscripts auction brought the gavel down on a handwritten high school essay by a young Ernest Hemingway for US$7,320 and autographed documents from Leo Tolstoy, Boris Pasternak, Auguste Rodin and Henri Matisse. “The sales results were astounding, proving once again that property from private collections that is fresh to the market will always attract competitive bidding,” Mary Williams, the auction house’s director of books and manuscripts said. Another sale item drawing interest was a “death mask” made of bank robber John Dillinger, which sold for US$3,660.
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