NEW ZEALAND
Three charged in disaster
Authorities investigating a colliery explosion that killed 29 miners last year yesterday charged three unnamed parties with health and safety failures. The Department of Labour said the three accused, whose names were suppressed for legal reasons, faced 25 charges arising from the Nov. 19 blast that tore through the Pike River mine on the South Island’s rugged west coast. The explosion, and a series of subsequent underground blasts in the pit, were triggered by a buildup of methane. The department said each of the charges laid after an investigation that lasted almost 12 months carried a maximum penalty of NZ$250,000 (US$195,000). It said it could not release details of the charges as that could reveal the identities of the accused.
AUSTRALIA
Pilots take Qantas to court
Qantas pilots yesterday filed a court challenge to a strike ban ordered after the airline grounded its global fleet, saying it was an excessive response to what were merely symbolic and token industrial actions on their part. The workplace regulator ordered the termination of all industrial action at Qantas last month after CEO Alan Joyce grounded the entire fleet in a snap decision that stranded tens of thousands of passengers worldwide. The shutdown, ultimately revoked after a marathon after-hours tribunal hearing, followed months of strike action by ground staff, engineers and pilots at the airline over an Asia-focused restructure of its international arm. Pilots filed a case in the Federal Court of Australia challenging the validity of the ban. “Not one aircraft was delayed or cancelled by any action taken by AIPA members,” the pilots’ union said in a statement. Qantas and the unions have 21 days to resolve their dispute before being ordered into formal arbitration.
UNITED STATES
Clinton to visit Asian allies
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit US treaty allies Thailand and the Philippines before attending the annual East Asia summit in Indonesia this month. The US Department of State said on Wednesday the visits underscore the nation’s efforts to strengthen key alliances in the region. Clinton will first attend the APEC forum in Hawaii and hold meetings with a number of foreign ministers. She will visit Manila on Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. The next day she goes to Bangkok, where authorities are battling severe floods.
UNITED STATES
Islamabad’s nukes ‘safe’
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are in safe hands, a US Department of State spokesman said on Wednesday, rebutting a report that Islamabad’s atomic arsenal was vulnerable to theft. Two US publications, the Atlantic and the National Journal, citing unnamed sources, last week said that Pakistan had transported nuclear weapons in low-security vans on congested roads to hide them from US spy agencies. US State Separtment spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington that the nation was not persuaded that safety had been compromised. “We have confidence that the government of Pakistan is well aware of the range of potential threats to its nuclear arsenal and is accordingly giving very high priority to securing its nuclear weapons and materials effectively,” Toner said.
MEXICO
Villagers’ bodies found
Police said the naked bodies of six men and a woman have been found on an outdoor basketball court in the north. Police said the bodies, which bore signs of violence, were found in a village outside the city of Durango. The victims were residents of the village. Investigators said they haven’t yet determined a motive. In Acapulco, police on Wednesday found the decapitated bodies of a man and a woman inside an abandoned taxi. The Pacific port city has seen vicious drug-related killings following last year’s arrest of suspected capo Edgar Valdez Villareal, known as “La Barbie.”
VENEZUELA
Navy shoos submarine
President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that an unidentified nuclear-powered submarine violated the nation’s territorial waters this week and was chased away by its navy. “It escaped because it is much faster than our vessels,” Chavez said in a late-evening call to state TV. Chavez is wont to raise the specter of possible foreign threats to his socialist government, especially from the US. He gave scant details of the incident that he said took place on Tuesday. “We can’t accuse anyone because we don’t have details,” he said. “You know how the empires used to go around the Caribbean poking their noses everywhere using satellite spying.”
COLOMBIA
Female-only cabs launched
In a nation where violent crime and murder are common daily fare, the first taxi service aimed solely at women and boosting women’s security has been launched. In the crime-plagued city of Medellin, 400km northwest of Bogota, the cabs dubbed “Femtaxis” are trying to build a niche as a top-of-the-line safety service, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. Medellin has 2.2 million people, but 73 women were murdered in just the first half of last year alone. The 400 drivers who have been signed up are getting special training, specially marked cabs and green shirts.
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
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