A Philippine journalist has been shot dead in an ambush, police said yesterday, the latest such attack in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media.
Christopher Guarin was attacked late on Thursday by two unidentified men on a motorcycle as the 41-year-old radio commentator and newspaper publisher was driving in the southern port of General Santos, police said.
His wife sustained a superficial wound on her arm, while their nine-year-old daughter was unharmed, police investigator Gerald Jubelag said.
He said no suspects had been arrested, but authorities were looking at a possible business rivalry as a motive.
“He jumped out of the car, so we will not be caught by stray bullets,” said his widow, Lyn Guarin.
“I saw my husband lying on the ground helpless, pleading for his life. It fell on deaf ears,” she told reporters.
Freddie Solinap, business manager of the tabloid Tatak published by Guarin, said the victim had frequently received anonymous death threats, the last one a text message on his mobile phone hours before the attack.
“If you show up at the station tonight, we’re going to kill you,” it said.
Guarin later showed up for work and read out the death threat on his early-evening talk show on the dxMD station.
He had been investigated by police, but cleared in the shooting death last year of the circulation manager of a rival local newspaper publisher.
Guarin was the first journalist killed in the Philippines this year, said Edwin Espejo, an official of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, which has been campaigning for greater protection for reporters.
Media organizations and rights groups say the Philippines is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists, with six media workers killed and another wounded last year.
A total of 148 journalists have been killed in the country since 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
The deadliest year for the country’s media occurred in 2009, when 32 media workers were among 57 people murdered in the south, allegedly by members of a clan, who wanted to eliminate a rival’s political challenge.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS