PAKISTAN
Suicide car bomb kills 10
A suicide car bomber attacked Shiite Muslims in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, yesterday as they were heading home after morning prayers at the start of the Eid al-Fitr Islamic holiday. The blast killed 10 people, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Baluchistan is believed to be home to Taliban militants who have targeted Shiites in the past. The bomber was apparently targeting a Shiite mosque, but could not get close enough because the road was blocked, Quetta police chief Ahsan Mahboob said. Instead, he detonated his explosives in a parking lot nearby, Mahboob said. The blast also wounded at least 17 people and damaged nearby vehicles and buildings, he said.
MALAYSIA
Bird flu fear downplayed
The government brushed off a warning from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about a resurgence of the deadly bird flu virus and a new mutant strain. Health Minister Liow Tiong-lai was quoted in the New Straits Times yesterday as saying that the country remained vigilant about the H5N1 virus, but no new cases had been reported. Liow said the WHO had not confirmed the warning. The WHO in a release on its Web site on Tuesday said it recognized the virus’ evolution in February, but that it was “not considered unusual.” The FAO said on Monday that a virus “able to sidestep the defenses provided by existing vaccines” had appeared in China and Vietnam and could spread to other countries.
HONG KONG
Customs seize ivory haul
Customs officers have seized a large shipment of African ivory hidden in a container that arrived by sea from Malaysia. Officials said on Tuesday that officers found 794 pieces of ivory tusks estimated to be worth HK$13 million (US$1.6 million). The officers found the tusks on Monday after deciding to examine the shipment, which officials said was labeled “nonferrous products for factory use.” A 66-year-old man was arrested and officials are investigating.
Bangladesh
Organ traffickers nabbed
Police said on Tuesday they had uncovered a major organ trafficking ring that is believed to have persuaded up to 200 people to sell their kidneys for cash. Three people were arrested on Sunday in the remote Kalai area, 300km northwest of Dhaka, after reports surfaced that villagers were having their organs removed illegally. “We have found that scores of poor villagers have sold their kidneys for 150,000 to 200,000 taka [US$2,000 to US$3,000],” local district police chief Fazlul Karim said. The probe has been extended to Dhaka as investigators suspect that the organ trafficking gang includes doctors, nurses and businessmen working in the capital, he said.
AUSTRALIA
PM criticizes US influence
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has decried the “Americanization” of political debate in the country which has taken on an increasingly personal tone. Recent rallies, predominantly against the Labor government’s proposed tax to combat climate change, have featured coffins, chants of “JuLiar” and “Ditch the Witch” banners, referring to the country’s first female leader. Gillard said she did not like the way protests had become so personal, though she conceded she was being judged for reneging on an election promise, having pledged never to introduce a pollution tax before she was voted into power a year ago.
CHECHNYA
Eight die in bomb attack
Russia’s top investigative body said eight people, including seven policemen, had died after suicide bombings in the capital of Chechnya. A statement from the Investigative Committee yesterday said three perpetrators of the Tuesday evening blasts in Grozny had been identified, but did not specify how many explosions there were. Some Russian news reports said there were two blasts. The statement said the bombers blew themselves up when police stopped them during a search operation. Twenty-two people were wounded, the committee said.
SWITZERLAND
IKEA donates US$62m: UN
The IKEA Foundation is donating US$62 million over three years to expand the world’s largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya, the UN said on Tuesday. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, in a statement, called it the largest private donation in the agency’s 60-year history, enough to help up to 120,000 people. The money from the foundation linked to the Swedish furniture chain will be used to expand a refugee complex in northeast Kenya that was first opened in the early 1990s and designed to hold 90,000 people, refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva. Now, it is struggling with about 440,000 refugees, including 150,000 who arrived just in the last few months, he said. The UN says tens of thousands of people have died in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti due to the severe violence, drought and famine that still has not peaked.
GREECE
Jailbreak foiled: official
Three inmates were caught trying to tunnel out of the nation’s top security prison, which is home to deadly left-wing militants and has already experienced two daring jailbreaks, an official said on Tuesday. “An attempted escape has been foiled at Korydallos Prison and those involoved have been caught,” Deputy Justice Minister George Petalotis said, praising guards for their vigilance. State television NET said the three — a Greek and two foreigners — had dug a 10m hold into the prison’s basement. Guards on Monday found and confiscated rope, a winch, a hammer and a chisel, NET said. Korydallos holds many high-profile convicts. In 2009, prison authorities were left red-faced after two convicts escaped by helicopter for the second time in three years.
GERMANY
Hookers get parking meter
Bonn, the former West German capital, has introduced a parking meter for prostitutes, to tax those who just work the streets, a city spokeswoman said yesterday. “We expect to get some 200,000 euros [US$288,000] per year from the meter,” Isabelle Klotz said. The meter, which looks like an ordinary parking meter, was inaugurated at the weekend in an industrial area, near the town center, used by prostitutes to solicit clients. Prostitutes have to pay 6 euros per night worked, regardless of how many customers they have.
CHILE
Miners opt for retirement
The government has granted the early retirement requested by nearly half of the 33 miners who survived 69 days trapped deep underground last year. The 14 miners who have cited either physical or psychological reasons for needing to stop working will receive annuities that will pay them about US$540 a month. First lady Cecilia Morel presented them with the pension documents at a ceremony on Tuesday in the town of Copiapo near the mine site.
AMERICAN SAMOA
Age discrimination suit filed
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against the territory’s government, claiming it discriminated against older workers. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in US District Court in Hawaii. Evelyn Langford, director of the territory’s human resources department, told a 2009 meeting of employees that those 50 and older should retire to make room for the younger generation, according to the complaint. Those who did not retire were reassigned to undesirable positions, it said. The lawsuit seeks relief on behalf of Eseneiaso Liu, 61, and a class of other workers who may have been reassigned or discharged because of their age. Liu started as a clerk in 1968 and in 2004, she became chief of the personnel division. After Langford’s meeting Liu was forced into a newly created position that left her without an office and parking space and her duties, office and parking space were assigned to an individual under 40 years of age, the complaint says.
UNITED STATES
Ohio drug, gun ring busted
The Justice Department on Tuesday said a large-scale drug and gun trafficking operation was busted in Ohio and 60 people indicted. US attorney Steven Dettelbach said in a statement that the indictments followed a year-long undercover sting operation in a sporting goods store in Mansfield, Ohio. The department said another 34 were indicted on state drug trafficking charges in Richland County in connection with the case. It said police had seized 70 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, 1.3kg of cocaine, 0.77kg of crack cocaine, 1,099 Oxycodone pills, 215 ecstasy pills, 199 Vicodin pills, 5g of heroin and 36 Aprazolam pills.
UNITED STATES
Journalist wins asylum
A Mexican television cameraman who was kidnapped by a drug cartel in northern Mexico last year has been granted political asylums, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco, 45, who worked as a cameraman for a Televisa affiliate in Torreon, Coahuila State, was granted asylum in El Paso, Texas, attorney Carlos Spector said. Hernandez was among four journalists abducted by drug traffickers in Durango State in July last year, after they had covered a riot at a jail. Their captors said they would not be released unless a local TV station aired videos that showed the confessions of people in captivity accusing rival gangsters of corrupting local police and officials, said the Committee to Protect Journalists. All four were eventually freed.
UNITED STATES
Man decapitates self
A Chicago man decapitated himself after a domestic dispute in Yorktown, Virginia, authorities said on Tuesday. Sheriff Danny Diggs said a deputy responding to a call of a domestic disturbance on Tuesday was taking a statement from the man’s ex-wife when another deputy driving by noticed an SUV pulling a utility trailer that was on fire. Authorities say the man started the fire. A firefighter noticed a cable around the man’s neck that was attached to a tree. When deputies tried to get the man to exit the SUV, he accelerated and was pulled from the vehicle and decapitated, they say.
UNITED KINGDOM
Grandfather swims Channel
A retired surgeon and grandfather yesterday became the oldest person to swim across the English Channel, making it to France after almost 18 hours. “I do feel an immense sense of achievement and relief that I have been successful,” said Roger Allsopp, who is 70 years and four months old.
‘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