JAPAN
Court upholds death penalty
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal against a death sentence for a member of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult, in the final legal chapter on the deadly 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The court turned down the appeal by Seiichi Endo, 51, who was sentenced to death for conspiring to produce sarin gas used in the attacks on the Tokyo subway in March 1995, a court official said. He also sprayed the gas in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto in June 1994. Endo was “health and welfare minister” in the Aum Supreme Truth sect’s self-styled government.
AUSTRALIA
Child detainee issue probed
Human Rights Commission President Catherine Branson said yesterday that the commission would hold an inquiry into the treatment of suspected people smugglers who claim to be children, with an immediate focus on Indonesian crew. Branson said she had concerns that at least 20 people now held in adult jails had been wrongly classified as adults. Suspected people smugglers found to be minors are usually sent home, but a mandatory five-year jail sentence is imposed on adults involved in people smuggling — making age determination critically important.
AUSTRALIA
Man receives compensation
Authorities have paid a Darwin man US$100,000 after wrongly accusing him of trying to smuggle drugs into the country in bottles of shampoo. Neil Parry spent three days in jail last year after he was arrested at Darwin Airport and accused of trafficking liquid ecstasy. His boat and two of his friends’ houses were also searched, but it turned out that his two bottles of Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner were exactly what the label said. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement yesterday that there were “mistakes made during the presumptive testing of Mr. Parry’s goods” and that they have now introduced additional procedures when conducting drugs tests.
CHINA
Kindergarten head arrested
Authorities said yesterday that they had arrested the head of a kindergarten operating an overloaded bus that crashed into a truck, killing 19 children and two adults. The nine-seater mini-bus was carrying 64 people when the accident happened in Zhengning County, Gansu Province on Wednesday. The bus driver, who died, was reportedly driving on the wrong side of the road above the speed limit. Li violated traffic laws and regulations by re-fitting the bus and having the seats removed to allow more passengers to be crammed in, Xinhua news agency reported.
CHINA
Train crash report aired
An investigation into a high-speed rail crash that killed at least 40 people and wounded about 200 has concluded that “poor management” was to blame, state press said yesterday. The July 23 crash led authorities to freeze the rapid expansion of an ambitious high-speed rail network, already the world’s most extensive. An investigation into the disaster was reportedly submitted to the government in September, but has not been made public. “The main problem lies in the poor management of local railway administration,” the Beijing News quoted Wang Mengshu (王夢恕), deputy head of an investigation panel into the accident, as saying on Sunday. “They all had the best equipment, but did not maintain it well. The failure of their facilities, along with inadequate operation, resulted in the tragedy.”
MEXICO
Volcano spews ash, steam
The Popocatepetl volcano spewed a 3km plume of ash into the air on Sunday near the capital, authorities said. “The surrounding villages are calm. The explosions came after breaking through a dome of lava, but there is no incandescent lava flowing from the crater,” Puebla civil protection director Jesus Morales said. The volcano, located about 55km from Mexico City, has ejected ash and steam from its crater, Morales said. Popocatepetl, the second-largest peak in Mexico, towering at 5,500m, is also the country’s largest volcano. Puebla authorities said the military was standing guard at a 12km security radius around the volcano.
VENEZUELA
US ties unlikely to improve
Strained ties with the US are unlikely to improve for now, the South American nation’s top diplomat said on Sunday. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro suggested conservatives in the US Congress were largely to blame. “On instructions from President Hugo Chavez, we have been ready to move toward a process of respectful communication and normalization of ties, [but] then [the US] reactionary right-wing makes itself heard and there would seem to be no likelihood in the short term for things to be otherwise,” Maduro told local Televen TV. Caracas and Washington have diplomatic relations, but have not had ambassadors in place since last year. Maduro said Venezuela demands “absolute respect” and “non-interference in Venezuelan affairs.” “It would seem impossible” for the US to agree to those terms, he said.
CANADA
Ships stay in Mediterranean
The country will maintain warships in the Mediterranean Sea until the end of next year, Minister of Defense Peter MacKay announced on Sunday. The HMCS Vancouver frigate was originally deployed as part of NATO’s mission in Libya. It will remain in the Mediterranean Sea until early next year, when it will be relieved by the HMCS Charlottetown, MacKay said. Officially, the ships will be tasked with “locating, tracking, reporting [and] boarding vessels suspected of international terrorism” alongside other NATO frigates. However, MacKay also said “there’s no question having a ship in the region ... gives us the capability to respond should certain things transpire” in Syria or other hotspots. With Syria brushing off an Arab League deadline to end its lethal crackdown on pro--democracy protesters, MacKay speculated that “further action will be required,” saying the country was in talks with its allies over the crisis.
IRAN
Alleged drug dealers hanged
The country on Sunday hanged three men convicted of drug trafficking in the northern town of Sari, the official IRNA news agency reported. The three, considered to be among the town’s main drug dealers, were hanged in prison, the report added. It did not identify the men. The hangings bring to 246 the number of executions in the country so far this year, according to an Agence France Presse tally based on media and official reports. Human Rights Watch counted 388 executions in the country last year. Amnesty International put the figure at 252, ranking the Islamic republic second only to China in the number of people put to death last year. Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order, and that it is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings. Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are among the crimes punishable by death.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in