PHILIPPINES
Fire razes shantytown
About 10,000 people lost their homes and one child was killed when a fire swept through one of the country’s largest shantytowns in Manila yesterday, arson investigator Catherine Albino said. The authorities had yet to determine the cause of the blaze that destroyed about 500 houses in the Bahay Toro slum, Albino said. Firemen battled for more than three hours before the blaze was brought under control.
NORTH KOREA
Food needs being assessed
The UN said on Monday it had begun a new assessment of the impoverished country’s food needs. The country has reportedly asked the US and other nations to consider resuming food aid. US handouts were suspended in 2009 after monitors of its distribution were expelled. Last Thursday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization began a joint mission to assess food needs in the country, said Bettina Luescher, the WFP’s spokeswoman in New York. WFP’s current food aid operation is only 20 percent funded, she said. It requires about US$4 million a month.
CHINA
Smoking on way out
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is ordering makers of films and TV shows to limit the amount of smoking depicted on-screen, the latest effort to curb rampant tobacco use in the country with the largest number of smokers in the world. The order, viewed yesterday on its Web site, orders producers to minimize plot lines and scenes involving tobacco and show smoking only when necessary for artistic purposes or character development.
HONDURAS
Air crash kills 14 people
A small commercial airliner crashed on Monday near the capital, killing all 14 people aboard, including a senior government official and a top union leader, authorities said. Two Americans and a Canadian were listed as passengers on the Central American Airlines’ flight to Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, said Melvin Duarte, spokesman for the Attorney General’s office. US and Canadian embassy officials said they would release details on the victims after notifying their families. The Let L-410 Turbolet crashed on Monday morning in the town of Las Mesitas, about 5km south of the airport. It was carrying two pilots and 12 passengers, including Assistant Secretary for Public Works Rodolfo Rovelo, United Workers Federation of Honduras leader Jose Israel Salinas and former economy secretary Carlos Chain, airline manager Felix Pacheco said.
UNITED STATES
Composer Shearing dies
British-born jazz pianist and composer George Shearing, known for his Lullaby of Birdland that paid tribute to Charlie Parker, died on Monday, his agent said. Manager Dale Sheets said Shearing “passed away in New York this morning at 1:05am of congestive heart failure.” He was 91. Shearing, who was blind from birth, emigrated to the US in 1947 and formed a jazz quintet that recorded numerous hits. He became a superstar of the jazz world a couple of years after he arrived in the US, although he was already hugely popular in England. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
ITALY
Berlusconi trial date set
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will go on trial for abuse of power and buying underage sex in April, a judge ruled yesterday. Judge Cristina Di Censa, the examining judge at the court in Milan, fixed the date for the first hearing in a fast-track trial for April 6. “We didn’t expect anything else,” Berlusconi’s lawyers said on hearing the news. Berlusconi will be tried by three female judges. Di Censa upheld requests by Milan magistrates to fast-track a trial against the 74-year-old leader on allegations he paid for sex with a nightclub dancer called “Ruby the Heart Stealer.”
UNITED STATES
Condom finder released
Health officials have released a mobile phone application to help people in New York City find free condoms. The app is designed to locate the five nearest venues that distribute official NYC Condoms in jazzy wrappers printed with colorful subway maps or other city themes. People can manually enter addresses or use their phones’ GPS technology. The app provides the hours of operation for each location and directions by foot, car or public transportation. It also offers tips on condom usage.
UNITED STATES
Airport worker admits theft
A supervisor at a New Jersey airport has admitted accepting bribes and kickbacks from a subordinate who stole money from passengers during security screenings. Michael Arato of Ewing also admitted on Monday in federal court that he regularly stole from passengers who went through his checkpoint at Newark Liberty Airport. Prosecutors say the 41-year-old Arato permitted a worker he supervised to steal US$10,000 to US$30,000 in cash from travelers’ bags over 13 months. In exchange, the subordinate would give some of the money to Arato. The subordinate, who was not named, cooperated with the investigation that led to Arato’s arrest in October. Arato faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and is to be sentenced on May 24.
‘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