SENEGAL
Chinese-built theater opens
President Abdoulaye Wade on Friday opened the capital city’s national Grand Theatre, an imposing building constructed by the Chinese company Complant. Wade thanked China “for this majestic jewel” which cost 16 billion CFA francs (US$34.6 million) and hailed the “dynamics, pragmatism and efficiency” that marked cooperation between the two countries. China bore 14 billion CFA francs of the total cost. The nation’s Ambassador to China, Pape Khalilou Fall, said earlier this year in an interview published in the pro-government newspaper Le Soleil that the project was financed through “non-repayable grants.” The opening ceremony was attended by Malian President Amadou Toumani Tourr and Chen Zhili (陳至立), a senior official of China’s National People’s Congress.
ISRAEL
Warplanes bomb Gaza
Warplanes launched raids against targets in Gaza overnight after two rockets were fired at from the coastal enclave, Palestinian security officials said yesterday. No one was hurt in the air attacks which struck bases of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, one source said. A military spokeswoman confirmed the raids and said warplanes struck “targets of a terrorist organization” in response to “two rockets fired on Ashkelon and Ashdod” in southern Israel on Friday afternoon. Friday’s attack was the first time any rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip since Sunday last week when militants in the Hamas-run territory began observing an unspoken truce, a military spokesman said.
RUSSIA
Putin takes to the ice
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin donned skates for an ice hockey training session on Friday in the latest in a series of stunts which help to keep his approval ratings high. Putin, who has hinted he may run for the presidency in March next year, regularly seeks to portray his physical fitness. A black belt in judo, he has been shown bare-chested on horseback and swimming butterfly across a Siberian river. On Friday he took part in a 40-minute session with two teenage ice hockey teams, emerging from a Moscow rink sweating and breathing heavily. “It is ... a very energy-consuming sport, and from my point of view, it is less traumatic than football,” Putin, 58, told reporters. Putin said he had last tried skating in his youth and did not like it. “My legs went apart at once and I decided this sport was not for me, but now I like it very much,” he said.
NEW ZEALAND
Christchurch hit by temblor
A magnitude 5.2 aftershock rocked the quake-shattered city of Christchurch yesterday and cut power to several areas, but there were no immediate reports of damage, officials said. The nation’s second largest city remains devastated following a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in February which claimed 181 lives, and followed a stronger, but less destructive magnitude 7.1 quake in September. The latest tremor hit at 5:49pm and was centered 16km west of the city at a depth of 9km, the US Geological Survey said. Power was cut in several areas of the city, but Roger Sutton, chief executive of power company Orion, said this was because the substations had automatically shut down when the quake hit. He said that electricity supplies would be restored within an hour as soon as checks were carried out.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was