THAILAND
Militants kill five people
Police said suspected militants killed five people and wounded 11 in three overnight attacks in the insurgency-plagued south. Police Colonel Chaiwat Nittayawimon said one soldier and one paramilitary ranger were killed overnight on Wednesday when about 10 suspected militants attacked their operations base in Songkhla Province. Another ranger was wounded. Police did not say if the attackers stole any weapons. In two other attacks late on Wednesday and early yesterday in other southern provinces, suspected insurgents killed three, including a four-year-old girl, and wounded 10.
CHINA
Pilot refused to give up spot
A pilot’s refusal to give up his landing slot to a passenger plane that issued a distress call to say it was running out of fuel almost caused a disaster, state media reported yesterday. Privately owned Juneyao Airlines confirmed one of its pilots refused to give way when a Qatar Airways plane contacted air traffic controllers at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, asking permission to land immediately. The pilot of the Qatar plane said it had just five minutes’ worth of fuel left after it was diverted from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Global Times newspaper reported, adding that a disastrous accident was only narrowly averted. The Qatar plane was traveling from Doha when it was ordered to divert due to a thunderstorm on Aug. 13. Air traffic controllers at Hongqiao ordered the Juneyao pilot to circle the airport and allow the Qatar plane to land first, but the pilot refused. The Global Times said the Juneyao pilot claimed he had been waiting “a long time” and needed to land “right now,” citing comments posted online. Juneyao Airlines said the pilot and crew had been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, but that the “rumors on the Internet are far from the truth.”
AFGHANISTAN
Would-be bombers set free
President Hamid Karzai met a group of would-be child suicide bombers aged as young as seven on Wednesday and ordered their release on compassionate grounds. The 20 or so youngsters were recruited individually by the Taliban, often at religious schools, and promised virgins in paradise after they blew themselves up, a statement from the presidential palace said. However, all of the group were either arrested or surrendered to security forces before they could strike. Officials accuse the Taliban of using an increasing number of children in suicide attacks, as they are easily recruited and difficult to detect.
CHINA
Mongol killer executed
A truck driver was executed for killing an ethnic Mongol herder in a case that sparked Inner Mongolia’s largest demonstrations in 20 years. Xinhua news agency said in a brief report that Li Lindong (李林東) was executed on Aug. 18. The report, dated Aug. 19, was posted to a regional news Web site and appeared to not be widely circulated. The herder, Mergen, was killed on May 10 while he and others were blocking the road through their village to protest noise and pollution produced by coal trucks transiting the grasslands. Police said Li ran over Mergen and then dragged his body for 145m before he died. His death and that of another Mongol in a clash with Han coalminers sparked protests across the sprawling northern pastureland demanding justice and greater protection for Mongol culture and the nomadic herding lifestyle.
PERU
Powerful quake rocks nation
A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook the east of the country on Wednesday and was felt more than 480km away in the capital Lima, as well as in neighboring Ecuador and Brazil. Seismologists from the US Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was 80km south of Pucallpa, a city isolated by the Andes and the Amazon rainforest. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and the US government’s Pacific warning center said no destructive tsunami was created after the quake, which was deep at 145km underground. Guillermo Alvizuri, head of Peru’s civil defense operations, said authorities were trying to contact remote places such as Contamana, a town of 17,000 inhabitants deep in the Amazon and close to the epicenter. “So far we do not have reports of any material damage or casualties,” Alvizuri told local media. “At the moment, no major cities have reported any damage, neither has Pucallpa. It was felt strongly, but no damage was reported, except for some telephone lines which were cut.”
UNITED STATES
Lennon to star in tribute
American stars Sean Lennon and Beck are among the headliners at a Hollywood Bowl concert on Sunday paying tribute to late French musician Serge Gainsbourg, praised as a lyricist, but little known in the US. Also playing will be Lulu Gainsbourg, son of the noted French artist, who was five when his father died in 1991. French composer Jean Claude Vannier will conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at the event, which includes a performance of the Gainsbourg concept album Histoire de Melody Nelson. The collection “did not have a lot of success in France when it came out,” Vannier said. Gainsbourg was known for an eclectic repertoire from jazz to pop to reggae, and he collaborated with singers including Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot, to produce commercial hits like Je t’aime ... moi non plus and Bonnie & Clyde.
ITALY
Tourists take unexpected dip
Four Spanish tourists took an unexpected swim near Venice on Wednesday after a wave caused by a large motorboat capsized their gondola, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported. The holidaymakers were quickly rescued by other gondoliers gliding nearby, but the incident has reignited debate over the difficulties gondolas face on the waters surrounding the picturesque Italian city. The flat-bottomed tourist boats are a Venetian fixture, frequently hired by tourists looking to explore the city’s canals, but they are vulnerable to the sudden wash from passing motorboats. “The problem remains the movement of the swell caused by motorboats,” the head of a gondoliers association, Aldo Reato, said, adding that he has been complaining about the problem for two years.
GREECE
Police free to enter schools
Greece has abolished restrictions that made it difficult for police to enter university campuses, which have become a hotbed for protests against the country’s austerity measures. The new law also reduces the say of student political parties in academic administration. Lawmakers passed the new legislation on Wednesday, which left-wing parties opposed. Under previous freedom of expression laws, police could only enter university grounds with rarely-granted permission from academic authorities. That system was widely abused, particularly by rioting youths who would hole up in university buildings to attack police during protests against austerity measures.
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
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