NEPAL
New leader elected
Lawmakers on Thursday elected Jhalanath Khanal, 60, as prime minister, ending a seven-month leadership vacuum. The chairman of the Unified Marxist Leninist party won the vote after securing the support of the Maoists, the largest bloc in the 601-member parliament. His election breaks a long deadlock that has seen the country without a government since June, with political leaders unable to reach agreement on the formation of a new administration in 16 previous rounds of voting.
PAKISTAN
Thousands flee fighting
A government administrator said about 22,000 civilians had fled intense fighting between government troops and militants in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border. The unpublicized offensive in Mohmand began on Jan. 27 to rout militants accused of targeting security forces and orchestrating bombings in the region. Roshan Khan Mehsud said the estimated 22,000 displaced were now living in camps away from the troubled area and were being provided with food and aid.
INDIA
Minister slammed in report
A panel probing anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat in 2002 has strongly criticized the “partisan” handling of the unrest by the state’s Hindu nationalist chief minister, Narendra Modi. The panel, set up by the Supreme Court, concluded that Modi had sought to play down the seriousness of the violence that claimed 2,000 lives. However, the panel felt it had not uncovered enough material to justify criminal prosecution, it said in a report yesterday. The Gujarat riots were one of the bloodiest incidents of sectarian violence since independence. Mainly Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods for three days, hacking, burning, shooting and beating at least 2,000 Muslims to death.
UNITED STATES
Uganda’s Kato remembered
Supporters from about 40 human rights groups gathered for a vigil in New York on Thursday in memory of murdered Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato and called for his killer to be brought to justice. “We’re mobilizing to bring attention to the government and people [in the US] to homophobia in Africa and Uganda in particular,” said one of the activists, Charles Gueboguo. Homosexuality is banned in Uganda, which is mulling a harsh new anti-gay bill, which would usher in the death sentence for acts of “aggravated homosexuality.” After the vigil the demonstrators delivered a letter to the Ugandan Permanent Representative at the UN, signed by leading rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, calling for Kampala to “immediately denounce David’s murder.”
UNITED STATES
Judge’s son charged
The son of a local judge has been charged over the brazen theft of US$1.5 million in chips from Las Vegas’ Bellagio Casino in December, police said on Thursday. Anthony Carleo, 29, was detained in a room at the Bellagio on Wednesday by undercover police officers pretending to be interested in buying the chips, police spokesman Ray Steiber told reporters. Investigators recovered US$900,000 worth of chips from him and have accounted for another US$300,000 worth, he said. The robbery startled the casino world with its audacity. A man in a motorcycle helmet charged into the casino at 4am, brandished a gun and demanded money at a craps table. He received US$1.5 million in casino chips and then fled on a motorcycle.
‘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