IRAN
Attack kills border guards
Four border guards were killed in an attack when their station was targeted by armed assailants in the western province of Kurdistan, a local official said on Saturday. Ezzatollah Rashidian, Kurdistan’s border commander, told Mehr news agency three soldiers and a border guard officer died when the station in the town of Marivan was the target of a grenade attack on Friday night. Five other border guards were injured in the attack. The English-language Press TV, quoting unnamed local sources on its Web site, accused the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, a Kurdish separatist group, of carrying out the attack.
OMAN
Protestors released
Authorities said they have released 57 people arrested in crackdowns against pro-reform protesters. The announcement yesterday is an apparent attempt to ease tensions after clashes with demonstrators demanding officials free the detainees. One protester died in the Friday unrest. More than 100 people were arrested late last month as authorities try to quell demonstrations pushing for more job opportunities and greater political freedoms in the tightly ruled country. The protests — which began in late February — are small compared with the upheavals in Gulf neighbor Bahrain and elsewhere in the Arab world, but unprecedented for the sleepy sultanate.
MALAYSIA
Malay Bibles to print locally
The government will allow Malay-language Bibles to be printed locally, in a major concession to Christians to soothe anger over seized shipments of their holy book. The government’s offer on Saturday comes ahead of April 16 elections in Sarawak state on Borneo Island, where Christians account for more than 40 percent of the population. Customs authorities have held tens of thousands of Malay-language Bibles amid a government ban on the use of the word “Allah” as a translation for God. Previously, Malay-language Bibles had to be imported from Indonesia.
AUSTRALIA
Arrests end kids’ game
An under-11s soccer game ended with three men being arrested after a furious row on the sidelines involving a pair of scissors and a folding chair, police said yesterday. A fight erupted at the match at Hoxton Park in Sydney on Saturday when a player was substituted and two of the men allegedly began arguing with the team coach. “It is alleged one of the men then threatened the two others with a pair of plastic-handled scissors,” a police statement said, adding that the man with the scissors was then hit with a chair. All three were charged with affray and common assault.
MYANMAR
‘Decadence’ may lead to jail
Revelers who wear “decadent” clothing during the country’s upcoming New Year’s celebrations can face up to a month in prison, a news report said yesterday. The four-day festival begins on Wednesday next week and marks the traditional New Year on the lunisolar calendar that is also used in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It’s one of the few times when the nation’s citizens can cut loose under the watchful eye of the repressive regime. Revelers in the impoverished country splash one another with water and dance in the streets, despite annual warnings of proper etiquette from the government. The News Watch journal, a weekly magazine, issued the government’s warning for merrymakers to “avoid wearing dress that is contrary to Myanmar culture.”
GUATEMALA
President’s divorce blocked
Media say a judge has temporarily blocked divorce proceedings by the wife of President Alvaro Colom. There have been complaints from some about the split because it would allow Colom’s wife to get around a constitutional ban on a president’s extended family running for the presidency. First lady Sandra Torres de Colom filed for divorce on March 21 so she could be the governing party’s candidate in September’s election to choose a successor for her husband. A group of university students filed an appeal against the divorce. Newspapers say the judge agreed on Friday to hear the case and put the divorce on hold while the appeal is studied. Officials have not been available to comment.
BRAZIL
Manhole cover explodes
A large manhole cover blew up in a crosswalk in Rio’s tourist haven Copacabana, injuring five people and leaving a steaming crater in the second such accident in 10 months, Brazil media reported on Saturday. The blast sent chunks of asphalt raining down on a major thoroughfare and sidewalks in the heavily traveled district late on Friday, and a taxi cab was crushed by the massive iron plate. “The explosion occurred at a crosswalk. If the light had been green, everyone could have died,” Cristiano Germano, manager of a supermarket near the site, told O Globo daily. The taxi driver and four other people were taken to hospital with burns and other injuries, Globo said on its Web site, and emergency responders blocked off the area. Last June, two US tourists were seriously wounded when a manhole cover blew up on a Rio street.
BRAZIL
Al-Qaeda operatives at work
Al-Qaeda operatives are in the country planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading news magazine reported on Saturday, renewing concerns about the nation serving as a hide-out for Islamic militants. Veja magazine, in its online edition, reported that at least 20 people affiliated with al-Qaeda as well as the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and two other organizations have been hiding out in the South American country. The magazine said these operatives have been raising money and working to incite attacks abroad. The magazine cited Brazilian police and US government reports, but did not give details on specific targets or operations. The US has said Islamic militants have been operating in the border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Brazil has denied this, while saying it is aware that some members of Brazil’s Lebanese community legally transferred funds to the Middle East.
UNITED STATES
Flight test crash kills four
Authorities say four people are dead after the fiery crash of a test aircraft at Roswell airport. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says two pilots and two flight test engineers were aboard the Gulfstream G-6 plane when it went down at about 9:30am on Saturday. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the plane was practicing takeoffs and landings. He says it had just taken off when it rolled and slammed into the runway. He says the plane’s gear collapsed and the craft burst into flames. There were no immediate reports of any other injuries. Lunsford says the plane was owned by Georgia-based Gulfstream, but it’s not immediately known whether the four victims were employed by the company.
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
‘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