NEPAL
Plane crash kills 22
All 22 people aboard a small plane died when it crashed in the mountainous east, searchers said yesterday after finding the wreckage of the plane that had gone missing a day earlier. The Rescue Coordination Committee at Kathmandu Airport said that searchers found the wreckage near a village about 160km east of Kathmandu. It was not yet clear what caused the crash. Police official Bhesh Bahadur Thapa said the rescuers were collecting the bodies and preparing them to be sent back to Kathmandu. The three crew members and 18 passengers were Nepali nationals, while another passenger was a Tibetan holding a US passport.
HONG KONG
Police raid triad group
Police said on Wednesday they had dealt a major blow to a notorious triad group, after a territory-wide series of raids rounded up dozens of people, including a suspected gang leader. A total of 37 suspects, including a 56-year-old alleged ringleader and other senior members of an unidentified crime syndicate, have been arrested in an operation that began on Monday night, police said. Dozens of police and immigration officers raided multiple locations, including four nightclubs. The detainees, 17 men and 20 women, were aged between from 22 to 63 and were arrested for offenses including managing brothels, drug trafficking and immigration-related crimes, police said. Police declined to identify the group at the center of their latest raid, but press reports said authorities targeted the powerful Sun Yee On triad.
HONG KONG
Man jailed for acid attacks
A man was sentenced on Wednesday to 13 years in jail for throwing acid on pedestrians in a busy shopping district, one of a string of attacks that have terrorized the city. Lo Ching-ho (盧證濠), 24, received the penalty about one year after the high-profile incident which left six people injured, including one woman who suffered burns over nearly 20 percent of her body. A court spokeswoman confirmed the sentence handed to Lo, who was convicted of intent to commit grievous bodily harm after a jury trial last month. He lobbed acid on revelers who jammed bustling Causeway Bay to celebrate the local soccer team’s victory over Japan in the East Asian Games final last December. According to local reports, Lo had said he carried out the indiscriminate attack because he was unhappy that friends did not return his phone calls, also saying a voice in his head told him to commit the crime. Lo was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic in 2007, but a psychiatrist testified at trial that the man may instead suffer from a personality disorder, local radio RTHK reported on Wednesday.
HONG KONG
Manila to aid hijack victims
The Philippine tourism chief says his government is planning to give some aid to survivors and relatives of victims of a bus hostage-taking in which eight people from the territory died. Philippine Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said during a visit yesterday that details of the “token of solidarity” are being worked out.
AUSTRALIA
Lightning kills golfer
A powerful summer storm has ripped across the east of the country, dumping large hailstones, causing minor flooding and killing one golfer in a lightning strike. Ambulance spokeswoman Louise Whatman said the 65-year-old man died and his two companions suffered serious injuries yesterday afternoon when they were struck by a bolt of lighting at Hawks Nest north of Sydney.
UNITED NATIONS
UN chief wears boxers
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has revealed one of the secrets that did not come out on WikiLeaks: He is a boxers not briefs man. Ban, who was allegedly the target of US orders to get personal details, mocked the leaked diplomatic cables in a tongue-in-cheek speech to the annual UN Correspondents’ Association dinner late on Wednesday. Ban started his speech, to an audience that included US ambassador Susan Rice, by flashing details such as “credit card number,” “shoe size” and “ring finger 7.5” onto the screen. “Boxers not briefs” proclaimed one of the nuggets given to the diplomatic audience. According to the leaked cables, reported by international media, US diplomats at the UN were told to find out the credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer numbers for UN leaders.
MARTINIQUE
Man fined for slave talk
A court in Fort-de-France has found an 84-year-old businessman guilty of condoning a crime against humanity for praising slavery during a TV interview and sentenced him on Wednesday to pay a fine of nearly US$10,000. Alain Despointes made the comments at a moment when the French Caribbean territory was convulsed by protests over high prices and low wages and by resentment that the primarily white, “beke” descendants of slaveholders control much of the local economy. Despointes, one of the beke elite, also criticized mixed-race marriages during the interview aired in late January last year and said he wanted to “preserve his race.”
UNITED STATES
Border patrol agent killed
A shootout between border patrol agents and bandits in the rugged canyons near Mexico’s border left one officer dead and a suspect injured, a union official said on Wednesday. Brian Terry, 40, was part of a team of officers whose job was to drop into hotspots and quell the violence. The shooting took place about 21km north of the border, near Nogales, Arizona, late on Tuesday night, at the bottom of a flat canyon with scattered oak trees and knee-high grass. Terry was waiting with three other agents when a gunbattle with bandits began, Bonner said.
UNITED STATES
Army doctor feels sorry
An army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questioned President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be commander in chief told a jury on Wednesday he was wrong to do so and would now deploy if he could. Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lakin was speaking during a court martial hearing on Wednesday at Fort Meade, Maryland. In videos posted on YouTube earlier this year, Lakin aligned himself with the so-called “birther” movement, which questions whether Obama is a natural-born citizen as the US Constitution requires for presidents. Lakin had said he would “gladly deploy” if Obama’s original birth certificate were released and proved authentic.
UNITED STATES
School focuses on violence
City school district officials agreed on Wednesday to state and federal oversight for the next two-and-a-half years to address anti-Asian violence at a troubled high school that prompted a student boycott and a Justice Department investigation. The city’s School Reform Commission unanimously agreed to the consent decree involving South Philadelphia High School, where 30 Asian students were injured in racially motivated attacks last year.
‘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
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