CHINA
Dissident’s wife, son in US
The wife and son of dissident Guo Quan (郭泉), who is serving a 10-year sentence for “subversion,” have left the country for a new life in the US, a rights group said yesterday. Li Jing (李晶) and 12-year-old Guo Yi arrived in Los Angeles on Monday by plane, the US-based ChinaAid group said in an e-mailed statement. “They will be appealing to the US government and international groups to pay close attention to Guo’s case and for help in winning his release,” the group said, without providing further details. Guo was jailed in October 2009 for “subversion of state power.” He was an outspoken critic of the government and advocated a “multiparty, competitively elected democratic system,” according to the US-based Human Rights in China.
PHILIPPINES
Gunmen kill 15 fishermen
Gunmen opened fire on three boats and killed 15 fishermen in what officials yesterday said was likely an attack by a rival group protecting its lucrative fishing grounds. The fishermen were aboard three small, wooden-hulled vessels off Sibago island in Basilan province when about 10 attackers in speedboats fired on them on Monday morning and then sped away, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cagangbang said. One of the survivors told police that their group had been warned to stay away from the fishing grounds where the attack took place, ABS-CBN TV reported.
AUSTRALIA
Asylum talks break down
Negotiations have broken down between the ruling Labor Party and the opposition Liberal Party on a compromise policy to deport asylum seekers to another country. While the two parties agree that sending asylum seekers to another country within the Asia-Pacific region would be the best way to curb the increasing number heading from Indonesia and Malaysia by boat, they said yesterday that their politically charged negotiations had broken down. Prime Minister Julia Gillard accused opposition leader Tony Abbott of failing to negotiate in good faith.
NEW ZEALAND
Breastfeed-driving popular
Police yesterday said they were shocked at the number of mothers they found breastfeeding babies while driving along motorways in Auckland. They said they stopped three breastfeeding drivers this month, while carrying out a 10-day operation aimed at ensuring children were properly restrained in vehicles. Inspector Shanan Gray said the practice placed both mother and child “in an extremely dangerous situation.” Gray said police were also stunned at the number of children being transported in car boots [trunks].”
KAZAKHSTAN
Opposition’s offices raided
Authorities on Monday raided the offices and homes of officials of an unregistered political party and said they have charged one person with inciting social unrest. The National Security Committee said the raids against the Alga Party were part of an investigation into last month’s fatal clashes between police and striking oil workers in the town of Zhanaozen, in which at least 16 people were killed. The raids came just days after Prime Minister Karim Masimov vowed greater political liberalization. Alga Party official Aizhangul Amirova was charged earlier this month with inciting unrest, the committee said. The newspaper Respublika also reported on Monday that the editor of independent newspaper Vzglyad, Igor Vinyavsky, was arrested on charges of inciting the overthrow of the government.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the