CHINA
Blast kills six at cafe
At least six people were killed and 38 injured when a powerful explosion hit an Internet cafe in Kaili City, Guizhou Province, on Saturday evening, reducing it to ruins, state media reported. The blast ripped through the cafe at about 11pm, state television said yesterday, citing local police. The broadcast showed rescue workers pulling victims from the devastated building and rushing the injured to hospital. The blast may have been triggered by “inflammable and explosive materials” kept in a nearby storage room, the report said. Police were still investigating the cause of the explosion, which also smashed windows in neighboring buildings.
THAILAND
King’s health raises concern
The country is marking the 83rd birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch, but elaborate celebrations fail to mask concern over his health and the future of the royal institution. Bhumibol delivered his annual birthday speech yesterday, sounding what has become his usual call for unity to keep the country happy and prosperous in the face of the sometimes violent political conflict it has faced in recent years. The king made his brief remarks at the ceremonial Grand Palace in a slow and rasping voice, reflecting his frailty. Thousands of flag-waving citizens cheered his car’s journey from Siriraj Hospital, to which he was admitted in September last year, with a lung inflammation. There has been no detailed explanation of his extended stay.
MALAYSIA
Police break up protest
Police fired tear gas and water yesterday at protesters at an opposition-backed rally in Kuala Lumpur. Xavier Jayakumar, a legislator in central Selangor State, said police fired tear gas and water canon at a crowd of thousands. He said at least five people were also arrested. Reporters at the scene, who declined to be named, said rounds of tear gas sent people running into side streets near the big National Mosque before they regrouped. The protesters, including several opposition parliamentarians, gathered to speak out against the federal government’s interference of water management in Selangor, Xavier said. Selangor is run by the national opposition People’s Alliance, of which Xavier is a member. Gatherings of five or more people need police permission and authorities often crack down on protests.
MALAYSIA
Man deported for ‘terror’ link
An Indonesian man linked to the extremist Jemaah Islamiyah outfit has been deported, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday. Fadli Sadama arrived at Jakarta airport on Saturday evening under heavy guard, the Post reported. Sadama was suspected of having links with a local “terror” network and the Pattani United Liberation Organization separatist group in South Thailand, National Anti-Terror Agency director Petrus Golose was quoted as saying. “Fadli planned to train ... before returning to Indonesia to plot acts of terrorism in Pekanbaru, Riau Province, and in the Mount Anak Krakatau area with foreign tourists as his main target,” Golose added. Reports have said that Sadama was arrested on Oct. 13 while traveling to Johor and was found to be carrying two guns. Sadama is believed to be linked to a group suspected of killing a police officer in a spectacular bank robbery in the capital of Indonesia’s North Sumatra, Medan, in August.
UNITED STATES
Santa helps out needy
“Secret Santas” are roaming the streets of North Carolina, handing out US$100 handshakes. The Charlotte Observer reported that the crew of donors, who insist on anonymity, handed out the US$100 bills on Friday to anyone who looked like they could use it. Felicia Adams was handed US$100 while working at a Goodwill outlet store. She said the money will help her get to New York to visit her father who is dying of cancer. The donors take thousands of dollars from their own bank accounts to hand out. It’s the fourth year the random acts of kindness have been done in Charlotte. This year, a half-dozen volunteers from the Charlotte police and fire departments tagged along, guiding the group through the city and pointing out people they could help.
ECUADOR
Volcano fear downgraded
Authorities downgraded a warning late on Saturday about a possible major eruption of the Tungurahua volcano. The alert was reduced from the maximum red to orange as activity eased, the national civil defense office said. The Geophysical Institute in Quito earlier reported a “very rapid and sustained increase in seismic activity and other manifestations at the surface” since early Saturday. A red alert was also in effect in Banos and other Andean villages near the 5,029m volcano, whose name means “throat of fire” in the local Quechua language. In 1999, the 15,000 inhabitants of the town were forcibly evacuated after a powerful eruption and not allowed to return for a year. Tungurahua’s biggest eruption, in August 2006, left six people dead and destroyed hundreds of homes.
HONDURAS
Canadians attacked
A Canadian man was killed and his 13-year-old daughter raped when their boat was attacked last week, police said on Saturday after they found the boat stranded in a lagoon near the northwestern port of Tela. The girl, Myda Egrmajer, was rescued by a passing oil tanker and taken to Puerto Cortes, a few kilometers to the east of Tela, criminal investigation chief Abelino Gomez told reporters. He said the body of Ottawa resident Milan Egrmajer, 55, was found in the lagoon where the attack took place late on Thursday. It had seven gunshot wounds. Father and daughter were sailing in their yacht from Guatemala to the island of Utila when they had to put in at a lagoon near Tela due to bad weather on Thursday. Before they could set sail again, they were chased by another boat boarded and attacked by several men, according to media reports. Alerted to the attack, authorities said bad weather prevented then reaching the stranded Canadians until Saturday.
GREECE
Suspected bombers nabbed
An official says counterterrorism police have raided a location outside Athens where they seized weapons and arrested several people. Local media reported that four people were taken into custody, but the police spokesman who confirmed the raid would not say how many arrests were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in compliance with police rules. Last month, a radical anarchist group called Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire, claimed responsibility for a spate of parcel bombings. Most of the 14 packages, all using tiny amounts of explosives, were intercepted by police and destroyed, though a delivery service employee suffered minor burns in a small blast.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in