AUSTRALIA
Gillard shuffles Cabinet
Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday reshuffled her Cabinet to bring in “fresh blood” after a bruising year in which her government has languished in opinion polls. In a ministerial shake-up, Gillard kept key players and potential leadership challengers Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defense Minister Stephen Smith in their current roles. However, she promoted two men credited with helping her remove Rudd in a Labor Party coup in the middle of last year, naming Bill Shorten to Cabinet as minister for employment and workplace relations and making Mark Arbib assistant treasurer. Gillard denied she was rewarding her supporters.
MALAYSIA
Acquit Ibrahim: defense
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s defense lawyers urged the High Court yesterday to acquit him on sodomy charges, saying that the man who accused him is a liar. Anwar’s defense was presenting its closing arguments in a trial that could lead to a 20-year prison sentence if Anwar is convicted of sodomizing a 26-year-old male former aide. Opposition supporters believe the government orchestrated the case to destroy its main political foe ahead of national elections widely expected next year. Prime Minister Najib Razak has denied any conspiracy.
PAKISTAN
Zardari recovering in Dubai
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that President Asif Ali Zardari may need two weeks to rest in Dubai following medical treatment there before he returns home. There has been much speculation over the political future of the 56-year-old Zardari since he flew to Dubai last week for treatment related to a heart condition. Gilani said in an interview with the BBC broadcast late on Sunday that Zardari was “improving,” but that he would likely need about two weeks of rest. Zardari’s aides said last week he was expected to return home “within days.” The president has been asked to appear before the Supreme Court in its investigation into a secret memo seeking Washington’s help reining in the Pakistani military.
PHILIPPINES
Suspects, guard flee jails
Authorities are searching for three Chinese drug trafficking suspects who escaped from a Manila jail together with a guard. Video from a surveillance camera showed the guard unlocking the gate and leading the suspects out of Paranaque City Jail on Saturday. Bureau of Jail Management Director Rosendo Dial said yesterday that the guard and the suspects were armed and dangerous. He said police, the immigration bureau and the coast guard were working to capture them. In a separate jail escape in southern Cagayan de Oro City, police said six detainees facing robbery and kidnapping charges brandished guns, overpowered guards and locked them up in a cell. They fled in waiting cars on Sunday. A reward has been announced for their capture.
AUSTRALIA
Interview breaks record
Australian Broadcasting Corp radio host Richard Glover was yesterday taking a well-earned break after completing a world record-breaking 24-hour interview, the network said. Glover sat down with Australian author Peter FitzSimons intent on smashing the previous Guinness World Record of 12 hours and 30 seconds held by Spain’s Pedro Ruiz, set in Madrid in 2009. In the end, they doubled it, with observers from Guinness World Records on hand.
NORWAY
PM to visit South Pole
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will join dozens of adventurers at the South Pole this week to mark the 100th anniversary of countryman Roald Amundsen’s groundbreaking expedition to the frozen continent. The pole will be a relative hive of activity for tomorrow’s anniversary. Stoltenberg will travel by plane to the region, making him only the second head of government to visit the South Pole after former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark made the trip in 2007. Stoltenberg is scheduled to welcome Norwegian adventurers attempting to reach the pole on the anniversary, some of whom are retracing the route taken by the heroic explorer. To pay homage to the heroism of English naval officer Robert Scott, whom Amundsen beat to the pole in a dramatic race and who tragically lost his life on his return, British visitors are also expected to visit Antarctica around the same time. Just beaten to the finish line, Scott and his men died after being caught in a blizzard on their way back.
ITALY
‘Macho culture’ protest held
Thousands of women rallied on Sunday, demanding greater rights and an end to discrimination and blaming the country’s “macho culture” for its current crisis. “The government has changed, but not the country,” said Cristina Comencini, one of the leaders of the movement. “If not now, when? ... Women will not go away. They are still saying that we want to work, have children and be at the center of the [country’s] growth plan. We tell the government that the well-being of women is not an expense, but an investment.” The rally was held at the Piazza del Popolo, a square in central Rome. Organizers said 20,000 people came to the rallies in the capital and in other cities.
ITALY
Police seize Mafia assets
Police yesterday seized 100 million euros (US$134 million) in Mafia assets including bank accounts, land and a night club as part of a vast operation against the Naples crime syndicate, the Camorra. Police seized numerous small businesses — many in the construction industry — as well as land, cars, the Beach Cafe disco near Rimini and up to 10 bank accounts per suspect in a raid sweeping from Naples to northern parts of the country. The operation followed the arrest last week of 57 people associated with the powerful Casalesi clan in the north of Naples, on various charges including Camorra membership, as well as extortion, election fraud and money laundering. The Casalesi clan is one of the bloodiest and most powerful of the Camorra and was at the center of the book Gomorrah by investigative journalist Roberto Saviano, which was made into an award-winning film.
BRAZIL
Plan to split up Para rejected
Voters in the Amazonian state of Para on Sunday rejected a proposal to split the nation’s second biggest state in three, authorities announced. With 4.37 million votes — 90 percent of the total — counted in the landmark referendum, more than 67 percent rejected creation of a new state of Carajas and nearly 67 percent opposed establishment of a new state of Tapajos, they said. Under the breakup plan, a truncated Para with Belem as its capital would have been left with 17 percent of the territory, but 64 percent of the population. Tapajos, home to large protected indigenous and forest areas, would have ended up with nearly 59 percent the territory and only 15 percent of the population. Carajas would have been awarded 24 percent of the territory and 21 percent of the population.
‘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