AUSTRALIA
Boat people sent to Malaysia
A boatload of asylum-seekers intercepted in the country’s waters yesterday will be the first sent to Malaysia under a controversial new swap deal, officials said. The boat was spotted by aircraft near Scott Reef, off the northwest coast, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said in a statement. A spokeswoman said it was the first boat intercepted since the deal with Malaysia was signed on July 25. The boat is thought to be carrying 54 asylum-seekers and two crew members. The deal with Malaysia followed several months of talks between the countries.
VIETNAM
Old artillery shell kills two
Two men died and a third was seriously injured in a blast as they attempted to cut open a Vietnam War-era artillery shell and extract its explosives, state media said yesterday. The men, aged 54 and 52, were killed immediately on Saturday as they tried to disassemble a US-made 105mm shell that they found in a field, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported. The injured 46-year-old man needed part of his leg amputated following the explosion in central Quang Ngai Province, and he remains in a critical condition, the paper said. A study in 2009 showed that leftover ordnance had killed 10,529 people and wounded more than 12,000 in six heavily--contaminated provinces since the conflict with US forces ended in 1975. The government last year approved a plan to clear about 1.3 million hectares, or 20 percent of the nation’s land, contaminated by unexploded munitions. Officials estimated they need more than 34 trillion dong (US$1.62 billion) for the cleanup.
PHILIPPINES
Stop oil explorations: rebels
The country’s largest Muslim guerrilla group has asked the government to stop any planned oil and gas explorations by foreign companies in vast southern regions they claim. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front said yesterday that allowing foreign companies to start energy explorations in ancestral territories they claim would complicate Malaysian-brokered peace talks. The rebel front is calling on prospective foreign companies not to take part in business ventures that would deprive the country’s minority Muslims of their remaining natural resources, adding that they have lost land and opportunities through years of massive land-grabbing. Rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal refused to say what the rebels would do if the energy explorations proceed.
AUSTRALIA
Navy sex assault investigated
Police were yesterday investigating a sexual assault claim involving the military, reportedly focusing on a navy ship previously found to have a culture of predatory sexual behavior. Reports said a 25-year-old sailor had told police she was assaulted on board the HMAS Success last week while it was docked in Sydney. Defence Minister Stephen Smith said police were probing a complaint, but gave no other information on the case, the latest in a series of sexual assault claims involving the military. “I have to be careful, there is an investigation under way,” Smith told Network Ten. “The most important thing here is that the young sailor concerned reported the incident, the alleged incident, to the navy.” Smith said that he and the country’s top military chiefs had made it clear there was “zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior throughout the service.” The Australian Defence Force has been stung by a string of allegations, some decades old, of abusive and sexist behavior in its ranks, with more than 1,000 people bringing their complaints to an inquiry.
EGYPT
Mubarak trial venue changed
Former president Hosni Mubarak’s trial on charges he ordered the killing of protesters during the country’s uprising will be held at a police academy on Cairo’s outskirts instead of a convention center in the heart of the capital, the head of Cairo’s appeals court said on Saturday. The change appears to be linked to concerns over security during the trial, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. The 83-year-old Mubarak is to stand trial alongside his security chief and six other senior security officials facing the same charges stemming from the crackdown that killed hundreds, but failed to stop the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak from power on Feb. 11. Mubarak’s two sons are also expected to appear in court on corruption charges. A business associate will be tried in absentia.
UNITED KINGDOM
Queen’s granddaughter weds
Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Zara Phillips married fellow athlete Mike Tindall on Saturday in a private ceremony in Edinburgh. Prince William and his wife, Kate, who tied the knot in April, and the monarch herself were among the guests in the Canongate Kirk, where the queen worships when staying in Edinburgh. After the ceremony, traditional Scottish bagpipe music was played as the newlyweds emerged from the church to loud cheers from the crowd outside. Several thousand fans gathered outside the church and the palace hoping to catch a glimpse of royalty, police estimated. However, the low-key festivities took many in Edinburgh by surprise. “Who’s getting married?” asked Alberto Alvarez, 38, who has come from Spain for a holiday. “I am very happy for them anyway,” he added.
GUATEMALA
Torres’s appeal rejected
The Supreme Court said on Saturday it had rejected an appeal from former first lady Sandra Torres seeking to overturn the court’s decision to bar her from running for the presidency this year. Only one of 13 judges voted in favor of the appeal, court president Luis Archila said during a news conference. Center-left Union of Hope Party hopeful Torres’s bid faces the hurdle of a constitutional rule that prevents family members of the president from taking power. To skirt this, she announced in March her divorce from President Alvaro Colom, who by law cannot run for a consecutive term. Torres is well behind in the polls. If she is barred from running that would nearly guarantee victory for retired general Otto Perez, of the right-wing Patriot Party, in a first round vote on Sept. 11. Torres is now expected to resort to the Constitutional Court, a panel of 12 judges that reviews complex cases.
RUSSIA
Five dead after boat sinks
Five people drowned and five were missing yesterday after a pleasure boat sunk in the Moscow River, a spokesman for the emergency ministry said. “The bodies of five passengers have been pulled out,” a spokesman for the city’s emergency ministry said, adding that the boat had a total of 17 passengers and crew on board, seven of whom were saved. The rescue operation was continuing yesterday morning, the spokesman said, adding that he could not comment on the chances of finding more passengers alive. The privately owned pleasure boat collided with a barge at 00:58am close to the city’s Luzhniki sports stadium, officials said. Two Turkish nationals were among the passengers rescued, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported, citing a rescue official.
‘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