CHINA
Tibetan monk self-immolates
An 18-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk set himself on fire to protest Chinese rule — becoming at least the 21st to do so in the past year — and more than 1,000 people were trying to prevent police from taking his body, an overseas Tibet support group reported yesterday. Nangdrol self-immolated on Sunday outside his monastery in Aba County, where most of the immolations have occurred, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said. The group said Nangdrol shouted slogans for Tibetan independence and for the Dalai Lama. Nangdrol’s is the latest in what seem to be increasing numbers of immolations that have galvanized other monks and lay people to protest Chinese government controls over Tibetan society and the Buddhist religion. More than 1,000 people gathered at the monastery overnight to stand guard over the body, the group said.
AFGHANISTAN
Cold snap kills children
More than 40 people, most of them children, have frozen to death in what has been the coldest winter in years, a health official said yesterday. Health ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar said the government has recorded 41 deaths from freezing in three provinces — Kabul, Ghor and Badakhshan. All but three or four of those deaths were children, he said. Twenty-four of the deaths were in Kabul, mostly in camps for people who have fled fighting elsewhere in the country. The UN and the US aid agency have started distributing extra blankets, tarps and fuel to people living in 40 camps throughout the city, the US embassy said in a statement last week. Kargar said the ministry was establishing mobile clinics in response.
JAPAN
China tries to stop survey
The country’s coast guard was ordered by a Chinese ship to stop a marine survey in disputed waters on the weekend, officials said yesterday, the latest territorial row between the regional giants. The coast guard vessel was on Sunday conducting a two-day survey in waters about 170km north of Kumejima, part of Okinawa Prefecture, when Chinese authorities demanded they stop, the coast guard officials said. Beijing and Tokyo claim exclusive excavation rights of the Shirakaba or Chunxiao gas field, which lies in the disputed area in the East China Sea, where both sides’ economic zones overlap. The Chinese ship “demanded our ship by radio to stop the marine survey aimed at drawing nautical charts,” a coast guard spokesman said. “We replied to them that this was a legitimate activity as we were in Japan’s exclusive economic zone and we have been continuing the survey up until now.”
NEW ZEALAND
Aftershocks disinter bones
Constant aftershocks in Christchurch have pushed human remains up from burial plots in one of the quake-ravaged city’s graveyards, a report said on Sunday. In a grim reminder that the ground in Christchurch remains unstable 12 months on from a quake that killed 185 people last year, TV images showed what appeared to be human bones in Bromley Cemetery. The remains, possibly rib and leg bones, were on the top of burial plots found by a group of people visiting the graveyard on Sunday, TV3 reported. One of the group, Cassie, said at least 10 graves were affected. Christchurch City Council told the TV station it was the first report it had received of remains being disinterred by the aftershocks, about 10,000 of which have rocked the city since September 2010.
UNITED STATES
Oscars lack diversity
A study of Academy Awards voters has found that it’s not a very diverse group that hands out Hollywood’s highest honors. The Los Angeles Times found that 94 percent of the 5,765 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are white and 77 percent are men. Blacks and Hispanics account for only 2 percent each of academy members. The newspaper’s findings were reported on Sunday, a week before the Oscars. The Times reported that through interviews with members and their representatives, it confirmed the identities of about 5,100 voters — 89 percent of academy membership. The findings are in line with industry employment overall, in which whites and males dominate, but academy president Tom Sherak said the group was trying to diversify its membership rolls.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Sun’ coming out on Sunday
The Sunday version of Rupert Murdoch’s top-selling British tabloid the Sun will hit the shelves for the first time on Feb. 26, News International announced to staff on Sunday. “Rupert Murdoch said during his visit on Friday that a new Sunday title would be published ‘very soon’ — and that is a week from today,” an internal memo sent to staff at the company said. Murdoch visited News International’s London offices on Friday and announced he would launch the Sunday version of the tabloid daily, vowing to stand by demoralized staff despite the arrest of senior reporters over bribery claims. The media tycoon said he would extend his stay in Britain “to oversee the launch” of the new publication. Murdoch earlier said that a criminal investigation into claims that journalists paid police and other public officials for information would not cause the Sun to suffer the same fate as its sister paper, the News of the World, which closed in July last year over a phone-hacking scandal.
MOROCCO
Few join democracy rally
Several hundred people gathered in Casablanca’s main square to mark the one-year anniversary of the kingdom’s pro-democracy movement. The low turnout on Sunday was in sharp contrast to the tens of thousands that once flocked to the February 20th movement’s banner early last year and even the thousands that were still demonstrating last month. As Morocco’s answer to the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region last year, Feb. 20 prompted the king to amend the constitution and hold early elections. Following elections, which were won by an Islamist opposition party promising reforms, demonstrations petered out. Activists said many of their demands remain unmet, including fighting corruption, release prisoners of conscience and decreasing the absolute power of the king.
UNITED KINGDOM
Houston back in top 40
Three of Whitney Houston’s best known singles soared back into the top 40 pop chart on Sunday following her death in a California hotel room. Houston’s version of the Dolly Parton ballad I Will Always Love You entered the weekly rundown at No. 14, while I Wanna Dance with Somebody was in 20th place. One Moment in Time, a song Houston recorded for the 1988 Olympics in South Korea, was a new entry at No. 40, according to the Official Charts Co, which compiles the list. A collection of Houston’s greatest hits entered the album chart at No. 7. Houston was found dead in a hotel in Beverly Hills on Feb. 11. The cause of death has yet to be determined. Her funeral service was held last Saturday in Newark, New Jersey.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of