BAHRAIN
Protests after activists jailed
Protesters poured back to the streets after a security court sentenced eight Shiite activists to life in prison in the latest blow by the Western-backed kingdom to cripple the biggest Arab Spring opposition movement in the Gulf. The fast and angry reaction to Wednesday’s verdicts — the most significant display of unrest in weeks — underscored the volatility in the island nation after four months of unrest and raised questions about whether any credible pro-reform leaders will heed calls by the Sunni monarchy to open talks next week. Security forces used tear gas to drive back hundreds of Shiite marchers trying to reach a central square in the capital, Manama. In other Shiite areas, protesters gathered in the streets, but were held back by riot police. No injuries were reported.
NETHERLANDS
Politician acquitted
A court acquitted right-wing politician Geert Wilders of hate speech and discrimination yesterday, ruling that his anti-Islam statements, while offensive to many Muslims, fell within the bounds of legitimate political debate. Presiding judge Marcel van Oosten said Wilders’ claims that Islam is violent by nature, and his calls to halt Muslim immigration and ban the Muslim holy book, the Quran, must be seen in a wider context of debate over immigration policy. The court said his public statement could not be directly linked to increased discrimination against Dutch Muslims.
SOUTH AFRICA
Mrs Obama talks to youth
US first lady Michelle Obama urged young Africans on Wednesday to fight for women’s rights and battle the stigma of AIDS, using her husband’s “yes, we can” campaign slogan to motivate youth across the continent. Obama is on her second solo trip abroad as first lady to promote issues such as education, health and wellness. However, her speech to a group of young women and men at Regina Mundi Church, which played a role in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, touched on race, discrimination, democracy and development.
UNITED KINGDOM
Royal visit draws media
About 1,300 journalists are accredited to cover Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine’s visit to Canada from June 30 to July 7, Heritage Minister James Moore said on Tuesday. It is almost twice the number that followed the prince’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, during her trip to the Commonwealth country last year. Among them will be 241 foreign journalists, including from Japan, China, India and Qatar, Moore told a media briefing to highlight the massive interest from around the world in the couple’s first visit abroad as newlyweds.
SENEGAL
Police disperse protesters
Police used tear gas on Wednesday to disperse people demonstrating against proposed changes to the electoral laws that would make it easier for the country’s aging president to be re-elected. Private radio station Radio Futurs Media, or RFM, said the protesters were attacked in Place de l’Independance, the largest square in the capital’s downtown district, in the suburb of Pikine, and in the town of Kaolack in the interior of the country. No casualties were immediately reported. Anger is building in this normally stable country on Africa’s western coast because the proposed constitutional amendments are seen as designed to make it easier for 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade to be re-elected and to create the position of vice president for his son.
UNITED STATES
Guru sentenced over deaths
A US self-help guru was convicted of negligent homicide on Wednesday over the deaths of three people at an Arizona “sweat lodge” ceremony in 2009, a court official said. James Ray was found not guilty of the more serious charges of manslaughter over the deaths, which occurred after 60 people were packed into a sweat lodge for two hours after a 36-hour fast. The 60 participants paid Ray US$9,000 each in October 2009 for a spiritual retreat near Sedona, Arizona, in which participants could sweat out their worries in an enclosure where hot rocks were placed inside a tent. Three people died and 19 were taken to hospital.
UNITED STATES
‘Whitey’ Bulger arrested
US authorities said on Wednesday they have captured James “Whitey” Bulger, an alleged crime boss wanted since 1995 for a string of murders who was an inspiration for gangster film The Departed. The FBI said a recent publicity campaign had generated a tip that led agents to arrest Bulger, 81, and his long-time companion Catherine Greig, 60, in Santa Monica, California, “without incident.” Bulger has been indicted for 19 murders. The FBI said that Bulger had been sought for a string of murders from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s “in connection with his leadership of an organized crime group.” It said his gang “allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals, and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts, area.” The FBI said Bulger “has a violent temper and is known to carry a knife at all times.”
UNITED STATES
Lohan in trouble again
Troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan was due back in court in Los Angeles, California, yesterday for breaching probation after failing an alcohol test while already on home detention, officials and reports said. A court hearing will determine if Lohan, currently serving 35 days of home custody with an electronic ankle bracelet, breached the terms of her probation for a 2007 drunk driving incident, the LA District Attorney’s office said.
UNITED STATES
Palin to perform jury duty
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin said on Wednesday she was pausing her “One Nation” bus tour to answer the call of jury duty and denied media reports her much-hyped multistate jaunt had been cut short. The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has hinted she may run for president next year, and many have viewed her bus tour as a possible campaign warm-up should Palin ever declare herself a White House candidate. Palin began her tour over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and visited a number of historic sites along the east coast.
UNITED STATES
Journalist admits secret
A prize-winning journalist who reported for the Washington Post went public on Wednesday with a secret he has been keeping for nearly two decades: He is an illegal immigrant. Jose Antonio Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, says that now he wants to push Congress to pass a bill called the DREAM Act that would allow people like him to become citizens if they go to college or serve in the military. “I’m done running. I’m exhausted,” Vargas wrote in a York Times Magazine essay posted online on Wednesday. “I don’t want that life anymore.” He says he didn’t know about his citizenship status until four years after he arrived in California.
‘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