VIETNAM
Police arrest protesters
Police rounded up at least 10 people as they broke up an anti-China rally yesterday for the second weekend running after a series of protests over tensions in the South China Sea. About 50 demonstrators, greatly outnumbered by security forces, were stopped and forced to disperse after they gathered close to the Chinese embassy in Hanoi. “Down with China. Down with arresting patriotic people,” the protesters shouted as they waved banners denouncing Chinese “violations” of national sovereignty. It was the seventh in an unprecedented series of protests that have taken place in Hanoi on recent weekends during an escalating maritime dispute in the South China Sea. Authorities in Hanoi allowed the first five protests to proceed without incident, but briefly detained 10 people, including journalists, during a rally on July 10 after talks with China in Beijing.
AUSTRALIA
EBay mom investigated
A mother who listed her children for sale on the Internet had her joke backfire when authorities were called in to investigate, police said yesterday. Officials in the southern city of Geelong were notified last week that a woman was attempting to sell her children, a boy and girl both aged under 10, on the auction site eBay. Photographs of the children were included in the sales pitch. “Police tracked down the woman, who said it was a joke,” police said in a statement. Child welfare officers and police conducted a joint investigation and police said no charges would be filed. “However, police discourage this type of behavior,” the statement said.
GAZA STRIP
Israel denies airstrike
Seven people were wounded yesterday by what Palestinian medical sources said was an Israeli air strike, but Israel denied it had carried out any such raid. Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run medical services, said four children and three adults suffered moderate injuries in air strikes in the northern Beit Hanun area. However, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces said: “There was no IDF activity in Gaza overnight or this morning.” The reported raid comes after days of rocket fire into southern Israel and four straight days of retaliatory Israeli air strikes between Tuesday and Friday night. The Israeli military said four rockets were fired into Israel over the weekend, bringing to 20 the number of munitions fired from the occupied territory since July 1.
NORTH KOREA
Floods destroy farmland
Floods triggered by torrential rain last week washed away homes, roads and farmland and caused unspecified casualties, according to state media. Heavy rain from Tuesday to Friday left more than 20,000 hectares of farmland destroyed or submerged across the country, the Korean Central News Agency said. The western and northeastern regions of Hwanghae and South Hamgyong were hit hard, with more than 250mm of rain recorded in some areas, it said. The downpour left several dykes, public buildings and roads destroyed and Hamhung saw casualties, it said without giving details. Reconstruction efforts were under way in affected areas, it said. After decades of deforestation, the country is particularly vulnerable to flooding. In 2007 it reported at least 600 dead or missing from devastating floods. State media said last week a tropical storm that hit the country last month had caused casualties and left more than 150 homes and 20,000 hectares of farmland destroyed or submerged.
‘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