AFGHANISTAN
Bombers attack PRT base
A suicide attack was under way at a foreign provincial reconstruction team (PRT) base in the capital of Zabul Province, Qalat, Zabul Deputy Governor Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said yesterday. “There has been one big blast near the PRT office,” he said. “At first, there was a huge suicide car bomb, then the gunfire started. The fighting is ongoing between the police and the attackers.” The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call. As of press time, there was no word of casualties.
CHINA
Road accident kills 17
Seventeen people were killed and 17 injured when a van carrying migrant workers slammed into a trailer truck parked alongside a highway early yesterday, Xinhua news agency reported. The accident occurred near Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, Xinhua said. The van was carrying 34 migrant workers at the time of the accident, the report said. No other details of the accident were immediately available.
SOUTH KOREA
Police fire water cannons
Police said yesterday they had fired water cannon, reportedly for the first time in three years, at protesters in Seoul demonstrating against hundreds of job losses at a major shipyard. Police used the cannon to disperse a crowd of about 800 who were marching across central Seoul toward the headquarters of Hanjin Heavy Industries yesterday, a police official who declined to be named said. No one was injured or arrested, he added. “We fired the water cannon after protesters marched beyond police lines and occupied more traffic lanes than allowed, causing a major traffic jam,” the police said. TV images showed protesters using umbrellas and banners to shield themselves from the powerful water blasts. The move came after more than 2,500 protesters rallied across downtown Seoul on Saturday night to call for Hanjin to reinstate about 400 workers laid off last year. Many continued the protest with yesterday’s rally. More than 9,000 police officers have been deployed since Saturday night.
YEMEN
Navy sinks speed boat
The navy sank a speed boat suspected of carrying explosives as it approached naval vessels patrolling the Gulf of Aden on Saturday night, a military official said. Major General Ruwais Mujawar, commander of the navy, said on a defense ministry Web site that the boat ignored several warning shots as it sped toward the warships. It sank after navy ships fired at it. He gave no further details. Islamist militants, which the government says are part of al-Qaeda, have taken over at least three southern towns in recent months, including a provincial capital, while protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh drag on. Al-Qaeda has used boats in the past to attack sea-borne targets.
ISRAEL
Gaza militants fire rocket
A rocket fired by Gaza militants yesterday hit the south of the country in what was the fourth projectile lobbed across the border since a truce took hold two days earlier, officials said. The rocket landed near Khatzerim, a village just west of Beersheva, a police spokeswoman said. An army spokeswoman said it was the fourth incidence of firing since the truce came into effect at 1am on Friday morning. “The rocket hit an empty area without causing injuries or damage,” she said. The latest ceasefire was put in place after a week of spiraling violence in and around Gaza that left 26 Palestinians and an Israeli dead.
PUERTO RICO
Senator quizzed over photos
Explicit pictures that surfaced this week of a man who some believe is one of the island’s senators have led to calls that he step down if the allegations can be proved. Local news media reported that the pictures first appeared on a mobile network application for gays and bisexuals and that later they themselves received copies from unidentified sources. Senator Roberto Arango did not categorically confirm or deny that the photographs are of him. He said during an interview with WAPA TV last week that he did not remember having taken them. Arango is single and said he has taken pictures of himself with a cellphone as he continues to lose weight. He did not return calls for comment on Saturday.
IRAN
US pair file appeal
The lawyer for two US men sentenced to eight-year prison sentences on charges of espionage and illegal entry says he has filed an appeal. Masoud Shafiei said the appeals court could decide immediately about his clients, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, or take up to two months to decide. Bauer and Fattal have been held since July 2009 after being taken into custody on the border with Iraq. A third American who was taken with them, Sarah Shourd, was released in September last year on US$500,000 bail. The trio said they mistakenly crossed into Iran.
BRAZIL
Trolley crash kills five
A popular trolley that runs through a scenic Rio de Janeiro neighborhood derailed on Saturday afternoon, killing five and injuring more than 30 others, the fire department said. The trolley is a common tourist attraction in Rio. A spokesman for the fire department could not say what had caused the accident and gave no further details. Pictures in the local media showed the lower platform of the trolley off its tracks and on its side with the entire upper carriage in rubble near a power pole on the steep, winding, cobblestone streets of the Santa Teresa neighborhood.
HAITI
Kidnappers kill official
A government official was killed by his kidnappers and a US citizen’s whereabouts are unknown after being kidnapped in Port-au-Prince, police sources said on Saturday. “Gilbert Giordanni was kidnapped on Friday and his body was found next to his car on Saturday along a street in the capital,” said police spokesman Frantz Lerebours, adding that there had been no ransom request. He also said a US national of Haitian descent, who works in an US school, was kidnapped. The nation’s anti-kidnapping police unit was searching for three others who have been kidnapped recently, including a six-year-old girl. The US embassy published a note on Twitter advising Americans to “remain alert ... Pay close attention to surroundings.”
GREECE
FARC-linked Russian held
Police say they have detained a Russian citizen wanted in Peru for a case of arms trafficking to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Police say the man was arrested on Friday in a hotel near Thessaloniki and will appear before an appeals court today in connection with an international warrant issued against him by Peru. Police officials said that the suspect was named Vladimir Gavrilov. They say Gavrilov allegedly participated in a deal involving 10,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, purchased in Jordan and parachuted to the FARC in 1999.
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